Chapter One: What Is Health Psychology? Flashcards
Def: Health Psych
Health psych: studies the psychological influences on ppl: how we stay healthy, why we can become ill, & how we respond when we get sick.
Def: health
Health: refers to the complete state of our physical, mental, spiritual, & social well being.
Def: wellness
Wellness refers to the optimum state of our health.
Health psychologists focuse on health ____________ & maintenance, prevention & treatments of illnesses. Etiology (causes or origins) of health, illness, & dysfunction.
Focuses on ways to ________ our healthcare system & the formation of health policy.
promotion, improve
The first beliefs of diseases came from the belief that diseases are associated with _______________________ entering the human body.
evil spirits
Def: Humoral theory of illness
Humoral theory of illness: diseases result when the 4 humors or circulating fluids of the body are out of whack.
4 humors & personality traits associated with each:
Blood: passionate temperament
Black bile: sadness
Yellow bile: angry disposition
Phlegm: laid-back approach to life
Disease in the middle ages was believed to come from a result of a _________ delivered by the _____.
punishment, Gods
In the _____________ era, technical bases of medicine started to be understood.
Practice was dependent on lab findings & looked at bodily _________.
Still occurs today.
Renaissance, factors
Diagnosis: based on__________________________________
organic & cellular pathology.
Biomedical Model: Why is it ill-suited to Understand illness?
Reduces illness to low-level processes like disordered cells & chemical imbalances.
Fails to recognize the social & psych processes as powerful influences over our bodily estates, it assumes a mind-body dualism.
Emphasizes illness over health rather than focusing on behaviors that promote health.
The Biomedical Model can’t address many puzzles that face practitioners. Ex: if 6 ppl are exposed to a flu virus, do only 3 develop the flu?
Def: conversion Hysteria
Specific unconscious conflicts produce physical disturbances symbolizing repressed psychological conflicts.
Founded by Freud
Gave rise to the field of psychosomatic medicine
Specific illnesses are produced by one’s _________________.
internal conflicts
______________________ was perpetuated in the work of Dunbar & Alexander. ________ patterns of personality to specific illnesses of psychosomatic medicine.
Psychosomatic Medicine, Linked
Why was Psychosomatic medicine controversial?
conflict or personality type isn’t sufficient to produce an illness.
Def: Biopsychosocial Model
Health & illness are consequences of the interplay of biological, psychological, & social factors.
Pros to the Biopsychosocial Model
Maintains that the macrolevel & microlevel processes continually interact to influence health & illness.
Emphasizes both health & illness
Processes of diagnosis can benefit from understanding the interacting role of biological, psychological, & social factors.
Significance of the relationship between patient & practitioner is made very clear.
This will improve:
Patient’s use of services
Efficacy of treatment
Rapidity with which illness is
Why were nightmare deaths important to check out?
Purpose: to see how completely the mind & body are intertwined in our health.
Why were Nightmare Deaths looked into?
Sudden nocturnal deaths among male refugees from SE Asia after the ‘Nam War
Occurred within the first few hours of sleep.
Autopsies revealed no cause of death
Findings on Nightmare Deaths
Reasons:
Genetic susceptibility
Victims were overwhelmed by:
Cultural diffs
Language barriers
Difficulties finding satisfactory jobs
Immediate trigger was provided by:
Family argument
Violent tv
Scary dreams
Examples of Acute disorders
Tuberculosis, influenza, & other diseases that are infectious
Examples of Chronic Illnesses
heart disease, cancer, & respiratory disease
Def: theory (Health Psych)
Refers to a set of analytic statements that explain a set of phenomena
Pros of theories
Provides guidelines for how to do research & interventions
Generates specific predictions that can be tested & modified
Helps to find new evidence for unexplained data.
Def: experiment (health Psych)
Refers to 2(+) differing conditions are created to which ppl are assigned randomly, & theri reaction are measured.
Def: randomized clinical trials
conducted evaluate effectiveness of treatments or interventions over time.
Def: Evidence based medicine
medical interventions go thru rigorous testing & evaluation for their benefits before they become the standard of care
Def: correlational research
measures whether changes in one variable corresponds with changes in another
Con:
diff to determine the direction of causality unambiguously
Pros:
Over experiments are more adaptable
Def: perspective research
Looks forward in time to see how:
Groups of ppl can change
Relationships between 2 variables change over time
Prospective research is conducted to understand the risk factors that relate to health conditions
Def: longitudinal research
the same group of ppl being observed at multiple points in time.
Def: retrospective experimental design
a experimental design that looks backwards in time in attempts to reconstruct the conditions that led to current citations.
Retrospective designs were critical in identifying the risk factors that led to the development of AIDS.
Def: Epidemiology
study of the frequency, distribution, & causes of infectious & noninfectious diseases in a population. Look at the morbidity and mortality rates as well.
Def: morbidity rate
of cases of a disease that exist at a given point in time
Def: mortality rate
of deaths due to a specific cause.
Methodological tools include
Functional magnetic resonance imaging or MRI: glimpses into the brain & has helped improve the knowledge of the autonomic, neuroendocrine, & immune systems.
Mobile & Wireless technologies:
Ecological momentary interventions or EMI
Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring devices.
Def: Meta-analysis
Combines results from diff studies to identify how strong the evidence is for a specific research finding.
What’s Health Psychology Training for?
Health care practitioners
Social work
Occupational therapy
Dietetics
Psychical therapy
Public health
Academic research
Private practice
Management of health care
Treatment settings
Occupational health settings.
