Health, Adjustment, and Resilience Flashcards
1
Q
what is mental health?
A
- dynamic state of internal equilibrium which enables individuals to use their abilities in harmony with universal values of society
- low neuroticism and high self-esteem
- in line with authenticity, individuation, self-actualization
2
Q
what is psychological adjustment
A
- process of altering behaviour to reach a harmonious relationship with one’s environment
- maintaining emotional equilibrium, coping well with stress
3
Q
what is stress?
A
- can be defined as a stimulus (life event, daily hassle), as a response (fight-or-flight), or as a transaction
- transaction is the interaction between the stimulus and response
4
Q
what is the transactional model of stress?
A
- states that how an individual appraises the event is what matters
- primary appraisal - initial appraisal as something as relevant, threatening, demanding, or challenging
- secondary appraisal - evaluation of our ability to manage the stress
5
Q
what is coping?
A
- the behavioural response of the individual that follows appraisal
- efforts to manage both internal and external demands of a situation
- referred to as coping regardless of if it’s successful
6
Q
what is the transactional model of personality-illness connnection?
A
- personality can affect coping, how a person appraises events, and the events themselves
- moderator - a variable that influences the direction or degree of relationship between two other variables
- appraisal, arousal, coping, all effect health (but not the events themselves)
7
Q
how does personality affect stress appraisal?
A
- personality can affect how potentially stressful events are appraised (as well as degree of threat perceived)
- neuroticism – more likely to perceive events as stressful/severe, appraise events as threats; greater stress reactivity
- extraversion – less likely to perceive events as stressful; more likely to appraise events as challenges.
- agreeableness, openness, and conscientiousness – associated with lower appraisals of threat.
8
Q
how does personality affect coping?
A
- personality is associated with coping strategies over time
- interactional model - personality factors influence people’s ability to cope which determines the impact of events
- neuroticism – greater variety of less effective strategies; more passive and emotion-focused (self-blame); confrontation/withdrawal
- extraversion – more problem-solving; fewer maladaptive strategies; more support-seeking; more positive thinking/reappraisal
- agreeableness – more likely to engage/protect relationships, seek support; less confrontation; more forgiveness, positive reappraisal
- conscientiousness – more active, problem-solving strategies.
- openness – more positive reappraisal; more likely to use humour
9
Q
what is a hardy personality?
A
- people who have the three main characteristics important in protecting against negative effects of stress
- control → perceive control, internal locus
- commitment → involved in life, sense of purpose
- challenge → appraise events as challenges
10
Q
what is trait resilience?
A
- involves high levels of three positive aspects of personality
- self-esteem, sense of personal control, and optimism
- social support is also important - are able to recover from stress/adversity without a lasting impact
11
Q
what is ego resiliency?
A
- dynamic ability to temporarily change reactions and perceptions to meet the situational demands of life
- ego-control - a person’s ability to control their behaviour and impulses
- ability to adjust ego-control as we need to in order to adjust to situation
12
Q
what do health and illness behaviour models tell us?
A
- personality affects health indirectly through health-promoting or degrading behaviours
- conscientiousness – associated with engaging in more healthy behaviours, fewer unhealthy or harmful behaviours
- correlations have been observed between harmful behaviours (e.g., smoking) and both neuroticism and extraversion
13
Q
what are some common health outcomes for people high in neuroticism?
A
- high neuroticism and low extraversion are associated with higher rates of morbidity/mortality and lower life expectancy (overall)
- higher levels of neuroticism is associated with over-using health services
- those with fair or poor health may benefit from this
- high neuroticism is associated with lower mortality for those with fair or poor health
14
Q
what are some common health outcomes for people high in agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness?
A
- associated with lower rates of morbidity, higher life expectancy
- low conscientiousness in mid-life is associated with higher morbidity
15
Q
what is healthy neuroticism?
A
- healthy neuroticism - the cooccurrence of high neuroticism and high conscientiousness
- neuroticism leads to hyper-vigilance about health, conscientiousness provide self-discipline and planning needed to take adaptive action
- those high in both had lower inflammation, lower BMI, and less chronic disease
16
Q
what is the predisposition model of personality illness?
A
- predisposition - a third variable that causes the associations between personality and illness
- ex. enhanced sympathetic reactivity may be the cause of both subsequent illness and behaviours/emotions that make up neuroticism
17
Q
what is general adaption syndrome (GAS)
A
- developed when a person is exposed to a particular stressor consistently
- the idea that people under chronic stress eventually deplete bodily resources and become vulnerable to infections and illness
18
Q
what are some different types of stress?
A
- acute stress - results from sudden onset of demands
- episodic acute stress - repeated episodes of acute stress
- traumatic stress - massive instance of acute stress in which effects can reverberate for years or even a lifetime
- chronic stress - stress that does not end until the resistance is gone
19
Q
how is optimism related to health?
A
- optimism was shown to predict good health makes people less likely to die from any cause
- optimists were less likely to develop coronary heart disease
- pessimists experience more accidental and violent deaths than optimists
- pessimism prevention program were shown to prevent symptoms of depression in low-income minority middle school students
20
Q
how are emotions seen as states vs. traits?
A
- emotional states - transitory, depend more on the situation a person is in than on the specific person
- emotional traits - patterns of emotional reactions that a person consistently experiences across a variety of life situations
21
Q
what are the three components of emotion?
A
- distinct subjective feeling or affect (fear)
- bodily changes/symptoms (heart rate increases)
- action tendencies (running away, fighting back)
22
Q
what is the criteria for primary emotions?
A
- to be a basic emotion, it must…
- have distinct facial expression
- be recognized across cultures
- be universal
- categorical approach to emotions
23
Q
why is pride thought to be a primary emotions?
A
- pride is an aspect of human nature that evolves to help people navigate social hierarchies and attain social rank
- participants were able to point out pride in photographs of emotional expression
- two types of pride: authentic pride and hubristic pride (self-aggrandizing aspects of narcissism)
24
Q
what is the circumplex model of emotions?
A
- two factors appear to underlie emotions:
- valence (+/- ; pleasure/displeasure)
- arousal (high/low activation)
- but… emotion that are close to one another aren’t necessarily correlated
- might want to consider if the emotion involves avoidance or approach
25
Q
what is emotional style vs. emotional content?
A
- style - the “how” of emotional life
- how are these emotions typically experienced? variable? intense?
- content - the “what” of emotional life
- what types of emotions does a person frequently experience
26
Q
what is high affect intensity/variability vs. low affect intensity/variability?
A
High Affect Intensity / Variability - experience emotions strongly; emotionally reactive, variable
- associated with high neuroticism, high extraversion, and high openness to experience
Low Affect Intensity / Variability - experience emotions mildly; only gradual fluctuations over time, minor emotional reactions
27
Q
how do we categorize emotional content?
A
- pleasant vs. unpleasant emotions
- pleasant emotions usually associated with extraversion and unpleasant emotions associated with neuroticism
28
Q
what is beck’s cognitive triad depressive style?
A
- depressing/negative schemas of the (1) self, (2) world, and (3) future
- emphasizes internal, global, and stable causes for negative events (pessimisstic)
- associated with feelings of helplessness and poor adjustment
- associated with many cognitive distortions
- overgeneralizing
- arbitrary inferences
- personalizing
- catastrophizing
29
Q
what is a type A personality? why it is important?
A
- hostility (anger and aggression)
- competitive, achievement-striving
- time urgency (impatience)
- associated with more risk for heart disease, especially hostility and anger
30
Q
what is a type B personality?
A
- opposite end of the continuum of type A
- less competitive, more emotionally stable, creative, reflective
31
Q
what is dispositional happiness (subjective well-being)?
A
- some people are more likely to feel happy than others
- has three components
1. cognitive appraisal of satisfaction with life
2. the presence of positive emotions
3. the absence of negative emotions - hedonic balance - the ratio of a person’s positive emotions to their negative emotions
32
Q
what is the authentic happiness theory?
A
- the three main routes to happiness are pleasure, engagement (flow) and meaning
- evaluations of a persons happiness is correlated with evaluations of social desirability
33
Q
how does subjective well-being differ across different economies?
A
- poor countries appear to possess less happiness and life satisfaction than countries that were wealthier
- economic development may be the primary source of differences in the subjective well-being of societies
- countries that provided few civil and political rights tend to have lower well-being
34
Q
how do positive emotions influence coping with stress?
A
- they may sustain coping efforts
- they may provide a break from stress
- they may give people time and opportunity to restore depleted resources
- positive emotions broaden the scope of attention, cognition, and action, while allowing a person to build up reserve of energy and social resources
35
Q
what are the three coping mechanisms that are capable of generating positive emotion during stress?
A
- positive reappraisal - person focuses on the good in what is happening or has happened
- problem-focused coping - using thoughts and behaviours to manage underlying causes of stress
- creating positive events - creating a positive time-out from the stress
36
Q
what do the individual differences in happiness come from?
A
- demographic variables account for approximately 10–15% of the variance in happiness
- personality traits account for 3 X as much variance in happiness as demographic variables
- happy people tend to be high in extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness and low in neuroticism
37
Q
does money buy happiness?
A
- correlations between income and happiness are 0.12-0.25
- once a person can afford basic necessities, increasing financial status doesn’t increase well-being
- the absence of health or wealth can bring misery, but their presence doesn’t guarantee happiness
- spending more money on others (prosocial spending) can have a larger positive impact on happiness than spending the same money on oneself
38
Q
how does emotional inhibition and/or disclosure affect health?
A
- pushing down emotions and not dealing with them leads to undesirable consequences
- suppression takes effort (from PFC) and exerts physiological costs above and beyond emotional arousal
- people who suppress emotions report poor physical health and display evidence of a suppressed immune system
- emotional expressiveness correlated with higher levels of happiness and lower levels of anxiety and guilt
39
Q
what is dispositional empathy?
A
- the ability to imagine oneself in another’s place and understand the other’s feelings, desires, ideas, and actions
- involves perspective taking, fantasy (identifying with fictional characters), empathic concern, and personal distress
- empathetic concern is associated with agreeableness and personal distress is associated with neuroticism
40
Q
what are the social benefits of empathy?
A
- empathy (and perspective taking specifically) have been shown to…
- reduce prejudice
- reduce stereotype expression
- reduce interpersonal aggression
- improve health precautions during disease outbreaks/pandemics
41
Q
what is the relationship between money and empathy?
A
- as income increases, empathy decreases
- people with more income exhibit less brain activity in the regions associated with empathy
- lower class people show more empathy, more prosocial behaviour, more compassion
- rich people are more likely to…
- cut in front while driving/double park
- ignore pedestrians
- take candy from a jar marked “for children”
- lie to get money
42
Q
how does eysenck’s biological theory explain neuroticism?
A
- believed that neuroticism is due to a tendency of the limbic system (fight or flight) to become easily activated
- trait of neuroticism is very stable overtime and is heritable so it may have a biological explanation
43
Q
how do cognitive theories explain neuroticism>
A
- people high neuroticism are more likely to recall unpleasant information, and are also faster to recall unpleasant words
- people high in neuroticism have a richer network of association surrounding unpleasant information in memories, which makes those instances more easily accessible
- people high neuroticism pay more attention to threats and unpleasant information in their environment
- they have a stronger behavioural inhibition system, making them more vulnerable to punishment and more vigilant for signs of threat
44
Q
what is the diathesis stress model?
A
- suggest that there is a pre-existing vulnerability that is present among people who later become depressed
- vulnerabilities may be genetic, environmental, behavioural, or even cognitive and nature
- the person must be triggered by a major life event and be vulnerable in order to develop depression
45
Q
how do we explain depression with biology?
A
- emotional problems may be the results of neurotransmitter imbalance at the synapses of the nervous system (norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine)
- there are varieties of depression, some more biologically based and others more reactive to stress or cognitively based
- sometimes depression is treated successfully by changing neurotransmitter release, but not always
46
Q
why are disorders controversial?
A
- pathologizing “bad ways to be” → where do we stop?
- labelling → helpful in some settings but can be stigmatizing
- ‘abnormal’ → less of a sharp divide than previously assumed (categorical or dimensional)
47
Q
what defines abnormality?
A
- we use the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders
- statistical infrequency (2+ SDs above or below mean)
- failure to function adequately or successfully
- violation of social norms and standards
