Health and Well-Being (11)

Question 1

Anorexia nervosa

Answer 1

An eating disorder characterised by excessive fear of becoming fat and therefore restricting energy intake to obtain significantly low body weight. Causes a number of serious health problems, particularly loss of bone density. Approx 15-20% die from anorexia of those who have it.

Question 2

Binge-eating disorder

Answer 2

An eating disorder characterised by binge eating that causes significant distress. Does not involve purging. Tend to be overweight/obese.

Question 3

Biopsychosocial model

Answer 3

A model of health that integrates biological characteristics (eg. genetic pre-disposition), behavioural factors (eg. lifestyle, stress), and social conditions (eg. cultural influences, social support).

Thoughts and actions affect people’s choices of the environments they interact with. Those environments, in turn, affect the biological underpinnings of thoughts and actions.

Question 4

Body mass index

Answer 4

BMI; a ratio of body weight to height, used to measure obesity. Does not take age, sex, bone structure, or body fat distribution into account. A clear relationship between BMI and health outcomes does not exist except for the very obese.

Question 5

Buffering hypothesis

Answer 5

The idea that other people can provide direct emotional support in helping individuals cope with stressful events. When people provide that support (eg. expression of caring, and willingness to listen), the recipient is better able to cope.

Question 6

Bulimia nervosa

Answer 6

An eating disorder characterised by the alteration of dieting, being eating, and purging. Associated with serious health problems, such as dental and cardiac disorders, but is rarely fatal.

Question 7

Coping response

Answer 7

Elicited by stress; an attempt to avoid, escape, or minimise the stressor.

Question 8

Emotion-focused coping

Answer 8

A type of coping in which people try to prevent having an emotional response to a stressor.

Minimising; avoidance, distancing from outcome; engaging in behaviour such as eating or drinking.
Passive strategies, to numb the pain.
Do not solve the problem or prevent it from recurring in the future.
May enable people to continue to function in the face of uncontrollable stressors or high levels of stress.

Question 9

Fight-or-flight response

Answer 9

The physiological preparedness of animals to deal with dangers by either fighting or fleeing. Proposed by Walter Cannon.

Question 10

General adaptation syndrome

Answer 10

A consistent pattern of responses to stress; nonspecific stress response; has 3 stages.

1. Alarm stage – an emergency action that prepares the body to fight or flee. Physiological responses aimed at boosting physical abilities (cortisol, epinephrine) while reducing activities that make the organism vulnerable to infection. A brief reduction in stress resistance. Immune system kicks in, fights back.
2. Resistance stage – the body prepares for longer, sustained defence from the stressor. Immunity to infection and disease increases somewhat as body maximises its defence.
3. Exhaustion stage – various physiological and immune systems fail. Body organs that were already weak before the stress are first to fail.

Question 11

Health psychology

Answer 11

A field that integrates research on health and on psychology; understanding the interrelationship between thoughts (health-related cognitions), actions, and physical and mental health. Involves the application of psychological principles to promote health and well-being.

Question 12

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis

Answer 12

A body system involved in stress responses. The slower-acting response, a complex system of biological events. Helps prepare prolonged response.

1. stressful event…interpreted by
2. various brain regions
3. hypothalamus…sends chemical message to
4. pituitary gland…which sends hormones via bloodstream to
5. adrenal glands (different region than fast-acting)…which releases
6. cortisol…which travels back to various brain regions and the hypothalamus.

Cortisol circulates throughout the body and to various brain areas, especially the hypothalamus, the hippocampus, and the amygdala. It in turn increases the amount of glucose in the bloodstream. Prepares body for response.

Question 13

Immune system

Answer 13

The body’s mechanism for dealing with invading microorganisms, such as allergens, bacteria, and viruses. Stress interferes with its natural process.

Short term stress boosts the immune system.
Chronic stress weakens it.

Question 14

Lymphocytes

Answer 14

Specialised white blood cells that make up the immune system.

1. B cells; produce antibodies (protein molecules that attach to foreign agents and mark them for destruction).
2. T-cells; involved in attacking intruders directly and increasing strength of immune response.
3. Natural killer cells; especially potent in killing viruses and also help attack tumours.

Question 15

Oxytocin

Answer 15

A hormone that is important for mothers in bonding to newborns and may encourage affiliation during social stress. May also encourage social bonding.

Question 16

Primary appraisals

Answer 16

Part of the coping response process that involves making decisions about whether a stimulus is stressful, benign, or irrelevant.

Question 17

Problem-focused coping

Answer 17

A type of coping in which people take direct steps to confront or minimise a stressor.

Generating alternative solutions, weighing their cost and benefits, and choosing between them.
Adopted when people perceive stressors as controllable and are experiencing only moderate levels of stress.

Question 18

Secondary appraisals

Answer 18

Part of coping process during which people evaluate their response options and choose coping behaviour.

Question 19

Stress

Answer 19

A type of response that typically involves an unpleasant state, such as anxiety or tension.

Question 20

Stressor

Answer 20

Something in the environment that is perceived as threatening or demanding and therefore produces stress.
E.g. major life stressors or daily hassles.
A stressor typically actives:
1. a fast-acting sympathetic nervous system response.
2. HPA axis.

Question 21

Tend-and-befriend response

Answer 21

Females’ tendency to protect and care for their offspring and form social alliances rather than fight or flee in response to threat.

Question 22

Type A behaviour pattern

Answer 22

A patter of behaviour characterised by competitiveness, achievement orientation, aggressiveness, hostility, restlessness, impatience with others, and inability to relax.

People with these traits are more susceptible to heart disease than type B.
The most toxic factor on the list is hostility. = angry, cynical, combative, hot-tempered.

Question 23

Type B behaviour pattern

Answer 23

A pattern of behaviour characterised by noncompetitive, relaxes, easygoing, and accommodating behaviour.

Question 24

Well-being

Answer 24

A positive state that includes striving for optimal health and life satisfaction.