health psych 1 Flashcards
1
Q
What is health psychology?
A
A relatively new field devoted to understanding psychological influences on how people stay healthy, why they become ill, and how they respond when they do get ill.
2
Q
According to the APA, what does health psychology examine?
A
How biological, social, and psychological factors influence health and illness.
3
Q
How does health psychologist makes use of psychological science?
A
promote health, prevent illness and improve health care systems.
4
Q
How did the WHO define health in 1948?
A
A complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of diseases or infirmary.
5
Q
What is wellness?
A
The optimum state of health.
6
Q
What do health psychologists do?
A
• focus on health promotion and maintenance
• study the psychological aspects of the prevention and
treatment of illness
• focus on the etiology and correlates of health,
illness, and dysfunction
• Analyze and attempt to improve the health care system
and the formulation of health policy.
7
Q
What is the mind-body relationship as understood during prehistoric times?
A
Most cultures regarded the mind and body as intertwined.
8
Q
What was the humoral theory of illness?
A
Disease resulted when the four humors or
circulating fluids of the body—blood, black bile, yellow
bile, and phlegm—were out of balance.
9
Q
What did the biomedical model assume?
A
That all illness can be explained on the basis of aberrant somatic bodily processes, and that psychological and social processes are largely irrelevant to the disease process.
10
Q
What is the biopsychosocial model?
A
A model that maintains health and illness are consequences of the interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors.
11
Q
What are the three sets of factors considered in the biopsychosocial model? What is the term used to refer to looking at the interaction of the three?
A
- Biological factors
- Psychological factors
- Social factors
= diagnosis
12
Q
Why was there a need for health psychology in 1973? Mention the four (4) factors.
A
The APA created a task force to focus on psychology’s potential role in health research.
- changing patterns of illness
- shifts from prevalence of acute to chronic illnesses - advances in technology and research
- expanded health care services
- increased medical acceptance
13
Q
What are acute disorders?
A
Short-term disorders that can be cured, often viral or bacterial.
14
Q
What are chronic illnesses?
A
Long-term illnesses that are managed and are a main contributor to death and disability.
15
Q
What role do health psychologists have regarding new medical technologies?
A
Address issues created by advances in technology and research.
16
Q
What does evidence-based medicine involve?
A
Using the best available evidence to make informed decisions about patient care.
17
Q
What is epidemiology?
A
The study of the frequency, distribution, and causes of infectious and noninfectious diseases in a population.
18
Q
What does morbidity refer to?
A
The number of cases of a disease that exist at a given point in time.
19
Q
What does incidence measure?
A
The number of new cases of a disease.
20
Q
What is prevalence?
A
The total number of existing cases of a disease.
21
Q
What is mortality?
A
The number of deaths due to particular causes.
22
Q
What are the benefits of modifying poor health behaviors?
A
- Reducing deaths due to lifestyle-related diseases
- Delaying the time of death
- Expanding years of life free from chronic disease complications
- Reducing health-related expenses
23
Q
What are health behaviors?
A
Behaviors undertaken by people to enhance or maintain their health.
24
Q
Define health habit.
A
A health behavior that is firmly established and often performed automatically, without awareness.
25
What is the classic study by Belloc and Breslow (1972) about?
Found that more good health habits practiced correlated with fewer illnesses, better health, and less disability.
26
What is the task of primary prevention?
Instilling good health habits and changing poor ones.
## Footnote
Primary prevention aims to reduce the risk of diseases before they occur.
27
What are two strategies for primary prevention?
* Alter problematic unhealthy behaviors
* Keep people from developing unhealthy behaviors
28
How do demographic factors influence health habits?
Younger, more affluent, better-educated people with low levels of stress and strong social support practice better health habits.
29
What age-related trend is seen in health habits?
Health habits are good in childhood but deteriorate in adolescence and young adulthood; they improve in old age.
30
How do cultural values affect health habits?
Cultural values affect the practice of health habits.
31
What is the internal locus of control?
The belief that individuals are in control of their health; those with this belief practice better health habits.
32
What are social influences on health behaviors?
Social norms that develop in families, among friends, and in communities can have powerful effects on health behaviors.
33
Fill in the blank: Health habits are tied to personal _______.
[goals]
34
How does access to healthcare affect health behaviors?
Access affects the frequency of seeing a doctor, access to immunizations, and weight loss efforts.
35
What role does knowledge play in health behaviors?
More knowledgeable people typically take better care of themselves.
36
What emotional factors can lead to unhealthy behaviors?
Emotions may lead to or perpetuate unhealthy behaviors.
37
True or False: Health habits are strongly related to each other.
False
38
What is the impact of early socialization on health habits?
Health habits are strongly affected by early socialization, especially the influence of parents.
39
What are 'teachable moments' in health promotion?
Times when health promotion efforts can be particularly effective, such as during pregnancy and early childhood.
40
What is a critical window of vulnerability for teaching about smoking and drug use?
Middle school (12 to 14 years old).
41
How do health habits in adolescence affect adulthood?
The health habits a person practices as a teenager may determine chronic diseases in adulthood.
42
Who are considered at-risk populations in health promotion?
People who are at risk for particular health problems, such as those with a family history of diseases.
43
What is unrealistic optimism in the context of health risks?
The tendency for people to underestimate their personal health risks.
People do not always perceive their risk correctly
People can become defensive, minimize the significance of their
risk factor, and avoid using appropriate services or monitoring
their condition.
44
What are the ethical issues in health promotion?
Alarming people can create psychological distress and harm family dynamics. intervention may not be effective.
45
What is the primary focus of recent health promotion efforts for older adults?
Increasing quality of life and controlling health spending.
46
List some important health habits for older adults.
* Maintaining a balanced diet
* Exercise for mobility
* Participating in social activities
* Social support
* General sense of self-efficacy
* Controlling alcohol consumption
* Flu vaccination
* Proper medication
* Depression and loneliness
47
How do ethnic and gender differences affect health risks?
Health promotion addresses differences in vulnerability to health risks, such as minorities exercising less and men consuming more alcohol.
48
What are the two key factors in whether a person practices a health behavior according to the health belief model?
● 1. whether the person perceives a personal health threat,
and
● 2. whether the person believes that a particular health
practice will be effective in reducing that threat
49
Fill in the blank: Support for the health belief model has been seen in studies related to _______.
[health screening programs and smoking]
50
What theory links health beliefs directly to behavior?
The theory of planned behavior.
51
What are the three components of behavioral intention in the theory of planned behavior?
* Attitudes toward the specific action
* Subjective norms regarding the action
* Perceived behavioral control
1.attitudes toward the specific action (e.g., smokers who believe that
smoking causes serious health outcomes)
2.subjective norms regarding the action (e.g., believing that people
want you to stop smoking), and
3. perceived behavioral control (e.g., belief that you can stop
smoking).
52
What is self-regulation in health behavior?
The control of one's own actions, emotions, and thoughts in pursuit of long-term health goals.
53
two components important to behavior hcange according to self-determination theory
* Autonomous motivation
* Perceived competence
54
What is SDT or Self-determination Theory
a theory that also guides health behavior modification, builds on the idea that people are actively motivated to pursue their goals.
55
Define autonomous motivation in the context of behavior change.
Free will and choice in decision-making
56
What does perceived competence refer to?
The belief that one is capable of making the health behavior change
57
What theoretical model emphasizes implementation intentions, and integrates conscious processing with automatic behavorial enactment?
Implementation intentions model (Gollwitzer, 1999)
58
What is the significance of planning in the implementation intentions model?
It emphasizes how, when, and where to implement a health behavior.
59
How does forming an implementation intention help individuals?
By forming an implementation intention, a person can delegate the control of goal-directed responses to situational cues which may then elicit the behavior automatically.
60
What is self-affirmation?
Self-affirmation occurs when people reflect upon their important values, personal qualities, or social relationships.
Self-affirmation refers to the process of recognizing and affirming one’s own values, strengths, and positive qualities.
61
What are self-transcendent values?
Values that involve valuing family and friends, which can alter health behaviors.
62
Which brain regions are significantly activated in human behavior change?
* Medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)
* Posterior cingulate cortex (pCC)
63
What is the most effective approach to health habit modification? and why?
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) - Focuses on the target behavior itself, the conditions
that elicit and maintain it, and the factors that reinforce it.
64
Many programs of cognitive–behavioral modification use selfmonitoring as the first step toward behavior change.
What does self-monitoring involve?
Self-monitoring assesses the frequency of a target behavior and the antecedents and consequences of that behavior.
65
What are the steps in self-monitoring?
Learning to discriminate the target behavior.
charting the behavior.
66
What is stimulus control in behavior change?
The factors in the environment that maintain a poor health habit can be modified.
67
What is self-reinforcement?
Systematically rewarding oneself to increase or decrease the occurrence of a target behavior.
68
What is the purpose of contingency contracting?
an intervention that involves identifying a behavior, the conditions under which the behavior is supposed to occur, and the consequences for both achieving the goal and failing to perform to a criterion.
69
What is the goal of motivational interviewing (MI)?
To get the client to think through and express their own reasons for and against behavior change.
it may be especially effective for people who are initially wary about whether to change their behavior.
70
What is the abstinence violation effect?
a feeling of loss of control that results when a person has violated self-imposed rules.
71
What should relapse prevention techniques begin with?
Relapse prevention techniques begin by asking people to identify the situations that may lead to relapse so they can develop coping skills that will help them to manage that event.
72
What is lifestyle rebalancing?
Promoting long-term maintenance of behavior change by leading the person to make other health-oriented lifestyle changes
73
What is the first stage of the transtheoretical model of behavior change?
Precontemplation stage
74
What characterizes the contemplation stage in the transtheoretical model?
occurs when a person has no intention
of changing his or her behavior; no awareness of a problem.
75
What happens in the preparation stage of behavior change?
People intend to change their behavior but have not yet done so successfully.
76
What does the action stage involve?
Modifying behavior to overcome the problem.
77
What is meant by perceived barriers in health behavior?
Aspects of one’s life that interfere with practicing good health behaviors.
78
What is social engineering in the context of health behavior?
Modifying the environment to affect people's abilities to practice a health behavior.
79
What role does Practitioners Office play in health habit modification?
physicians are highly credible sources for instituting health habit change.
80
Name one example of a self-help group.
Alcoholics Anonymous
81
Venues for health-habit modification
* the practitioners office
* family
* self help groups
* school
* workplace intervention
* community based interventions
* Mass media
* Cellular phones and landline
* The Internet
82
How does the Middle Ages view illness or diseases?
supernatural explanations for illness (The
Church was very dominant during this time)
Disease was regarded as God’s punishment for evildoing
Treatment - driving out the evil forces by torturing the
body
Replaced by penance through prayer and good works.
83
Rise of psychosomatic medicine
Freud – conversion hysteria
He theorized that psychological conflicts, often unconscious ones, could be "converted" into physical symptoms.
The idea that specific illnesses are produced by
people’s internal conflicts.
Particular disorders believed to be psychosomatic in
origin, that is, caused by emotional conflicts.
84
What type of interventions do health psychologists often use for health-related problems?
Short-term behavioral interventions.
85
What is a theory?
a set of analytic statements that explain a
set of phenomena, such as why people practice poor health
behaviors.
Theories generate specific predictions.
86
What is another name for experiments designed to evaluate the effectiveness of treatments or interventions over time?
Randomized clinical trials
87
What are the key features of a randomized clinical trial?
It compares a target treatment against either the existing standard of care or a placebo control. Participants are randomly assigned to different treatment groups.
88
What is a limitation of correlational research?
It cannot establish causality (i.e., it cannot prove that one variable causes changes in another). It can only show that variables are associated.
89
What is a limitation of correlational research?
It cannot establish causality (i.e., it cannot prove that one variable causes changes in another). It can only show that variables are associated.
90
What is the key characteristic of prospective research?
It looks forward in time to observe how a group of people changes or how the relationship between variables evolves over time.
91
What is the key characteristic of prospective research?
It looks forward in time to observe how a group of people changes or how the relationship between variables evolves over time.
92
How does longitudinal research differ from other types of prospective research?
Longitudinal research specifically observes the same individuals at multiple points in time.
93
How does longitudinal research differ from other types of prospective research?
Longitudinal research specifically observes the same individuals at multiple points in time.
94
How does longitudinal research differ from other types of prospective research?
Longitudinal research specifically observes the same individuals at multiple points in time.
95
What is the primary goal of retrospective research?
To look backward in time and attempt to reconstruct the conditions that contributed to a current situation.
96
What are some examples of methodological tools used in health psychology?
Tools of neuroscience (e.g., MRI, fMRI, EEG), web-based mobile, and wireless technologies, meta-analysis, and qualitative research.
97
What is the purpose of meta-analysis?
combines results from different studies to identify how strong the
evidence is for particular research findings
98
How are web-based, mobile, and wireless technologies used in health psychology?
Delivering interventions, telemedicine, and measuring biological indicators.
99
What are the two most common career paths for health psychologists with a PhD or PsyD?
Academic research/faculty positions and private practice (providing counseling).
100
What are the two most common career paths for health psychologists with a PhD or PsyD?
Academic research/faculty positions and private practice (providing counseling).
101
Top 5 critical illnesses in Ph
stroke
cancer
heart disease
hypertension
pneumonia
102
top causes of deaths
ischaemic heart disease
neoplasms or cancer
cerebrovascular diseases
103
What is health promotion?
a philosophy; the idea that good health,
or wellness, is a personal and collective achievement.
104
Nine (9) facots that compromise health
demographic factirs
age
cultural values
personal control
social influence
perspnal goals and values
perceived symptoms
access to the health care delivery system
knowledge and cognition
105
Two (2) barriers to modifying poor health behavior
emotional factors
instability of health behaviors
106
_____ is specially important in adolescence.
Intervening
107
Educational appeals
Assumes that good information can make people change their
habits
More recently, though, the fact that attitude change may not
lead to behavior change has prompted research on what
additional factors may be involved.
108
Fear appeals
Persuasive messages that elicit too
much fear may actually undermine
health behavior change.
Fear alone may not be sufficient to
change behavior - give specific action
recommendations.
109
Message framing
A health message can be phrased in positive or negative terms
Messages that emphasize problems seem to work better for
behaviors that have uncertain outcomes, for health behaviors
that need to be practiced only once, such as vaccinations and
for issues about which people are fearful.
Messages that stress benefits are more persuasive for
behaviors with certain outcomes. This is more effective.
110
promotion or approach orientation
emphasize maximizing opportunities are more influenced
by messages phrased in terms of benefits.
E.g., Exercise increases heart health
111
prevention or avoidance orientation
emphasizes minimizing risks are more influenced by
messages that stress the risks of not performing a
health behavior.
E.g., Not exercising increases hypertension
risk.
112
Enhancing health behaviors requires (2):
effective self-regulation and the ability to overcome
barriers to self-regulation
113
What does CBT aim to eliminate or modify?
discriminative stimuli (stimuli that elicits the target behavior)
114
Stimulus-control interventions involve:
ridding the environment of discriminative stimuli that evoke the problem behavior, and creating new discriminative stimuli, signaling that a new response will be reinforced.
115
CBT focuses heavily on the ______ that people hold about their health habits.
Unless internal monologues are modified, the person will be unlikely to change the health habit and maintain that change
over time.
Recognition that people’s cognitions about their health habits are important in producing behavior change.
Clients need to actively monitor their own behaviors and apply the techniques of CBT to bring about change. As such, CBT emphasizes ______.
beliefs
self control of behavior
116
Cognitive reconstructuring
trains people to recognize and modify their internal monologues to promote health behavior change.
Sometimes the modified cognitions are antecedents to a target behavior.
Cognitions can also be the consequences of a target behavior.
117
Behavioral assignments
designed to provide continuity
in the treatment of a behavior problem; increases client
involvement
118
Some poor health habits develop in response to the
_____ people experience in _____.
anxiety in social situations.
E.g., overeating, drinking, smoking
119
reasons for relapse: (2)
1. Vigilance fades over time
2. Negative affect
120
Who developed Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change?
Prochaska and colleagues
121
Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change
a model that analyzes the stages and processes people go through in bringing about a change in behavior and suggested treatment goals and interventions for each stage.
Different intervention per stage
122
Contemplation stage of TMoBC
people are aware that they have a problem
and are thinking about it but have not yet made a commitment to
take action
123
Maintenance stage of TMoBC
people work to prevent relapse and to
consolidate the gains they have made
124
Five stages of the Transtheoretical Model of behavior change
Pre contemplation
contemplation
preparation
action
maintenance
