Health Psychology Flashcards
What is Health?
a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
What is Health Psychology?
The study of biological, psychological and social influences on a. how people stay healthy, b. why they become ill, c. how they respond when they get ill
What is the Biomedical Model?
Illness due to basis of abnormal somatic process (mind-body dualism); psychological and social factors are irrelevant
What are the problems of biomedical model?
Overly reductionist: reduce illness to low-level, cellular and chemical processes
Emphasis on illness over health promotion/maintenance
Cannot account for variation among individual in the development and treatment of illnesses
What is the biopsychosocial model?
Interplay of social, psychological and biological factors that determine health and illness
What are the advantages of the biopsychosocial model?
Focus on micro and macro level
Highlight importance of patient-practitioner relationship
Why do we need health psychologist?
a. Rise in chronic illness
b. Expanded healthcare services
c. Advancement in research, tech, and treatment
d. increased medical acceptance
What is a theory
Set of analytic statements that explain a set of phenomena
What are the advantages of a theory
generates specific predictions that can be tested and modified
Provides guidelines for how to do research and interventions
What is a correlation study?
Measures whether changes in one variable correspond with changes in another variable
What is prospective research
Looks forward in time to examine how people and/or health-related variables change over time
Is prospective research the same as longitudinal research?
NO. Longitudinal research: same group of people observed at multiple points in time + able to look for a bi directional r/s
What is a Retrospective design?
Looks backward in time to reconstruct the conditions that led to a current situation
What is an experiment
Two or more differing conditions created to which people are randomly assigned and their responses are measured
What are randomized clinical trials?
Conducted to evaluate effectiveness of treatment or intervention over time
What is evidence-based medicine?
Medical interventions that go thru rigorous testing and evaluation of their benefits before they become the standard of care
What is a Quasi experiment?
Use of per-existing groups with no random assignment
What is Meta-analyses?
Combines results from different primary studies to identify how strong the evidence is for particular research findings
What makes up the nervous system?
Central Nervous system and the Peripheral Nervous system
What does the Central Nervous system contain?
Brain and Spinal cord
What does the Central Nervous system do?
Receives sensory information form the peripheral nervous system and sends motor impulses to internal organs for movement
What makes up the Peripheral nervous system?
Somatic Nervous system and Autonomic Nervous system
What does the somatic nervous system control?
Controls voluntary movement
What role does the autonomic nervous system play?
Controls organs that operate involuntarily
What systems makes the autonomic nervous system?
Sympathetic Nervous system and Parasympathetic Nervous system
When do we use the sympathetic nervous system
Fight or flight, experiencing strong emotions and stress
When does the parasympathetic system kicks in?
Rest and digest - the normal state of the body
What are the major regions of the brain?
Hindbrain, Midbrain and Forebrain
What parts form the Hindbrain?
Medulla, Pons, Cerebellum
What does the Medulla control?
Regulation of heart rate, blood pressure and respiration
What role does the pons play?
The link between the hindbrain and midbrain and controls respiration
What roles does the cerebellum play?
coordinates muscle movement, maintenance of balance and equilibrium, maintenance of muscle tone and posture
What role does the midbrain fulfill?
major pathway for sensory and motor impulses between forebrain and hindbrain + coordination of visual and auditory reflexes
What parts form the Forebrain?
Thalamus, Cerebal Cortex and the Limbic system
What does the Thalamus do?
recognition of sensory stimuli and sends? sensory impulses to cerebral cortex
What role does the Cerebal Cortex play?
Higher order intelligence, memory, and personality - it receives and interpret sensory impulses from peripheral areas
What are the 4 lobes that make up the Cerebal Cortex?
Frontal Lobe, Parietal Lobe, Temporal Lobe and Occipital Lobe
What does the frontal lobe do?
is the motor cortex - controls voluntary movement
What type of cortex is the Parietal lobe?
Somatosensory cortex: sensations of pain, touch, temperature and pressure
What kind of cortex is the Temporal Lobe?
Cortical lobe: controls auditory and olfactory
What does the Occipital lobe do?
Visual cortex
What does the Limbic system do?
handles our stress and emotional responses
What 3 parts makes the Limbic system?
Hypothalamus, Amygdala and the Hippocampus
What does the hypothalamus do?
Releases hormones, linked to emotional functioning
What role does the amygdala play?
General arousal, threat detection
What does the hippocampus do?
Emotionally charged memories
What are neurotransmitters?
Chemicals that regulate the nervous system functioning
What kind of neurotransmitter does the sympathetic nervous system release?
Catecholamines - adrenaline and noradrenaline
What is dementia?
Serious loss of cognitive ability
What is the endocrine system?
Glands that secrete hormones into blood, stimulating changes in targeting organs
What is the difference between the responses of the endocrine system and of the central nervous system?
Endocrine system responses are slow acting of long duration while CNS is fast acting of short duration
What 2 parts is the adrenal glands made of?
Adrenal Medualla + Adrenal Cortex
what does the pituitary glands do?
Regulate the endocrine system (together with the hypothalamus)
What does the adrenal glands do?
Control the secretion of hormones to stress responses
Is diabetes a endocrine disorder?
Yes, it is a chronic endocrine disorder when the body cannot produce insulin which absorbs carbs, fats and proteins
What is type 1 diabetes?
Autoimmune disease: falsely identifies cells in the pancreas and compromise/eliminate ability to produce insulin
What is type 2 diabetes?
Insufficient insulin produced by the body - common after 40 + largely life style choice
Explain the process of one pump of the heart
- Left Ventricle contracts after receiving O2 blood from lungs
- Contraction forces the aortic valve to open
- O2 blood pump through the aorta to the body
- Right ventricle contracts after receiving de-O2 blood
- Contraction force forces the pulmonary valve to open
- de-O2 returns to lungs
What are the 4 factors of heart health/Cardiac efficiency
Blood pressure, Pre-ejection Period, Cardiac Output and Total Peripheral Resistance
What is Blood pressure?
The force on the blood vessel from systolic and diastolic processes
What is systole?
heart contracts to pump blood out
What is diastole?
heart relaxes to take in blood
What is Pre-ejection period (PEP)?
Time between left ventricle contraction and aortic valve opening
What kind of measure is the Pre-ejection period
Pure measure of sympathetic nervous system
What is Cardiac Output (CO)?
Volume of blood per minute
What is Total Peripheral Resistance (TPR)?
Vascular resistance to blood flow - index of ‘stiffness’/elasticities in arteries
What is the sound of our heartbeat?
Sound of the valve closing
What is cardiac efficiency?
an index of general cardiac functioning
What is high cardiac efficiency?
blood is pumped quickly (short PEP) in high volume (high CO) and at low resistance (low TPR)
What is low cardiac efficiency?
Blood is pumped quickly/slowly (high/low PEP) in low volumes (low CO) and at high resistance (high TPR)
What are the 2 key differentiators when it comes to heart health?
CO and TPR
What is heart-rate-variability/Vagal tone?
The variation in time between heart beats
Is higher HRV or lower HRV generally better?
Higher HRV - better fitness, adaptability, cognition, general health and lower sympathetic nervous system activation
What causes heart-rate-variability
result of sympathetic and parasympathetic responses - balances body’s ability to balance itself in respond to stimuli
Is low HRV always bad?
No - low HRV can occur when you engage in attention or mental effort
Explain the process of the respiratory system
Inspiration causes lungs to expand in thorax (O2 in)-> expiration reduces volume in lungs (CO2 out)
What veins are the lungs connected to the heart?
Pulmonary artery and pulmonary vein
What is an infection?
The invasion and growth of microbes in the body
What are the 4 ways that microbes can spread?
Direct transmission, Indirect Transmission, Biological transmission and Mechanical transmission
Name examples of direct transmission?
Handshake, kissing and sexual intercourse
What are examples of indirect transmission?
airborne particles, dust, water, soil, food
What are examples of biological transmission?
When transmitting agent (mosquito) picks up and transfer microbe to the human (mosquito bite)
What is mechanical transmission?
Carriers of microbes (humans, animals) that transmit diseases to others without contracting the diseases themselves (asymptomatic carriers)
What is immunity?
Body’s resistance to invading organisms
How can we acquire immunity?
Natural immunity - breastfeeding or actually getting the disease
Artificial immunity - vaccinations and inoculations
What are the two mechanism that the immune system uses?
Non specific mechanism - general responses to any kind of infection
Specific mechanism - fight particular kinds of microbes
Name the 4 type of responses used in Non specific mechanism
Anatomical barriers, Phagocytes, Antimicrobial substances, inflammatory responses
How does the anatomical barriers function?
Block microbes from the body e.g. skin, mucus lining in nose and mouth
What is phagocytosis?
Certain white blood cells (phagocytes) ingest microbes
What are antimicrobial substances?
Chemicals produced by the body that kill microbes e.g. HCL, enzymes
What are inflammatory responses?
Reaction to infections
Histamine releases into site of infection, increases blood and fluid on site -> white blood cells come and kill
Clots forms around the site to isolate microbes to prevent spreading to other areas
e.g. reddening, swelling, sneezy
Name the type of response of the specific mechanism of the immune system
Lymphocytes - cells with unique receptor on surface that fit with only 1 kind of antigen
What happens when specific mechanism is activated?
Lymphocytes divide and create population of cells (proliferative response)
What is the difference between nonspecific immunity to specific immunity?
Non specific immunity is triggered as first defense while specific immunity triggered several days after to mount full defense
How does non specific and specific immunity work together?
- Release of B-lymphocytes release antibodies to ‘tag’ antigen so can be recognized by phagocytes
- T-lymphocytes release cytokines to aid activation of phagocytes to antigen can be completely destroyed
What are autoimmune diseases?
Occurs when body fails to recognize own tissue, interprets it as invader and attacks it - often preceded by a viral or bacterial infection
What is herd immunity?
indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when a population is immune
What is useful about genetic studies?
Provided valuable information about the heritability of a wide-range of diseases
What are the different types of genetic studies?
Family studies, twin studies, adoption studies
What are issues about learning about genetic risks?
- foster fatalistic beliefs on one’s health and deter behavior risk
- Elicits defensiveness and downplaying of risks
Health promotion is …
personal and collective
What is the role of individuals in health promotion?
Adopt and practice good health habits
What is the role of clinicians in health promotion?
Teach people how to adopt good health habits
What is the role of health psychologists?
Understand why people engage in health promoting or compromising behaviour and design interventions to change behaviours
What is the role of policy-making in health promoting behaviour?
Implementing nation-wide policies and deploy resources to aid individuals, clinicians and health psychologist in their roles
What are some barriers to modifying health behaviours?
Emotions, Independent and Unstable
How can emotion be a barrier to modifying health behaviour?
Some compromising behaviours are pleasurable, automatic and/or addictive
Some health messages are threatening and cause distress, defensiveness and distortion of one’s risk perception
Why are health behaviours being independent a barrier to modifying health behaviours?
Different health-related behaviour have different causes and same health-related behaviour can have different triggers. This differences require these multiple health behaviour to be target one at a time
How can the instability of health behaviours be a barrier to modifying health behaviours?
Factors controlling health behaviours change over time and these changers in triggers over time make behaviour difficult to maintain and prone to non-compliance or relapses
What is the health belief model?
A person practicing a health behavior depends on the person perceived health threat and perception of the health practice being effective in reducing that threat
What 3 factors shape our health threat belief/perception (“I know”)?
- General health values
- Specific belief about personal vulnerability to a particular disorder
- Belief about the consequences of the disorder
What shape our perception/belief on the health practice reducing threat of disorder (“I know”)?
Person thinks health practice is effective and the benefit of health practice exceeds cost of undertaking the measure
What is the main idea of the health belief model?
Assumes a simple attitude links to the behaviour (I know and therefore I act)
What is the main limitation of the health belief model?
Forgets self efficacy (“I can”): the belief that one can control one’s practice of a particular behaviour
What is the theory of planned behaviour (TPB)?
Belief that health behaviour is the direct result of behaviour intention
I know + I can = Nudge
What are the 2 other extensions on the theory of planned behaviour?
Self determination theory: commitment to change require both ability (I can change) and autonomous motivation (this is what I want for myself)
Implementation intentions: explicit links between intention and behaviour (provides further nudges)
What are the 5 stages in cognitive behavioural change therapy (CBT)?
- Self monitoring
- Stimulus control
- Self control of behaviour
- Social skills & relaxation training
- Relapse prevention
What is self-monitoring in CBT?
Identifying the discriminative stimuli - condition that trigger the behaviour
1. Learn to discriminate target behaviour
2. Chart the behaviour
Discriminative stimuli form targets of change
What is stimulus control in CBT?
Removing discriminative stimuli via stimulus control interventions
What is social skills and relaxation training in CBT?
Many poor habits are formed and maintained due to social situations that elicit anxiety or stressful situations
- assertive training
- deep breathing and muscle relaxation exercise
What causes relapses?
Relapse can occur after successful behaviour change, esp. for addictive behaviour
Abstinence violation effect “what the hell”: the feeling of loss when a person has violated self imposed rules
What is relapse prevention in CBT?
identifying situations that may lead to relapse in advance and learn coping skills that help deal with the situation
- constructive self talk
What are the evaluations of CBT?
- highly methodical: involves set of very detailed and concrete techniques
- techniques in CBT are flexible and adaptable
- skills translatable across various health behaviours
- individual takes on proactive role; increasing self-efficacy
- requires strong commitment and effort from individual
- require a therapist at the start
What are the 3 types of health messages?
Fear appeals, Message framing, Educational appeals
What are fear appeals and do they work?
People change their behaviour if they fear that a particular habit is hurting their health
Yes they work, and effectiveness of fear behaviour is enhanced when efficacy statements are included (fear + what can I do?)
What is message framing?
People change their behaviour depending on whether positive or negative outcomes are emphasized
When is positive framing and negative framing effective in message framing?
Positive framing: encouraging general health practice - we don’t like to feel negative for something we have to do everyday
Negative framing: behaviours with uncertain outcomes or behaviours that only need to be practice once
What are educational appeals?
people change their health if they have good information about their habits
What are key things to take note when creating a educational appeal?
Extreme messaging produce more attitude change but up to a certain point - very extreme messages will be ignored
IF audience is receptive to changing health habit, communication should only have favourable points. If not, should discuss both sides of issue
What are some behaviour modification in practice?
Social support: family, school, community
Workplace intervention: workplace gym
Social engineering: modifying the environment in ways that affect people’s behaviour e.g. sugar label
What is some things to note for attempting behaviour modification through policies?
Policies strive for efficiency but comes with trade off. Good policies acknowledge and actively contend with trade offs - balance
What are health-compromising behaviors?
Behaviors that harm your current or future health
What are the characteristics of Health-compromising behaviors?
Windows of vulnerability, social/peer influence, pleasurable and ironically reduce stress, develop gradually at different stages of vulnerability and have significant overlap in risk factors that trigger a host of unhealthy behaviors
What are characteristics of substance dependence disorder?
Physical dependence: body incorporates substance into its regular functioning often resulting in tolerance to the substance
Craving: automatic desire to consume substance due to physical dependence and conditioning with environmental cues
Addiction: person becomes physically or psychologically dependent on substance after repeated use over time
Withdrawal: unpleasant symptoms experienced when person stops using substance which they become depended on/addicted to
What is alcoholism (problem drinking)?
Substance dependence disorder that affects physical health (stroke, scarring of liver) and aggressive and impulsive behavior that lead to mortality
What are the common risk factors for Alcoholism (problem drinking)?
Male, parents who drink - linked to genes and social modeling of behavior, socioeconomic stresses, depression
What are the two windows of vulnerability in alcoholism?
Age 12-21: when dependency begins
late middle age: when drinking used as coping mechanism
What are some interventions for alcoholism?
Individual: detox in controlled medical setting, followed by CBT
- relapse prevention very important
- High SES alcoholism do better in treatment programs due to more stable environments
Social engineering: ban alcohol ads, taxes, raise legal drinking age
Social support: community support grps (AA)
What is smoking?
Substance dependence disorder that is one of the greatest causes of preventable deaths e.g. respiratory disorder
Does smoking affect others?
Family members or coworkers can suffer the same disorders through inhaling 2nd hand smoke (passive smoking)
What are the synergistic effects of smoking?
Smoking often worsen the effects of risk factors for other diseases
- if you are reactive stress -> smoking increase heart rate and BP -> even more reactive
- low SES -> smoking increases the existing risk of low SES on general health outcomes
What are the risk factors of smoking?
Family who smoke
Presence of peers who smoke
Stress and depression particularly among low SES
Low self-esteem and sense of powerlessness
How does nicotine in cigarettes get you addicted to smoking?
Nicotine get in your body and become part of your system -> alters the ‘feel good’ neurotransmitters (dopamine and nonrepinephrine) -> increase of neurotransmitters produce temporary improvements in concentration and mood
However, when nicotine level drop -> experience withdrawals, driving need to smoke to get nicotine levels back up in your system
What are some interventions to smoking?
Individual: Nicotine Replacement Therapy
- nicotine patches that release nicotine in small, controlled doses into the bloodstream to deal with initial withdrawal
Individual and social: CBT with focus on relapse prevention and stress management to identify alternative sources of stress relief
Social engineering: boxes have fear appeals, taxing, raising smoking age ect
Are e-cigarettes addictive?
Yes, they contain lower levels of nicotine than traditional cigarettes
What other problems do e-cigarettes have?
E-cigs contain a bunch of other unknown chemicals/substances -> effect have not been fully studied + E-cig liquid prone to tampering and misuse
What is Obesity?
A medical condition by excessive accumulation of body fat
Is BMI a perfect measure of obesity?
No but still used by medical doctors as primary part of diagnosis because it characterizes a significant majority of the population - has to be made along with other information
Overweight > 25-29 kg/m2
Obese > 30kg/m2
Is obesity a risk factor for many other health conditions?
yes, it contributes to death for all forms of cancer, strongly tied to cardiovascular-related diseases and type 2 diabetes, disability and early mortality, increased risk in surgery, anesthesia administration
What is central adiposity?
abdominally localized (accumulation of fat in the lower torso) - is especially potent in predicting these conditions
What are risk factors of obesity?
Unhealthy diet, social class, social networks, dieting and stress & depression, stigma
What causes unhealthy diet?
Stress
- jobs that are low status, high in workload, and confer little personal control
- stress exerts cognitive burden that can impair self-control
- sugars and fatty foods ‘turn off’ stress hormones
Socioeconomic factors
- limited access to healthy foods in low SES areas
- healthy foods are expensive
- being low in SES in stressful
Why is social class a risk factor for obesity?
Higher educational level and household income is positively associated with BMI knowledge and negatively associated with children’s BMI
How is social network a risk factor to obesity?
Social networks determine social norms about obesity; when similar and/or close others are obese, it is perceived as more acceptable
How is dieting a risk factor to obesity?
Dieting reduces metabolism -> when you diet, body tries to enhance the efficiency of food use by lowering metabolic rate and once dieters resume their normal food intake, the body’s metabolic rate stays low making weight gain easy
What is the role of insulin intermittent fasting?
Insulin is a hormone that bring broken down carbs/sugar into our cells for immediate energy, and excess into fat cells for storage and instructs your fat cells to release sugar for energy or not
when you overeat and don’t exercise -> body produce more insulin to transport excess carbs and sugars to fat cells -> prolonged over time -> body habituates become insulin resistance -> when you fast -> insulin helps fat cells release stored sugars for energy -> insulin levels go down
What is the set point theory of weight?
Everyone has a ‘set point’ - an ideal biological weight that does not change easily -> when weight goes below set point, you eat until your wright regains to set point
when dieting -> body will try to get back to set point by expending less energy -> body learns and anticipates your next diet, prompts you eat more, adjust a new set point
What is stress?
Negative experience accompanied by predictable biochemical, physiological, cognitive, and behavioral changes directed at altering the stressful event or accommodating to its effect
What is the appraisal of Stressors
Primary appraisal: Trying to understand what the event is and if it is a harm, threat or challenge
Secondary appraisal: Personal resources are sufficient and available to meet demand of environment (can i respond to it?)
What are the 4 models of stress?
Fight-or-Flight
Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome
Tend-and-Befriend
Challenge vs Threat
What is the flight-or-fight response?
When threat is perceived, the body experiences arousal via the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and endocrine system, which mobilizes the organism to action
fight: aggressive
flight: withdrawal
What is Selye’s general adaptation syndrome?
All stressors elicit the same pattern of physiological changes. Repeated or prolonged experiences of these changes results in wear and tear of the system
What are the three phases of Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome?
Alarm: mobilized to meet the threat
Resistance: tries to confront and/or cope with threat
Exhaustion: depletion of physiological resources when efforts to overcome the threat fail
What are the criticisms of Selye’s general adaptation syndrome?
assumes all stressors lead to the same level of physiological response; does not consider the role of appraisals
assumes all stressors produce the same kinds of biological responses; does not consider the role of personality, emotions, and biological constitutions
Unclear about what is more implicated in the experience of stress - exhaustion or chronic activation (resistance)?
Stress can occur before and persist after the duration of the stressors; it is not limited to the three phases
What is tend-and-befriend model?
People and animals can respond to stress with social affiliation and nurturant behavior toward offspring, particularly for females
What is the underlying biological mechanism of tend-and-befriend model?
Oxytocin, a stress hormone: increase affiliative behavior and calmness, particularly influenced by estrogen which partly explain why females are more likely to turn to other in response to stressors
What is the challenge vs threat model?
Secondary appraisals depend on the assessment or situational demands vs personal resources ie personal resources > situational demands = challenge; personal resources < situational demands = threat
What are the challenges and threat cardiovascular profiles like?
Cardiac efficiency: High Cardiac efficiency (short PEP, high CO, Low TPR)
Low Cardiac efficiency (high PEP, low CO, High TPR)
-TPR characterizes what is freezing
How can stress lead to pathways to poor health
Environmental demands (stress) -> appraisal of environmental demands and personal resources -> perceive stress -> negative emotions -> physiological arousal; poor health behaviors -> increased risk of physical diseases and psychological disorders
What are the pathways to poor health due to stress?
Direct physiological effects, health behavior changes, psychological resources, health care (not seeking and following thru)
What parts make the sympathetic-adreno-medullary (SAM) system?
Sympathetic Nervous system and endocrine system
What parts make the Hypothalamic-Pitutary-Adrenal (HPA) axis?
Central Nervous system and endocrine system
What happens when the Sympathetic-Adreno-Medullary (SAM) system is activated?
When brain appraised event as stressful -> send info to hypothalamus to activate the sympathetic nervous system ->stimulates the Adrenal medulla -> Releases catecholamines which lead to heart rate increases, blood flow restricts, blood pressure rises (Cardiovascular), respiration goes up (respiratory), digestion and urination goes down (digestion)
What happens when the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is activated?
When event is appraised stressful, hypothalamus stimulates pituitary gland to secrete adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) -> ACTH stimulates adrenal cortex to release glucocorticoids, in particular cortisol -> mobilize energy storage and reduce inflammation
Chronically stress individuals due to SAM system experiences…
Suppressed immune function due to excessive release of EP and NP (catecholamines) and higher risk of cardiovascular -related diseases due to overactive SNS
Chronically stressed individual due to HPA axis have..
generally heightened cortisol level (esp. awakening coritsol) and exaggerated cortisol reactivity, and slow recovery
Does everyone respond to stress by stress eating?
In first few minutes of stress, the hypothalamus releases coritcotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) which stimulates the pituitary gland - the hormone is appetite-suppressing
- CRH > glucocorticoids; turn off your appetite
When do most people stress eat?
many minutes alter (likely during recovery), your adrenal gland release glucocorticoids (including corticosteriods), which stimulates appetite
- Glucocorticoids > CRH; time to eat
What is reactivity in the physiology of stress?
degree of change (from baseline or average) that occurs in autonomic, neuroendocrine, and/or immune responses due to stress
- some people are more reactive than others, due to their genetic make-up, personality or early life experiences
- high reactivity is generally more harmful for health
What is recover in the physiology of stress?
is how quickly an individual returns to baseline or average after a stress response
- some people recover faster than others due to their genes, personality or past experience
- slow recovery sets the stage for cumulative damage and is more harmful for health in the LR
What is allostatic load?
physiological costs of chronic exposure and experience of stress
- ‘wear and tear’ of the system
- early build up of allostatic load in response to stress is akin to accelerated aging - bad for health
What are the more obvious dimension of stress?
negative events
Uncontrollable and/or unpredictable events
- feeling of control can mitigate subjective experience of stress and even the biochemical reactions to it
Ambiguous events
- unclear about what actions should be taken
Overload
- demands > capacity or resources
What are the less obvious dimensions of stress?
perceived stress vs objective stress
adaptation to a permanent stressors
pre- & post-stress vs. on-going stress
How does perceived stress vs objective stress affect us?
Even though we perceived ourselves as not stressed under objectively stressful conditions still showed behavioral patterns of stress ie more negative moods, distressing interactions (air-traffic controller study)
How does adaption to a permanent stressors affects us?
most people can adapt to moderate and predictable stressors (overcrowding and noise pollution ect) but vulnerable or at risk groups may find it difficult to adapt to permanent stressors given their inherent lack of resources and perceived control
What is pre - or anticipatory stress
BP levels before and during the exams were equally high
What is post- or aftereffects of stress?
stress effects can persist even after the the stressful event is over - can experiences cognitive depletion, continued elevated physiological arousal - worry and rumination often exacerbate the aftereffects of stress
What are the 4 types of studies of stress?
Acute, or temporary, stress inductions (in the lab)
Inducing disease
Stressful life events
Daily stress/hassles
How is trier social stress test (TSST) conducted for acute stress induction?
two task that consist of speech and mental arithmetic tasks performed in front of a evaluative audience and participants cardiovascular responses and endocrine responses ie salivary cortisol are measured continuously throughout the tasks
How is cold Pressor test (CPT) conducted for acute stress inductions?
immerse hand or foot in cold water and specifically activates the SNS and PNS - cardiovascular responses measured
CPT induces orthostatic stress experienced when standing or physical stress
How is the study of stress conducted in inducing disease?
Effects of stress can be studied by exposing people to viruses and then assessing whether they get ill - common cold stress where they infect participants with flu and had them quarantined
How is stressful life events conducted in the study of stress?
Social Readjustment Rating Scale (people tick life event experienced and there is a score associated - issue: Scale only predicts health and illness modesty
- Vague items (life event is not objective) - Pre-assigned scores do not take into account individual differences
- Some events are positive and controllable
- Does not assess whether the stressful events were successfully resolved
Perceived stress scale (PSS)
- participants rate their perceived stress
- predicts general health and broad range of illness better than SRRS
How is daily stress conducted/measured in the study of stress?
Cumulative minor stressors can wear a person down, or aggravate/worsen experience of ongoing chronic or major stressors
What is the difference between traditional diets and intermittent fasting?
Traditional diets target how much your eat while intermittent fasting sets a schedule for when you eat - maintain normal levels of insulin and metabolism
How is stress and depression a risk factor to obesity?
Vicious cycle of stress eating, depression and obesity -> stress eaters more likely to experience depression -> depressed more likely to gain weight -> become more depressed and respond by stress eating
How is weight stigma a risk factor to obesity?
obese individuals feels ashamed about their weight -> discrimination worsen feelings of shame and mental health -> reduce motivation to take action
Beyond focusing on motivation and efficacy -> need to create public awareness for educating the public about weight stigma and reduce discrimination
What are some medical interventions for obesity?
Weight loss programs -> but not sustainable
Surgery: stapling, lap band surgery -> side effects have gastric and intestinal distress
CBT with attentional retaining - shift attention away from food cues
social support: early prevention starting from families and communities
social engineering: food labels ect
