Health Psychology Flashcards
________________ is primarily concerned with the ways our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors interact with our physical health
Health psychology
It involves the integration of knowledge from a wide variety of social sciences, including psychology, sociology, and anthropology, with knowledge from the medical disciplines
Behavioral medicine
It is a subdiscipline of behavioral medicine that deals specifically with how psychological processes (e.g., cognitions, moods, social networks) interact with health and illness.
Health psychology
It is the psychological and/or physiological response to difficult or demanding internal or external circumstances
stress
When an organism perceives a threat, the body rapidly mobilizes energy reserves via the sympathetic nervous system and endocrine system to either fight or flee.
fight-or-flight response
It refers to the all-too common syndrome defined by stress levels that are consistently high and unremitting, often due to a hectic, fast-paced lifestyle.
Chronic stress
When confronted with a temporary stressor, our fight-or-flight system often works very effectively, but with repeated or prolonged exposure to stress, our bodies eventually wear out and break down.
general adaptation syndrome hypothesis
Stress activates the _______________, which controls the release of our body’s stress hormone, cortisol.
hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis
Cortisol is beneficial in appropriate amounts; however, chronic stress leads to an increased level of cortisol, which leads to the deterioration of _______, essential cells in the immune system
T-cells
The study of this phenomenon of emotional stress setting the stage for physical illness is known as
______________________.
psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)
It is the scientific field of study concerned with the interactions among behavior, the nervous system, and the immune system
Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)
It has been defined as the process of managing demands that are appraised as exceeding the resources of the person
Coping
This coping emphasizes proactive, constructive attempts to take action about a stressful situation.
Problem-focused coping
A type of coping, in which the emphasis is on changing the emotional reaction to the stressor (rather than the stressor itself)
Emotion-focused coping
It can be described as the perception that one has relationships with others who can provide support in a time of crisis and can share in good fortune as well.
Social support
House, Kahn, McLeod, and Williams (1985) purport that social resources are composed of three components:
- social network
- social relationships
- social support
It is the broad scope of all social contacts one has
social network
What are the ABCDS if weight loss?
- Activity increase
- Behavior change
- Cognitive change
- Dietary change
- Social support
In weight management, it is about keeping track of eating and exercise behaviors.
Self-monitoring
In weight management, it is about creating reasonable goals that can produce frequent feelings of success.
Goal setting
In weight management, it is about making promises to maintain exercise time, eat healthy food, etc.
Contracting
In weight management, it is about recognizing and getting around obstacles to weight loss instead of feeling helpless to do anything about them.
Problem solving
In weight management, it is about keeping unhealthy foods out of the house, staying out of unhealthy restaurants, buying healthy foods at the grocery store, getting yourself to exercise locations
Stimulus control
In weight management, it is about making lifestyle changes that lower the overall level of stress, using relaxation techniques, meditating.
Stress management
In weight management, it is about discussing weight loss efforts, including setbacks, with people who care about you.
Social support
Some of the strongest weapons that health psychologists have in the battle against smoking are _______________, ________________, _____________, and ___________.
- nicotine replacement
- social support
- stress management
- relapse prevention.
It involves the use of over-the-counter or prescription alternatives to cigarettes, including gum or transdermal patches. The mechanism behind this form of therapy is twofold: to break the oral habit of smoking while at the same time slowly weaning the body off nicotine dependence through controlled dosing that decreases over time
Nicotine replacement therapy
Helping the client create or strengthen a _____________ is often an important first step of smoking cessation treatment.
nonsmoking network
The STAR steps involved in successful smoking cessation
S - set a specific date for quitting
T - telling family and friends so they can provide support
A - r anticipating specific challenges that might arise and coming up with constructive responses ahead of time
R - removing items that might serve as cues or triggers to smoke, like lighters, ashtrays, and cigarettes
Its goal is to predict which factors are likely to trigger a relapse and to prevent those factors from occurring
Relapse prevention
It is a network of current and recovering alcoholics who share the goal of helping themselves and other members to stay sober
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)
pain that lasts 6 months or longer, and affects up to 35% of the population
Chronic pain
The purpose of ___________ is to achieve control over the body via educating patients about bodily processes of which they are typically unaware.
biofeedback
To bring these processes into the forefront of consciousness, a ________________ converts some aspect of physiological functioning (e.g., heart rate, muscular tension) into a tone for the client to hear or a line on a graph for the client to see
biofeedback machine
It involves teaching clients to consciously shift their bodies into a state of lowered tension and arousal. It can involve a variety of aspects, including guided imagery (e.g., imagining yourself in a gently swinging hammock), deep and controlled “belly breathing,” and systematically tensing and then relaxing various large skeletal muscles such as those in the arms and legs. It has been found to be successful in alleviating chronic pain, and it may work by increasing the release of endogenous opioids, our bodies’ natural analgesics
Relaxation training
anxiety produced by separation from the primary caretaker, generally a parent
separation anxiety
Techniques include the assignment of “______________,” in which a junior staff member such as a graduate student or student nurse is assigned to be the child’s stand-in parent during any hours in which the actual parent is prohibited from visiting
substitute parents
They have been proposed as a solution for delivering higher-quality and more cost-effective primary care. Their aim to provide care that is patient centered, highly accessible and affordable, comprehensive, and coordinated. They are more holistic in nature, in that they do not view mental health as separate from physical health, and they are also more focused on prevention of disease than is the traditional primary-care model
Patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs)
The four categories of perceived source of a sickness are:
- within the patient
- the natural world
- the social world
- the supernatural world
a perceived source of sickness, which is an infection, injury, or other biomedical irregularity
within the patient
a perceived source of sickness, which are elements of the environment surrounding an individual, such as toxins or climate-related factors
the natural world
a perceived source of sickness, which is rooted from the interpersonal conflict with others, especially those with whom the individual has close relationships
the social world
a perceived source of sickness, which are sorcery, witchcraft, ancestral spirits, or vengeful gods, for example
the supernatural world
Predisposes people to stress-related illnesses such as arthritis, ulcers, and coronary heart disease.
Disease-prone personality
It occurs when the body requires increasing amounts of the substance to achieve the desired effect
Tolerance
It occurs when cessation of the substance produces negative symptoms.
Withdrawal
When it comes to alcoholics, a period of medically supervised ________________ may be the most appropriate first course of action before proceeding to cognitive-behavioral techniques
detoxification
