Health Psychology Flashcards
Health psychology
Biological, social, and psychological factors that influence health and illness. How the mind effects the body.
Stress
The physical pressure and strain resulting from changes in the environment. Is in the eye of the beholder and the number three reason for addiction.
Causes of stress
Psychological- emotional
Physiological- physical
Behavioral- Poor performance, accidents, aggression
Stressor
Anything that causes stress. Minor stressors are called hassles.
“Bad” stress
Distress- Overwhelming or threatening.
“Good” stress
Eustress- Challenging, requires focus, and often rewarding.
Yerkes-Dodson curve
A bell curve showing how stress relates to performance.
Arousal
How much attention you’re paying (not sexual).
The #1 stressor
Breaking of relationships, separation, death, etc. “Hell is other people.”
Locus of control
The location of control.
Internal- Optimism. “I make things happen” mindset. Dealing with stress well.
External- Pessimism. Things happen to you and you have no control. “Why does everything happen to me?” mindset. Causes more anxiety.
Personality
Is genetic. What makes you who you are.
Type A- Short-tempered, competitive, ambitious, impatient.
Type B- Easy-going, social, procrastinator, creative.
Learned helplessness
Perceived lack of control. Passive resignation produced by repeated negative events. Is a control problem, not a competency problem.
Martin Seligman
Learned helplessness. Experimented on dogs by putting them in a shock cage and not letting them out until finally they gave up trying to escape. Even when he opened the cage, now the dogs wouldn’t try to escape.
He also studied the psychology of happiness.
General adaptation syndrome (GAS)
- Alarm- Body prepared for attack.
- Resistance- Body uses great energy to prepare. What we do to respond to a situation.
- Fatigue- Exhaustion stage. Tired afterwards.
Dr. Hans Selye
Attributed to fight-or-flight and the general adaptation syndrome.
Methods of resistance or response to alarm
-Fight
-Flight: Run away
- Fawn: Please someone to avoid conflict
-Freeze: Can’t move/react
-Flop: Collapse or faint
How do women more often respond?
Tend-and-befriend rather than fight-or-flight. Reactions to stress differ between genders, and mostly women respond with tend-and-befriend. Where you take care of others and share in your stress by talking about it, etc.
Stress response/fight-or-flight
Fast heart rate/breathing, repressed immune system, etc.
To what does the body respond to in the same way?
Fear, anger, and arousal (sexual)
Adrenalin
Epinephrine. Comes from adrenal gland. Both neurotransmitter and hormone. Elevates metabolic rate, increases attention, athletic performance, alertness, fat breakdown, and reduces fatigue. Comes with a price.
Physical after effects of stress
Hyper-tension (high blood pressure), upset stomach, sleep issues, cortisol release as a defense mechanism, etc.
Cortisol
Released to make you feel better, deal with pain caused by stress, and is the counter to adrenaline. It can make you want to eat (comfort food) and increases fat storage.
Religion
Teaches an external locus of control, but the control is benevolent so it relieves stress.
Self-esteem
Preparation+optimism=self-esteem and increases the ability to lower stress.
Hardiness
The ability to stay calm. Mental toughness. Genetic and can’t be built.
What does how we handle stress depend on?
Personality type, locus of control, self-esteem, hardiness, religion/level of spirituality.
Resilience
Coping. The ability to adapt to stressful situations.
Healthy coping mechanisms
- Taking care of your body. Food, sleep, no substance abuse, etc.
- Support from family, friends, etc.
- Taking breaks/ going on vacation.
- Participating in flow activites
Flow activites
Healthy activities you do because you enjoy them and find them rewarding. Not interchangeable with leisure because it requires action.
Emotion-focused coping skills
Dealing with feelings caused by stress. Ex. Meditation, exercise, etc.
Problem-focused coping skills
Dealing with a problem directly and trying to eliminate it. Ex. Failing and test and then studying to solve the problem.
Defense mechanisms
Coping used in the wake of threatening situations. Most are considered negative.
Repression, denial, displacement, reaction formation, regression, rationalization, projection, and sublimation.
Repression
Defense mechanism. Don’t allow yourself to remain aware of the stress by pressing it down and basically forgetting it.
Denial
Defense mechanism. You don’t forget something, but you choose to ignore it even though you know the truth.
Displacement
Defense mechanism. Transferring your feelings of anxiety from the real cause to something less threatening, like taking out your anger on someone else who had nothing to do with the situation.
Reaction formation
Defense mechanism. Expressing the opposite of how you really feel. Ex. When a little boy likes a girl but because they don’t want people to know, instead of being nice they pull their hair, etc.
Regression
Defense mechanism. We act younger to avoid out current age stress and responsability.
Rationalization
Defense mechanism. Is the most common mechanism. Basically making excuses.
Projection
Defense mechanism. Place out own thoughts and feelings in someone else’s head because we assume we think the same.
Sublimation
Defense mechanism. The only mechanism that can be seen as positive. Taking something negative and doing something positive instead. Ex. Having a stressful day at work and coming home to work out.
Psychoneuro-immunology
How the mind and body effect each other, specifically how the mind can heal the body. Mental state effecting things like sickness.
Happiness
A temporary positive emotional response.
Adaptation-level phenomenon
Happiness is temporary because we get used to/tired of for good or bad situations.
Relative deprivation
Comparing ourselves to others who have more, creating envy.
Joy
A more permanent feeling of contentment. Comparing yourself to others who are less fortunate can create feelings of gratitude, the opposite of relative deprivation
