Health Psychology

Question 1

Health Psychology

Answer 1

• Emphasizes psychology’s role in establishing and maintaining health and preventing and treating illness
  
  • Lifestyle choices, behaviors, and psychological characteristics can play important roles in health

Question 2

Health Promotion

Answer 2

• Helping people change their lifestyle to optimize their health and assisting them in achieving balance in physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual health and wellness

Question 3

Public Health

Answer 3

• Concerned with studying health and disease in large populations to guide policymakers (identify health concerns, set priorities, design interventions for health promotion)

Question 4

Behavioral Medicine

Answer 4

• Developing and integrating behavioral and biomedical knowledge to promote health and reduce illness

Question 5

Biopsychosocial Model

Answer 5

• How we look at concerns through Health Psychology

Question 6

Health Behaviors

Answer 6

• Practices that have an impact on physical well being
  
  • Example: Exercising, eating, smoking, drinking, etc

Question 7

Theory of Reasoned Action

Answer 7

• Effective change requires individuals to have specific intentions about their behaviors, as well as positive attitudes about a new behavior, and to perceive that their social group looks positively on the new behavior as well

You smoke and you want to quit smoking, you will be more successful if you devise an explicit intention of quitting, feel good about it, and believe that your friends support you

Question 8

Theory of Planned Behavior

Answer 8

• Includes the basic ideas of the theory of reasoned action but “adds” the person’s perceptions of control over the outcome

Question 9

Stages of Change

Answer 9

• Model describing a process by which individuals give up bad habits and adopt healthier lifestyles

Question 10

Four ways Setting Goals Affects Outcomes

Answer 10

• Choice: Goals narrow attention and direct efforts to goal-relevant activities, and away from perceived undesirable and goal-irrelevant actions
• Effort: Goals can lead to more effort; for example, if one typically produces 4 widgets an hour, and has the goal of producing 6, one may work more intensely towards the goal than one would otherwise
• Persistence: Someone becomes more prone to work through setbacks if pursuing a goal
• Cognition: Goals can lead individuals to develop and change their behavior

Question 11

General Adaptation Syndrome

Answer 11

• Term for the common effects of stressful demands on the body, consisting of three stages; alarm, resistance, and exhaustion
  
  • Alarm
  • Resistance
  • Exhaustion

Question 12

Alarm

Answer 12

• Temporary state of shock during which resistance to illness and stress falls below normal limits
• Body releases hormones that adversely affect the functioning of the immune system
• Body is prone to infections from illness and injury

Question 13

Resistance

Answer 13

• Glands throughout the body manufacture different hormones that protect the individual
• Immune system can fight off infection with remarkable efficacy

Question 14

Exhaustion

Answer 14

• Wear and tear takes its toll, vulnerability to disease increases
• Heart attach or death can occur

Question 15

Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal Axis

Answer 15

• Complex set of interactions among the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the adrenal glands that regulates various body processes and controls reactions to stressful events

Question 16

Psychoneuroimmunology

Answer 16

• New field of scientific inquiry that explores connections among psychological factors (such as attitudes and emotions) the nervous system, and the immune system
  
  • Example: Stress is thought to affect immune function through emotional and/or behavioral manifestations such as anxiety, fear, tension, anger and sadness and physiological changes such as heart rate, blood pressure, and sweating. Researchers have suggested that these changes are beneficial if they are of limited duration, but when stress is chronic, the system is unable to maintain equilibrium or homeostasis.

Question 17

Type B Behavior Pattern

Answer 17

• Cluster of characteristics including being relaxed and easygoing; related to a lower incidence of heart disease

Question 18

Type A Behavior Pattern

Answer 18

• Cluster of characteristics including being excessively competitive, hard driven, impatient, and hostile; related to a higher incidence of heart disease

Question 19

Type D Behavior Pattern

Answer 19

• Cluster of characteristics including being generally distressed, having negative emotions, and being socially inhibited; related to adverse cardiovascular outcomes