Health & Well-Being Flashcards
Social Context, Biology, and
Behavior Combine to Affect Health
Our relationships with others are also critical to health
- Many people find it easier to change behaviors linked with health when their family or romantic partner also changes with them
- The people around us powerfully shape our behavior because we learn from them, care what they think, and desire to live up to their expectations.
- Extends to our larger social groups
Cultural and Societal Influences…
- Beliefs and behaviors about health are determined by the norms and conditions of our cultures and communities.
- Societal factors such as how public environments are structured and how much money a country can dedicate to health care can affect health for the better or the worse.
Life Expectancy Increases with Healthy Activities
Causes of Mortality
In the United States people are now more likely to die from the following than from infectious diseases:
heart disease
cancer
strokes
lung disease accidents
All of these causes of death are at least partially
outcomes of lifestyle.
Daily habits such as poor nutrition, overeating, smoking, alcohol use, and lack of exercise contribute to nearly every major cause of death in developed nations.
Inequities in Societies Contribute to Health
Disparities Among Social Groups
Health Disparities: Differences in health outcomes
between groups of people.
Worldwide, large health disparities exist among different racial and ethnic groups.
According to the CDC, health disparities have been documented between White people and members of other ethnic groups in nearly every chronic disease and major illness.
Immigrant Paradox: Pattern among immigrant communities in which foreign‐born immigrants to the US have better health than people in later generations.
Inequities in Societies Contribute to Health
Disparities Among Social Groups
Although life expectancies have increased in the United States over the last four decades, African Americans continue to have a lower life expectancy than white Americans.
Inequities in Societies Contribute to Health Disparities Among Social Groups
Socioeconomic Status: Relative standing in society as a function of resources such as income, wealth, and education. People with lower socioeconomic status have worse health than
people with higher socioeconomic status, even when accounting
for access to health care.
This kind of disparity is known as the socioeconomic status health gradient.
Behaviors to Promote Wellness and Prevent Illness
A report released by the CDC in 2014 indicated that over a quarter of a million early deaths could be prevented each year if people made better health choices
Eat a healthy diet
Don’t start or quit smoking Engage in physical exercise
What is Stress?
CONDITION IN WHICH A STRONG EMOTIONAL RESPONSE OVERWHELMS A PERSON’S PERCEIVED ABILITY TO MEET THE DEMANDS OF A SITUATION
Different ways to view stress
`Stimulus view
- Focus on the situation that causes stress
Response view
- Focus on the physiological changes that occur when faced with a
challenging situation
Relational view
- Focus on relationship between people and the situation
Stress as a stimulus
Measuring stress in terms of life events Hassles and Uplifts Scale
Social Readjustment Rating Scale
Death of a spouse Divorce
…
Change in school Vacation
Christmas
College Undergraduate Stress Scale
Stress as a response
The way we respond to stress varies from person to person
Looking at stress as a response allows us to take into consideration the person’s reaction to a situation, as opposed to the situation alone.
Relationship between a person and the situation
What happens when we get stressed and how do we deal with it?
PHYSIOLOGY OF STRESS COPING MECHANISMS
Physiology of Stress
How we adapt to stress
Two processes by which the body achieves stability through physiological change
Homeostasis
A simple adjustment in physiological
state to compensate for the situation
Allostasis
Includes multiple homeostatic mechanisms
Physiology of Stress
Neuroendocrine system
Adrenal‐medullary system
Norepinephrine causes sympathetic response, increasing heart rate, respiration rate, and blood pressure.
Hypothalamic‐pituitary‐ adrenal axis (HPA)
Cortisol circulates throughout the body and to various brain areas ‐the hypothalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala.
Sex Differences
in How We Respond to Stressors
Cannon’s fight‐or‐flight response
Increased heart rate, redistribution of blood to muscles and brain, deepening of respiration, dilation of the pupils, inhibition of gastric secretions, and increase in glucose released from the liver
-Researchers avoided using women in their studies
-Women & men often respond differently to stressors
Tend‐and‐befriend response
It is possible that the release of oxytocin during social stress
encourages women to affiliate with or befriend others (Taylor et al., 2010)
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
Generalized, nonspecific set of changes in the body that occur during extreme stress
Stage 1: Alarm
Stage 2:
Resistance
Stage 3: Exhaustion
Burnout
A state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion created by long‐term involvement in an emotionally demanding situation and accompanied by lowered performance and motivation.
Allostatic Load
Cumulative “wear & tear” on biological systems, including the stress, digestive, immune, cardiovascular, and hormonal systems, after repeated or chronic stressful events.
- Over time, these experiences can cause the systems to become “stuck” in certain states and less responsive to changing conditions in the world.
- One way of understanding why experiencing frequent stress in early life
is a risk factor for developing psychological disorders later in life
Emerging research also suggests that stress experienced by mothers may be passed along to their offspring through epigenetics (genetic changes due to environmental factors).
- Thus, highly stressful experiences can affect behavior across generations.
Effects of Stress and Coping on Health
Relationship Between Stress and Illness
Physiological reactivity model
Examines how sustained physiological activation associated with the stress response can affect body systems to increase illness
Coping is a Process
To deal effectively with stressors we use cognitive appraisals that link feelings with thoughts
Lazarus’ two‐part cognitive appraisal process:
- Primary appraisals: We decide whether stimuli are
stressful, benign, or irrelevant
- Secondary appraisals: Once we perceive an event as
stressful, we evaluate our response options and choose coping strategies
Anticipatory coping: coping that occurs before the onset of a future stressor
Types of Coping
Folkman & Lazarus’ (1988) general coping categories:
-Problem‐focused coping: a type of coping in which people take
direct steps to confront or minimize a stressor
-Emotion‐focused coping: a type of coping in which people try to
prevent having an emotional response to a stressor
Three strategies can help people use positive thoughts to deal with stress:
Positive reappraisal
Downward comparisons
Creation of positive events
Most people report using both emotion‐focused coping and problem‐ focused coping
Problem‐focused coping
Generally used when the individual feels as though the situation is one under their control Solve the problem
Seek social support
Take assertive action
Emotion‐focused coping
Often used when the individual does not feel in control of the situation. It aims to regulate the experience of the stressful situation.
-Distancing (repressive)- Characterized by avoiding situations or thoughts that are
reminders of a stressor and maintaining an artificially positive viewpoint.
-Reappraise (reframe)- Finding a new or creative way to think about a stressor that
reduces its threat
-Rational coping
Rational coping
Facing a stressor and working to overcome it
Three step process
1. Acceptance
The stressor exists and
cannot be wished away
2. Exposure
Attending to the stressor, maybe even seeking it out
3. Understanding
Working to mind the
meaning of the stressor in your life
Social Support is Associated
with Good Health
Social interaction is beneficial for physical and mental health
- Ill people who are socially isolated are likely to die sooner than ill people who are well‐connected to others (House et al., 1988)
- Men with fewer friends were 2.3 times more likely to die than comparable men with more friends
- Women with fewer friends were 2.8 times more likely to die than comparable women with more friends.
Social Support is Associated
with Good Health
The health risks of having few social connections might be attributable to chronic loneliness, which is linked with numerous psychological and health problems
A recent report from the National Academies of Sciences,
Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM, 2020) quantifies the relation between social isolation and loneliness and illness and death among older adults.
The magnitude of the impact of isolation was comparable to that of high blood pressure, smoking, and obesity.
To make matters worse, loneliness is on the rise in
industrialized societies
Social Support is Associated
with Good Health
Social support helps people cope and maintain
good health in two basic ways:
- People with social support experience less stress overall.
- Social support needs to imply that people care about the recipient of the support.
Buffering hypothesis: when others provide emotional support, the recipient is better able to cope with stressful events
- Receiving social support can prompt feelings of gratitude and reduces loneliness.
Individual Differences in Coping
People differ widely in their perceptions of how stressful life events are
Stress resistant (‘hardy”) people are capable of adapting to life changes by viewing events constructively
Three components: commitment, challenge, and control
Stress‐resilient people show greater emotional flexibility and recover from threats more quickly than do those low in resilience (Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004).
Some researchers believe that people can learn to become more resilient
Positive Psychology
Emphasizes the strengths and virtues that help people thrive. Its primary aim is an understanding of psychological well‐being.
Optimists vs. Pessimists The benefits of control
Hardiness & Resilience
Finding meaning
Positive psychological traits/states
Well‐Being In the United States
According to positive psychologists, happiness has three components:
Positive emotion and pleasure
Engagement in life
A meaningful life
Being Positive Has Health Benefits
Across multiple studies and types of measures, positive emotions are related to considerable health benefits:
Higher levels of hope and curiosity are associated with reduced risk of
disease (Richman et al., 2005)
A positive affect, or being generally positive, has multiple beneficial
effects on the immune system (Marslandet al., 2007)
Very few studies on positive affect and health are experimental.
We do not know for sure whether positive affect causes good health
but across multiple studies and types of measures, positive emotions are related to considerable health benefits.
What should you take away from this chapter?
Sources of stress are not always obvious
Chronic stress can affect your health
There are multiple ways of coping with stress. Some are more productive than others
Some behaviors that we acquire to help us cope with stress can further harm the immune system
Some behaviors can facilitate the reduction of stress, and help support the immune system
Taking Care of Mind and Body
Strategies to enhance your health and well‐being: Eat natural foods
Eat only when you are hungry.
Drink alcohol in moderation, if at all.
Keep active.
Do not use tobacco.
Practice safe sex.
Learn to relax or mediate.
Build a strong support network.
Consider your spiritual life
Try some of the happiness exercises
