Health & well-being

Question 1

What are the 4 models of how personality traits may be linked to health/ illness? Which has the most support? Which gives the clearest preventative strategies?

Answer 1

1) A direct link from biologically based traits to illness (strong support), 2) the personality-illness correlation is spurious; both are linked to the same biological cause e.g. the same gene increases vulnerability to heart disease & hostility, 3) traits cause behaviours which cause illness = gives clear preventative strategies & 4) illnesses cause personality changes e.g. chronic illness reduces E & increases N

Question 2

Give 3 commonly perceived causes of stress

Answer 2

1) Negative events, 2) Negative appraisals of events & 3) Psychophysiological responses to events

Question 3

What event causes the most vs. least change (stress) to a person’s life?

Answer 3

Most: death of a spouse. Then: divorce, jail term, death of family member, personal injury/ illness, marriage, pregnancy, outstanding personal achievement. Least: Xmas

Question 4

What makes stressful events stressful?

Answer 4

Our appraisal of them as being uncontrollable & unpredictable & challenging us beyond our limits. They require re-adjustment of our routines & cause immediate/ LT psycho-physiological responses

Question 5

Give 2 bodily reactions to stress

Answer 5

Increased levels of the hormone cortisol. Immunosuppression

Question 6

Name the hormones which cause immunosuppression when released during stress-induced arousal

Answer 6

Catecholamines, corticosteroids

Question 7

Slower wound healing has been reported in…

Answer 7

Carers of Alzheimer’s patients. Students during an exam period

Question 8

Students showed decreased _-cell activation & decreased ___ secretion 1 month as opposed to 6 months before an exam

Answer 8

T. Cytokine

Question 9

Positive mood & especially humour is associated with greater secretion of ___ (antibodies) to find & neutralise bacteria & viruses

Answer 9

immunoglobulin

Question 10

Is cancer linked to stress?

Answer 10

No, not even in the progression of the disease: initial studies said ‘Yes’ but they looked at life events 1 year prior to diagnosis, whereas cancer development normally begins many years prior to diagnosis. In studies of huge sample sizes & 20-yr follow-ups, no association between N, hopelessness & depression & risk of cancer was found

Question 11

Lazarus (1984) proposed 2 reasons for individual differences in vulnerability to stress & levels of stress experienced after an event:…

Answer 11

1) Primary appraisal of a situation’s actual threat, 2) Secondary appraisal of the ability to successfully cope with the threat

Question 12

Name 3 types of coping strategy

Answer 12

1) Problem-focused (try to change the external situation usually by planned action), 2) Emotion-focused (try to change your own emotional reaction to a situation) & 3) Avoidance

Question 13

Define hardiness. What are its 3 components?

Answer 13

The relative resistance to stress. Belief in personal control over events, commitment to full involvement in life & enjoyment of challenge/seeing challenge as an opportunity to develop. The 3 Cs: control, challenge & commitment

Question 14

Executives high in hardiness were less likely to… but hardiness does not predict…

Answer 14

Develop illness relative to others exposed to comparative amounts of stress. The amount of distress experienced during negative life events

Question 15

Over a 10-yr period those with high strain jobs were more likely to develop… (Karasek, 1982)

Answer 15

Heart problems i.e. cardiovascular system reactivity e.g. coronary heart disease (CHD)

Question 16

What is endocrine system reactivity?

Answer 16

The activation of the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis which releases endocrine hormones (catecholamines & corticosteroids) which can lead to a) sudden cardiac death & b) arteriosclerosis (hardening of arteries)

Question 17

What are type A & B personalities?

Answer 17

Type A: a hostile, impatient & aggressive workaholic = more likely to develop CHD. Type B: a relaxed, placid & unambitious person

Question 18

Whilst early research supported the Type A/B distinction, there was a problem: some type A components did not correlate with each other e.g. Eysenck FAed…

Answer 18

scores on the EPQ & Type A/B questionnaire & found that the Type A personality was correlated with 2 independent factors: N & E

Question 19

What % of the variance in risk for heart disease is explained by a Type A personality? ___ traits are a modest but significant predictor

Answer 19

2%. Hostile

Question 20

What is type D? Type D people take ___ to recover from heart attacks. It appears to be a mix of…

Answer 20

A depressed & socially inhibited personality. Longer. High neuroticism & low extraversion

Question 21

Name 2 general criticisms of the type personality theories

Answer 21

1) People don’t fall into categorical types but fall at places on trait continuums, along which people are normally distributed. 2) These personality types are nothing new but simply combinations of previously identified dimensions

Question 22

The ___ model for vulnerability to cardiovascular disease posits an interaction between…&…

Answer 22

Transactional. Structural (biological) weaknesses & psychosocial (stress, SES) vulnerability. See the ppt box diagram

Question 23

Matthew’s (1994) found that ___ symptoms on the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) correlated +vely & strongly with _ & -vely a little with _, the latter r of which was lost when _ was partialled out

Answer 23

Somatic (bodily), N, E, N

Question 24

Note N is more strongly correlated with self-reported, subjective somatic symptoms than…

Answer 24

Objective, organic measures of illness

Question 25

Correlations fail to establish the ___ of causation e.g. does the experience of physical illness make you more neurotic?

Answer 25

Direction

Question 26

In a study which did establish causation, Leor (1996) found that coronary deaths in Los Angeles were…

Answer 26

5x higher than normal on the day of the 1994 earthquake

Question 27

Religiousness is associated with lower anxiety, lower depression, better ___ ___ & living a ___ life. Why?

Answer 27

Physical health. Longer. Religions may promote healthier lifestyles & involvement provides social support & the ability to find meanings in or benefits of experiencing adversity

Question 28

If you admit to be involved in religion for utilitarian reasons e.g. to promote status or for political goals, then…

Answer 28

being part of that religion does not benefit your ability to respond well to stress (Masters, 2004)

Question 29

Brayne (1998) found that sun-protective behaviour was ___ correlated with __ but not __ nor __. Why is this important to know?

Answer 29

-vely. P. N, E. So that marketers & government know who they are targeting sun cream etc to

Question 30

Terracciano (2004) found that smokers scored higher on __ & lower on __ & __ but no differently on __ & __

Answer 30

N, C, A, E, O

Question 31

What 4 methods of assessment did Saklofske (2007) use to examine healthy behaviours?

Answer 31

1) a version of the Big Five questionnaire, 2) an emotional IQ scale, 3) a health locus of control questionnaire & 4) a coping styles questionnaire

Question 32

Saklofske (2007) found that N predicted smoking, C predicted…(4 things) & A predicted…(2 things)

Answer 32

C predicted non-smoking, not drinking alcohol, exercising & having a healthy diet. A predicted not drinking alcohol & eating healthily

Question 33

Saklofske (2007) also found that emotional intelligence correlated with…(2 things), rational coping styles & having an internal locus of healthy correlated with…(1 thing), whereas emotional coping is correlated with…(2 things)

Answer 33

Exercising & having a healthy diet. Having a healthy diet. Smoking & not having a healthy diet (comfort food seeking?)

Question 34

C is a predictor of longevity & healthy behaviours which are leading contributors to…

Answer 34

Longevity

Question 35

Bogg & Roberts (2004) found that C was -vely correlated with mortality-associated, unhealthy behaviours e.g….. 2 particular facets of C which were especially strong predictors were…

Answer 35

Risky sex, drug use, excessive alcohol intake, unhealthy eating etc. Traditionalism & self-control

Question 36

C is associated with 3 additional behaviours in medical settings which relate to medical advice, cancer & HIV - what are they?

Answer 36

Compliance with medical advice, uptake of breast cancer screening & the (slower) rate of HIV disease progression

Question 37

If improved, compliance to current treatments would be more effective than…. Lack of compliance results from…

Answer 37

Improving the treatments themselves. Forgetfulness & lack of belief in the treatment

Question 38

There are 20 times more studies on…than…

Answer 38

Depression & health than happiness & health

Question 39

PA (positive affect) describes…. Name a questionnaire which we can use to measure it

Answer 39

The feelings associated with pleasurable engagement in the environment e.g. excitement. PANAS which measures orthogonal factors of PA & negative affect

Question 40

Pressman & Cohen (2005) found that the trait PA is associated with…(3 things). The evidence is inconsistent about PA & surviving serious illness

Answer 40

1) Lower morbidity, 2) decreased symptoms & pain & 3) increased longevity among older Pp living in communities

Question 41

Deary (2009) found that people with higher IQs ___ ___. 70% of women with an IQ of 1 SD above the mean at age 11 were alive at _ _ vs. __% of those with an IQ of 1 SD below the mean. The r between IQ at 11 & 77 was ___

Answer 41

Live longer. 76.