Individual differences: social models of health and illness

Question 1

How did WHO define health?

Answer 1

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity

Question 2

How does the DSM-V define illness?

Answer 2

A behavioural or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual

Question 3

What are causal relationships between PID and health and illness? (example)

Answer 3

1. PID plays a role in causing illness
2. Illness plays a role in causing change in PID
   Personality->illness:
   PID -> biological activities -> illness
   psychosomatic
   eg. anxiety -> anorexia/weight loss -> loss of bone mass

illness->personality
eg. huntingtons disease - neurodegenerative - affects cognition and motor skills - can subsequently lead to frustration, stress, anxiety, irritability and mood changes

Question 4

What are correlational relationships between PID and health and illness? (example)

Answer 4

The same biological processes underpin traits and illness outcomes
eg. being susceptible to heart disease has a high correlation with being a hostile person BUT not causal

Question 5

What is a propensity relationship between PID and health and illness? (example)

Answer 5

PID may result in behaviours that increase risk of illness
Personality traits may lead to risky behaviours that increase risk of illness
eg. Freud -> fixation at oral stage of psychosexual development -> smoking -> lung disease
eg. autistic people fixated on routine -> may lead to eating a poor diet -> diabetes/blood pressure

Question 6

How can the relationship between PID and health/illness be assessed?

Answer 6

Longitudinal studies
- enables measurement of personality before onset of illness (take a long time to develop)
- by measuring before onset of illness, can analyse what type of relationship exists between PID and illness and identify subsequent supports

Question 7

What are some limitations of using longitudinal studies to assess the relationship between PID and health/illness?

Answer 7

• requires large population sample
• Costly
• attrition of data is common
• history and maturation effects

Question 8

What research did Friedman and Rosenman (1958) conduct?

Answer 8

Interested in predicting who would develop heart disease
- 3524 men studied over 8.5 yrs
- could not predict from physical factors alone but adding psychological factors improved prediction rates

Question 9

What did Friedman and Rosenman (1958) find about type A personality and heart disease?

Answer 9

Coronary prone
- driven to achieve
- competitive
- hostile to competitors
- needs recognition
- works hard
- short temper

Question 10

What did Friedman and Rosenman (1958) find about type B personality and heart disease?

Answer 10

Non-coronary prone
- relaxed
- doesnt plan ahead
- unhurried in their approach
- no desire for competition

Question 11

What can hostility produce in the immune system and what can this increase risk of?

Answer 11

Produces higher levels of C-reactive protein which can increase risk of cardiovascular disease (Suarez et al. 2002)

Question 12

Why does health psychology matter?

Answer 12

• Personality may influence how people deal with their illness
• attitudes towards illness/treatment can affect outcomes - eg. a person with high neurotic traits may increase focus on illness and restrict ability to get on with life
• Traits may not be consistent and stable over time so we need models to help examine interaction between individuals and their environments

Question 13

How may someone with an internal locus of control deal with health and illness compared to those with external locus of control?

Answer 13

• feel in control of life
• feel empowered
• try to change things in their environment

External - more likely to feel powerless
- Individuals with internal LoC cope better than those with external LoC

Question 14

How is locus of control measured in health-related behaviours?

Answer 14

internality
chance
powerful others
value placed on health

Question 15

What is self-efficacy?

Answer 15

Influences motivation and persistence
Makes us resilient and better equipped to overcome adversity
- associated with a range of health behaviours but dependent on confidence

Question 16

How can optimism be linked to health and illness?

Answer 16

Optimistic people are less susceptible to suffer anxiety and depression
cope better with stress
Experience better physical and mental quality of life and tend to live longer

Question 17

What is an issue of correlating optimism with health and illness?

Answer 17

Do optimists under-report their symptoms?
Can you have too much optimism?

Question 18

How can pessimism be linked to health and illness?

Answer 18

Pessimistic people are more likely to have detrimental effects - eg. negative mood and low self-esteem
- can impact how people respond to negative health episodes long after they have recovered
eg. breast cancer survivors with a pessimistic explanatory style score lower on quality of life years after their illness compared to non-pessimistic women

Question 19

What is fundamental attribution error?

Answer 19

The individual is more salient than the environment
- behaviour seen as dispositional shaped rather than situationally shaped
eg. assume overweight people are lazy
could affect the way that subsequent support is provided

Question 20

What does the Disability Equality Act 2010 define disability as?

Answer 20

If a person has a physical or mental impairment and the impairment has a substantial and long term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities

Question 21

How is the disability act definition limited (time)?

Answer 21

Disability is assumed to be permanent but is this always the case?

Question 22

How is the disability act definition limited (adverse effect)?

Answer 22

many people claim their disability as a part of their identity in a positive way

Question 23

How is the disability act definition limited (day-to-day)?

Answer 23

it is relative to functioning and therefore context matters

Question 24

How is the disability act definition limited (future selves)?

Answer 24

if we live long enough, we will all experience disability - but often people think of disability as applying only to others

Question 25

What are cognitive consistency theories?

Answer 25

Relevant to our understanding of individual difference, particularly disability
- a range of theories that have highlight people are motivated to maintain consistency in their cognitions
Tend to see disability as a stable characteristic
BUT
- degenerative diseases
- functioning contingent on environmental demands
- what about hidden disability

Question 26

What do disability attributes influence?

Answer 26

self-concepts
the extent of disability identification
treatment by others

Question 27

How does Tajfel’s social identity theory relate to health and illness?

Answer 27

Part of person’s self-concept and shaped by membership to various groups
- does not require interaction - can be beliefs that are shared
- helps to reduce uncertainty, understand how they fit in, enhance self-esteem and guide behaviour

Question 28

What are some attitudes to disability in the workplace?

Answer 28

• requesting a disability accommodation in the workplace can make one’s disability a salient social identity feature to themselves and others

Question 29

What are the different ways cognitive attributions and biases may impact people with disabilities?

Answer 29

Self - individualises challenges, looping effects
Others - interpersonal relationships, attitudes and values
Institutions - monitoring and support
Culture - stereotypes and language

Question 30

What are looping effects? (Ian Hacking)

Answer 30

We can bring social constructions into being by investigating them and continuing to modify our concepts

Question 31

What is the double empathy problem?

Answer 31

Occurs between people of different dispositional outlooks
- both parties experience a misunderstanding

Question 32

What does Dyad3D study?

Answer 32

What are people’s attitudes towards the label of autism?

Question 33

What is the method of Dyad3D?

Answer 33

A computer game which deceives ppts into thinking they were playing with another ppt in the room
- knowledge about confederate is manipulated (eg. dyslexic, autistic, no diagnosis)
- in-game behaviour monitored and post-game questionnaire analysed reflections on interaction

Question 34

What were the findings of Dyad3D?

Answer 34

• Confederate revealing their diagnosis was seen as significantly more useful info to ppt than when confederate did not provide diagnosis
• only autism condition resulted in ppts perceiving themselves to be more useful and resulted in higher estimates of intelligence by ppts

Question 35

What are the implications of Dyad3D?

Answer 35

Highlights why diagnostic disclosure is so uncomfortable
- depending on background assumptions, it could lead to higher or lower attributions
- highlights an unseen bias - people think more of their own helpfulness in relation to autism