Intro to Health Psychology

Question 1

Health psychology

Answer 1

Represents the educational, scientific, and professional contributions of Psychology to the promotion and maintenance of health, the prevention and treatment of illness, the identification of the causes and correlates of health, illness, and related dysfunction, the improvement of the health care system and health policy formation

Question 2

Health psychology is considered an applied _____ psychology

Answer 2

Social

Question 3

Noncommunicable diseases (NCD)

Answer 3

4 main types

• Cardiovascular diseases
• Cancer
• Chronic respiratory diseases (COPD)
• diabetes

Question 4

What plays a part in development of NCDs

Answer 4

Lifestyle and health behaviours

Question 5

Modifiable risk factors for NCDs

Answer 5

• Smoking
• Physical inactivity
• Unhealthy diet
• Alcohol

Question 6

Why is it hard to change health behaviours?

Answer 6

• Some like eating and exercise become habits if learned young, set it by age 11 or 12
• Often come with immediate costs and long term benefits, people like to maximise immediate rewards and ignore long term costs
• Some health behaviours are reinforced by social environment and peers

Question 7

Theory of planned behaviour

Answer 7

• Azjen (1991)
• Based on the assumption that people decide on intentions prior to taking action and that intentions are best predictors of behaviour

Question 8

Intention is predicted by…

Answer 8

• Attitude
• Subjective norms (whether those around us would like us to engage in behaviour)
• Perceived behavioural control (how easy or difficult to engage in the behaviour)

Question 9

Norman and Conner (2006)

Answer 9

Found that attitude, self-efficacy and perceived control negatively predicted binge-drinking intentions, which predicted binge drinking behaviour one week later

Question 10

Transtheoretical model

Answer 10

• Prochaska, DiClemente & Norcross (1992)
• Five changes to go through in order to change behaviour successfully
• Pre-contemplation
• Contemplation
• Preparation
• Action
• Maintenance

Question 11

What must you have to move between stages of the transtheoretical model?

Answer 11

Self-efficacy and believe that positives of change outweigh the negatives

Question 12

Implementation intentions

Answer 12

• Gollwitzer (1990)

- We fail to live up to our good intentions because we (a) forget to act, and (b) struggle to find time to act

Question 13

What should we do to avoid failing to live up to our intentions

Answer 13

Form a plan regarding when and where they will engage

Question 14

If-then rules

Answer 14

Differentiate between…
- Goal intention - ‘I intend to reach’
- Implementation intention ‘When y arises, I will perform response z’
(Gollwitzer, 2004)

Question 15

What is binge drinking?

Answer 15

Having over 8 units in a sitting for men and over 6 units in a sitting for women

Question 16

Reducing binge drinking

Answer 16

• Techniques which change normative beliefs…
• ‘You drink more than your peers’
• Should work because we are highly influenced by in-group norms, so if our peers don’t drink much we’ll adjust our behaviour to fit group norms

Question 17

McAlaney & McMahon (2007)

Answer 17

• Survey of drinking behaviour and perceived drinking behaviour of others in three groups of increasing social distance
• 500 respondents from University of Paisley
• Majority of respondents overestimated alcohol consumption in other students, and these misperceptions increased as the social distance increased

Question 18

Neighbors, Larimer & Lewis (2004)

Answer 18

• College students given feedback on how much they drank, how much they thought other students drank and how much others actually drank
• Compared to control, participants showed significant reductions in binge-drinking behaviour, an effect that was maintained at 3-month and 6-month follow ups

Question 19

What is procrastination?

Answer 19

Common, self-regulatory problem involving the unnecessary and voluntary delay of important intended tasks despite recognition that this delay may have negative consequences

Question 20

Procrastination as a problem

Answer 20

• Affects 15-20% of adults

- 80-95% of university students engage in procrastination, 50% consistently (Steel, 2007)

Question 21

How does procrastination affect health?

Answer 21

• Direct route: stress -> immune system
• Indirect route: health behaviours
• Health behaviours may work in conjunction with or independent of stress to predict illness

Question 22

Procrastination is linked to…

Answer 22

• Delay in making medical appointments
• Practicing fewer health promoting and protective behaviours
• Higher stress
• Greater number of health problems

Question 23

The big 5

Answer 23

• Openness
• Conscientious
• Extraversion
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism

Question 24

Procrastination and the big 5

Answer 24

• C negatively related to procrastination

- N positively related to procrastination

Question 25

Dewitte & Schouwenberg (2002)

Answer 25

Procrastinators sensitive to positive social temptations

Question 26

Self compassion - Neff (2003)

Answer 26

Taking a kind and understanding stance toward oneself in instances of pain or failure rather than being harshly self-critical

Question 27

Self compassion parts

Answer 27

• Self-kindness - instead of self-critical reactions
• Common humanity - realising you are not alone, others have gone through similar challenges
• Mindfullness - keeping a balanced view of one’s feelings rather than indulging negative ones

Question 28

Protection-motivation theory

Answer 28

• Rogers (1983)

- When we encounter a potential threat to our health, we engage in two processes: threat appraisal and coping appraisal

Question 29

Threat appraisal

Answer 29

Calculation about severity of threat, and one’s personal susceptibility to that threat

Question 30

Coping appraisal

Answer 30

Evaluating the effectiveness of a corrective course of action and considering one’s personal self-efficacy regarding the intervention