Lecture 15 - Social Psychology And Health

Question 1

Name the model:
- Rooted in the idea that mind and body are distinct, separable entities (mind-body dualism)
- Medicine looks to bodily factors, rather than the mind, for explanations of health and disease

Answer 1

Biomedical model

Question 2

Name the model:
- A model of health that considers the effects of biological, psychological and social factors on health and illness

Answer 2

Biopsychosocial model

Question 3

What are the main contributors to death and disability today?

Answer 3

Chronic illnesses

Question 4

What is the process called rumination?

Answer 4

Our highly developed prefrontal cortex allows us to anticipate and dwell on potential and past experiences, prolonging our stress.

Question 5

What is the general adaptation syndrome?

Answer 5

Postulated that the body mounts a similar set of responses to a broad array of stressors.
- Stress is the nonspecific response of the body to any demand

Question 6

What role does the hypothalamus play in the stress response?

Answer 6

It plays a key role in coordinating motivated behaviours required for survival, including the fight-or-flight response.
- It receives input from the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the amygdala

Question 7

What is the sympathetic nervous system?

Answer 7

A physiological system that governs the body’s immediate response to a stressful event, enabling the ability to fight or flee.

Question 8

What initiates the sympathetic nervous system arousal?

Answer 8

The hypothalamus

Question 9

What are the changes effectuated by the activation of the sympathetic nervous system ?

Answer 9

Increased blood pressure and heart rate
Sweating

Question 10

What is the parasympathetic nervous system?

Answer 10

• the brake pedal
• Acts antagonistically to the sympathetic nervous system
• Once the emergency has passed, it restores the body to a normal state, allowing resources to be devoted to life-sustaining processes such as digestion and growth

Question 11

How is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal Axis activated?

Answer 11

1) Hypothalamus initiates a chemical cascade that stimulates pituitary gland
2) Hormone released by the pituitary gland stimulates a different part of the adrenal glands
3) the adrenal glands release hormones including cortisol
4) the cortisol mobilizes sugar for fuel, increases heart rate and blood pressure, directs attention towards the threat and contributes to the formation of flashbulb memory

Question 12

how does the body dysregulate the stress response?

Answer 12

The cortisol acts on the hypothalamus, turning down that chemical cascade and helping the body return to a normal state following stress

Question 13

What does repeated, prolonged activation of the HPA axis do?

Answer 13

It can compromise its functioning.
- Chronis stress can also impair the Parasympathetic nervous system, leaving the sympathetic nervous system unchecked

Question 14

What are the effects of chronic stress on the cardiovascular system?

Answer 14

• Chronic activation of the sympathetic system and HPA axis can lead to the buildup of plaque on arterial walls, which increases the risks of a heart attack

Question 15

What are the effects of chronic stress on the immune system?

Answer 15

• Prolonged experiences of stress compromise the immune system
• Stress can slow down wound healing
• It can result in increased glucocorticoid resistance of immune cells, leading to heightened inflammation. This leads to better chance for a number of diseases, depression, cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease

Question 16

Which stressors are more stressful?

Answer 16

Uncontrollable stressors

Question 17

What are stressors?

Answer 17

The events that are most likely to be stressful

Question 18

What is perceived stress?

Answer 18

A subjective evaluation of stress in response to events, depending on appraisal

Question 19

What is the stress appraisal theory?

Answer 19

Appraisals of an event and our role in it shape our emotional experience of the event, and our physiological reactions to it.
- Stress is what happens when the demands of the situation exceed our ability to cope

Question 20

What is a primary appraisal?

Answer 20

A person’s perception of the demands or challenges of a given situation

Question 21

What is a secondary appraisal?

Answer 21

A person’s perception of his or her ability to deal with the demands of a given situation

Question 22

What is the exaggerated perceptions of personal control?

Answer 22

The feeling that we have more control over outcomes than is objectively justifiedé
- People who feel less control over stressful events are at a greater risk for depression
- the sense of control can change appraisal from threat to challenge
- the mere sense of having control can attenuate the impact of the stressor
- can foster problem-focused coping

Question 23

What is dispositional optimism?

Answer 23

It is characterized by generalized positive expectations for the future

Question 24

What are the effects on individuals of an optimistic disposition?

Answer 24

• Less cortisol; reactivity to stressors
• Less likely to develop cold symptoms after exposure to cold virus
• Show better recovery post surgery and cancer treatment
• improvements in cardiac health
• Improves social functioning

Question 25

What is associated with loneliness?

Answer 25

• Heightened risk of morbidity and mortality
• Physical or objective social isolation and subjective sense of loneliness

Question 26

Why is loneliness related to negative health outcomes?

Answer 26

• Evolutionary perspective —> safer in a group, more vulnerable when alone
• when alone —> hypervigilance for social threat, anxiety and hostility + increased sleep fragmentation + heightened HPA axis + altered immune gene expression and increased inflammation + depressive symptomatology

Question 27

What is social support?

Answer 27

The degree to which people believe they can turn to other people for information, help, advice or comfort

Question 28

What do people who report having a larger and more supportive social network have?

Answer 28

• Lower blood pressure
• Lower levels of stress hormones
• Stronger immune systems
• Decreased likelihood to develop depression and other pathologies
• increased lifespans

Question 29

What is the hormone oxytocin?

Answer 29

It is a complex hormone with different kinds of effects. It appears to play an anxiolytic function, reducing feelings of anxiety and inhibiting cortisol.

Also called the cuddle hormone

Question 30

What part of the brain is activated when viewing pictures of attachment figures?

Answer 30

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex

Question 31

What is the effect of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex?

Answer 31

• Inhibitory effect on threat-related neural regions
• Inhibits SNS and promotes PNS activity
• Inhibits cortisol release