Midterm 1- Lesson 1-1

Question 1

Four areas of focus of health psychology

Answer 1

1. ) Health promotion and maintenance
2. ) Prevention and treatment of illness
3. ) Etiology and correlates of health, illness, and dysfunction
4. ) The health care system and the formation of health policy

Question 2

Health promotion and maintenance

Answer 2

The development of good health habits and helping people overcome bad habits

Question 3

Prevention and treatment of illness

Answer 3

Helping manage stress effectively and helping ill people adhere and adjust more successfully to their illness.

Question 4

Etiology and correlates of health, illness, and dysfunction

Answer 4

The origins or causes of illness such as behavioral and social factors

Question 5

The health care system and the formation of health policy

Answer 5

The impact of health institutions and health professionals on people’s behavior

Question 6

Two reasons why the increasing occurrence of chronic disorders has spawned the field of health psychology.

Answer 6

1. Psychological and social factors are implicated in chronic illness.
2. Psychological issues arise in connection with chronic illness because of their long-term nature.

Question 7

Four research methods commonly used by health psychologists

Answer 7

1. ) experimental research
2. ) correlational research
3. ) prospective research
4. ) retrospective research

Question 8

Experimental research

Answer 8

: In this method, a researcher creates two or more conditions that differ from each other in exact and predetermined ways. Participants are then randomly assigned to these conditions and some aspect of their behavior, thought or experience is measured. Experiments conducted by health care practitioners to evaluate treatments or interventions and their effectiveness over time are also called randomized clinical trials.

Question 9

Correlational research

Answer 9

This technique measures whether a change in one variable corresponds with changes in another variable. For example, a correlational study might explore the relationship between the amount of oat bran in people’s diets and specific indicators of cardiovascular health.

Question 10

Prospective Research

Answer 10

This research looks forward in time to see how a group of individuals or the relationship between two variables changes over time. A particular type of prospective approach is longitudinal research, in which we observe the same people over a period of time that might extend for years or even decades.

Question 11

Retrospective research

Answer 11

: In this research, the conditions which lead to a current situation are reconstructed by looking back in time. For example, retrospective methods were critical in identifying the risk factors that led to the development of AIDS.

Question 12

Identify the 3 liabilities and shortcomings of the biomedical model.

Answer 12

• Reductionist and single-factor model of illness: It reduces illnesses to low-level processes, such as disordered cells and chemical imbalances, rather than recognizing that a variety of factors, only some of which are biological, may be responsible for the development of an illness.
• Emphasis on illness: Focuses on aberrations that lead to illness rather than on the conditions that might promote health.
• Difficulty accounting for why a particular set of somatic conditions does not always lead to an illness: For example, if six people are exposed to measles, why do only three develop the disease?

Question 13

Name three implications of the biopsychosocial model

Answer 13

1. It promotes an interdisciplinary team approach, which may be the best way to make a diagnosis in some cases. In the biopsychosocial model, the process of diagnosis always considers the interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors in assessing an individual’s health or illness.
2. In this model, recommendations for treatment must also examine all three sets of factors: A team approach could target therapy uniquely to a particular individual, consider a person’s health status in total, and make treatment recommendations that can deal with more than one problem simultaneously.
3. The significance of the relationship between patient and practitioner is explicit. An effective patient-practitioner relationship can improve a patient’s use of services as well as the efficacy of treatment and the rapidity with which illness is resolved.

Question 14

health

Answer 14

The absence of disease or infirmity, couple with a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being; health psychologists recognize health to be a state that is actively achieved rather than the mere absence of illness.

Question 15

etiology

Answer 15

the origins and cases of illnesses

Question 16

psychosomatic medicine

Answer 16

a field within psychiatry, related to health psychology, that developed in the early 1900s to study and treat particular diseased believed to be caused by emotional conflicts, such as ulcers, hypertension, and asthma. The term is now used more broadly to mean an approach to health-related problems and diseased that examines psychological as well as somatic origins.

Question 17

acute disorder

Answer 17

Illnesses or other medical problems that occur over a short period of time, that are usually that result of an infectious process, and that are reversible

Question 18

chronic disorder

Answer 18

Illnesses that are long lasting and usually irreversible

Question 19

epidemiology

Answer 19

the study of the frequency, distribution, and causes of infectious and non-infectious disease in a population, based on an investigation of the physical and social environment; thus, for example, epidemiologists not only study who has what kind of cancer but also address questions such as, why certain cancers are prevalent in particular geographic areas than other cancers are.

Question 20

morbidity

Answer 20

the number of cases of a disease that exist at a given point in time; it may be expressed as the number of new cases (incidence) or as the total number of existing cases.

Question 21

mortality

Answer 21

the number of deaths due to particular causes

Question 22

biopyschosocial model

Answer 22

The view that biological, psychological, and social factors are all involved in any given state of health of illness

Question 23

systems theory

Answer 23

the viewpoint that all levels of an organization in any entity are linked to each other hierarchically and that change in any level will bring about change in other levels