Social Psych of Health Flashcards
Biopsychosocial Model of Health
Health is the product of biological factors, psychological factors, and social factors.
Biological Factors
Include things like genetic predispositions to disease and exposure to viruses.
Psychological Factors
Include things like stress.
Social Factors
Include things like the amount of social support received from family and friends.
Areas of Health Psychology
Maintaining one’s health and understanding the causes of health and illness, preventing and treating disease and illness, and improving the healthcare system and policy.
Health Behaviors
Actions we undertake to enhance or maintain our health. Some involve not doing harmful things (e.g., smoking).
Positive Health Behaviors
Sleeping 7-8 hours, not smoking, eating breakfast, no more than 1-2 alcoholic drinks per day, exercising regularly, not eating between meals, and being not more than 10% overweight.
Persuasive Messages
The mass media may bring about gradual changes in attitudes over time through this, but is not successful in changing people’s health behaviors. Face-to-face instructions about modifying risk factors are most successful at changing behaviors.
Stress
It is based on what you consider to be stressful. Reducing stress enhances health. Includes the stimulus/stressor/event + perception/appraisal of stressor + stress responses (emotional, physiological, behavioral, cognitive).
Appraisal
The process by which we evaluate what is happening to us. What may be stressful to us may not be stressful to others.
Coping
Any attempt to manage stress, whether it is positive or negative, successful or unsuccessful.
Types of Coping – Problem-focused/Emotion-focused
Problem-focused - trying to change stressful circumstance.
Emotion-focused - changing emotional reaction to stressor.
Type A Personality/Coping Style
Characterized by hostility, a sense of time urgency, and competitiveness. Hostility is the dangerous component, as it is related to a greater risk of heart disease.
Social Support
An external resource for coping known as an interpersonal exchange in which someone helps another person. May be a) emotional b) instrumental c) informational and/or d) appraisal.
Emotional Support
When we express liking, love, care, or empathy for another person.
Instrumental Support
Providing people with goods or services. Examples include loaning money, giving someone a ride, or bringing food to someone.
Informational Support
Giving someone information that may enable them to deal with a stressful situation.
Appraisal Support
When we evaluate someone positively. Examples include “You’re good at ___”, “You made the right decision”…
Symptom Detection
Influenced by attention, the situation, prior experience, our beliefs and expectations about the symptoms, and social comparison.
Adherence to Medical Treatment
Influenced by how satisfied the patient is with their quality of care, if the patient understands the treatment, and how complex the treatment is.
Chronic Illness
A human health condition that is persistent or long-lasting in its effects.
Illness Cognitions
People’s beliefs about their illness or the attributions made about what caused it.
Intersectionality theory(reading)
Suggests that many societal stereotypes uniquely pertain to the intersection of multiple identities, including race or ethnicity in combination with gender.
Stereotypes(reading)
Not necessarily accurate overgeneralizations of members of a group and possibly ignoring other important information about individuals within said group.
