Weeks 7-13

Question 1

What is prevention?

Answer 1

A type of intervention aiming to reduce the likelihood or impact of a disease.

Question 2

Difference in universal or selective prevention scope.

Answer 2

Universal: deal with risk regardless of anyone’s vulnerability (vaccine programs).
Selective: target groups at elevated risk (AIDS prevention).

Question 3

Difference in primary and secondary prevention.

Answer 3

Primary: prevent disease before it occurs.
Secondary: reduce the impact of an already occurred disease.

Question 4

Explain promotion.

Answer 4

A type of intervention aiming to improve health and wellness to the highest point.

Question 5

Explain the idea of intervention using education. What is wrong with this intervention?

Answer 5

The idea that knowledge is power - if someone knows the risk of a behaviour, they will change accordingly. Critiques - we know that having knowledge does not make behaviour change.

Question 6

Explain the health belief model.

Answer 6

Factors that impact someone taking action are: the perceived susceptibility of catching illness, and the perceived severity of the illness, how motivated someone is, and the perceived benefits and barriers to the action. An action is impacted by someones self-efficacy (capability to complete action), and cues to action.

Question 7

Explain the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behaviour.

Answer 7

TRA: attitudes toward a health behaviour and the subjective norms of society influence someone’s intention to complete a behaviour. If both are positive, intention will develop and behaviour occurs.
TPB: follows the same pattern but acknowledges that intention is not always enough to change behaviour. Perceived behaviour control influences whether someone allows for intention to overtake behaviour or not.

Question 8

Explain the transtheoretical model.

Answer 8

Five stages that make change - can move between them all. Precontemplation: individual unaware of harm and doesn’t want to make change. Contemplation: plans to make change in next 6 months. Preparation: prepared to make change soon and wants to help well-being. Action: recently changed their behaviour and attitudes and want to maintain it. Maintenance: maintaining behaviours for more than 6 months.

Question 9

What are the 4 strategies Rothman et al. (2015) believe can be used to create healthier habits?

Answer 9

1. Motivating action through thinking of others.
2. Aid translation of intention into action by making if-then plans.
3. Disrupt existing habits by changing environments and making policies that make it harder to follow unhealthy habits.
4. Develop routines that create new habits by piggybacking habits.

Question 10

Explain Conner’s study about using Rothman’s strategy of motivating action through others regarding dangerous alcohol use.

Answer 10

Tracked alcohol consumption throughout the year when being given social or health messages. Social messages were more effective than health messages, especially when tailored to that population.

Question 11

Explain the three principles to initiate change.

Answer 11

Three principles are:
Capability - must have the physical and psychological ability to complete behaviour.
Motivation - have the mechanisms to activate or inhibit behaviour.
Opportunity - to complete it.

Question 12

What three factors are a part of informing people about behavioural decisions?

Answer 12

Framing effects: framing the message impacts its perception.
Order of information: topics at the front generally chosen first.
Comparison: comparing one action to overall health can influence behaviour.

Question 13

What four factors are part of incentivizing people about behavioural decisions?

Answer 13

Behavioural incentives: showing incentive to use a behaviour.
Social norms: setting norms in the environment about what others are doing.
Social comparisons: how my behaviour compares to others.
Prosocial motives: motivated to give to others.

Question 14

What are the four factors that are part of guiding behavioural decisions?

Answer 14

Cues and prompts.
Defaults: make one action a default.
Recommendations: health professionals enrolling patients into treatment plans.
Self-control devices.

Question 15

Define nudging.

Answer 15

Structuring the environment to promote positive behaviour with minimal resistance from people.

Question 16

What are the strengths and weaknesses of nudging?

Answer 16

Strengths: low cost, easy, apply on a large scale.
Weaknesses: limited effect size, publication bias, may only work on some people, may backfire.

Question 17

What is psychoneuroimmunology?

Answer 17

A biomedical concept that considers how the brain, behaviour, and immune system interact.

Question 18

Define a pathogen. What is a pathogen-specific response?

Answer 18

Pathogen: microorganism that causes disease.
Pathogen-specific response: when the body recognises a pathogen as dangerous, and then initiates a response to remove it.

Question 19

What are the two branches of the immune system and how do they differ in time and location?

Answer 19

Innate immune response: not adaptive to time, not specific, quick.
Adaptive immune response: specific to certain issues in the body, slow.

Question 20

What does the innate immune response consist of?

Answer 20

External barriers like skin, and internal defences such as inflammation, fever, and chemical signals.

Question 21

Explain the purpose of inflammation.

Answer 21

The body swells and becomes hot and painful. Inflammation occurs when there is a harmful stimuli in the body, and it tries to cure it.

Question 22

Difference between acute and chronic inflammation. Why is acute good and chronic bad?

Answer 22

Acute inflammation: arises from tissue or organ damage. Fast onset and lasts a few days.
Chronic inflammation: arises from complex factors. Slow onset and can last for months or years.
Acute is good because it signals our immune cells where the infection is and it helps to repair tissue. Chronic is bad because the body is on alert which can damage tissue.

Question 23

Explain the purpose of a c-reactive protein and what the levels mean.

Answer 23

CRP is produced in the liver in response to acute inflammation. Want low levels as this indicates lack of sickness.

Question 24

Explain the link between inflammation and depression. Can anti-inflammatories reduce depression?

Answer 24

Proinflammatory cytokines are elevated in depression. A study found that anti-inflammatory agents can reduce depression, especially in conjunction with anti-depressants, when compared to a placebo.

Question 25

How do diet, inflammation, and depression all link?

Answer 25

Moderate adherence to a Mediterranean diet is shown to reduce depression, and reduced inflammation is also linked to depression. Healthy diet is linked with reduced depression partially due to decreased inflammation.

Question 26

Explain the link between acute stress and immune response.

Answer 26

Acute stress enhances immune response - especially innate responses. More cells are in circulation sending inflammatory agents to the site of inflammation. After this, immunosuppression occurs where the cortisol reduces the immune system back to baseline.

Question 27

Explain the link between chronic stress and immune response.

Answer 27

When stress is chronic, there is increased cortisol. This increased cortisol suppresses the immune system below baseline, inhibiting immune functioning. This makes people more susceptible to biological illness.

Question 28

Explain the Kiecolt-Glaser and Loving (2005) study about hostile marriages and wound healing.

Answer 28

All couples completed questionnaires to assess their hostility. All given blisters, and then assessed for their healing. Those in hostile marriages healed at 60% of the rate of non-hostile couples. The non-hostile people healed faster each day, and faster overall.

Question 29

Explain the link between emotional style and cold perception by Cohen (2003).

Answer 29

All assessed for their personality style, and then provided with a cold. Symptoms assessed. Positive styles showed the same level of objective and subjective symptoms. Negative styles showed the same objective symptoms, but had higher subjective symptoms. They more likely to interpret physical sensations as something negative.

Question 30

What are telomeres and what do they represent?

Answer 30

Telomeres are caps on the end of DNA strands. Each time DNA replicates, part of the telomere is lost. Telomeres are a biomarker of biological aging.

Question 31

What is telomerase and what is it’s function?

Answer 31

A type of enzyme that can replenish telomere caps on certain cells.

Question 32

Explain the link between inflammation, stress and telomeres.

Answer 32

Chronic inflammation increases telomere shortening. Chronic stress also increases telomere shortening due to the activation of cortisol releasing free radicals that damage cells.

Question 33

Explain the results of the Wong et al. (2014) study about inflammatory markers and telomere length.

Answer 33

C-reactive protein (a measure of inflammation) significantly predicts reductions in telomere length over time. Higher rates of inflammation at the baseline show shorter telomere length over time. The shorter length is a biomarker for cellular aging.

Question 34

Explain the results of the Epel et al. (2004) study looking at the telomere length of mothers with ill children and stress.

Answer 34

Mothers with sick children showed reduced telomere length and increased stress. Showed a link between the two - increased perceived stress and shorter telomere length. Stressed mothers also have less telomerase.

Question 35

Explain the link between early life stress and telomeres.

Answer 35

Children who experienced violence in their home had reduced telomeres over time. Their telomeres were also shorter at the baseline, as well as at the end.

Question 36

Explain the link between telomeres and intrauterine stress.

Answer 36

Exposure to stress in the womb is associated with shorter telomere length in adulthood by 3.5 years.

Question 37

What are the three psychological factors that influence susceptibility of catching COVID19?

Answer 37

1. Psychological factors can influence biological susceptibility to the virus through the immune system.
2. Psychological factors can influence behavioural susceptibility to the virus.
3. Psychological factors can influence acceptability of public policy.

Question 38

Explain what biological factors increase susceptibility to COVID.

Answer 38

The big 4 health behaviours, poor sleep, obesity, chronic stress, lower positive emotional styles, poor social support, SES, psychiatric conditions.

Question 39

What three factors did Cohen (2020) state increase susceptibility to respiratory illness?

Answer 39

Risky behaviors, psychological stress, social relationships.

Question 40

Explain some of the psychological risk factors that influence the likelihood of catching COVID.

Answer 40

Germ aversion, pathogen disgust sensitivity, certain personality traits, political orientation, racial and socioeconomic disparities.

Question 41

Explain the findings from Shook et al. (2020) regarding psychological characteristics that people use to avoid getting sick.

Answer 41

People who scored higher on germ aversion and pathogen disgust sensitivity were more concerned about COVID and more likely to engage in preventative behaviours. People with high neuroticism had high concern for illness, but were not likely to engage in preventative behaviours. Conscientiousness showed high concern and engaging in preventative behaviours.

Question 42

Explain the differences between acute and chronic pain.

Answer 42

Acute pain: pain with rapid onset that goes quickly. Associated with SAM activation.
Chronic pain: paid with a slower onset, lasts over 6 months, can often predict onset of depression. Associated with HPA activation.

Question 43

Explain nocioceptive pain.

Answer 43

Pain from injury or damage to the body and is due to nocioceptors - pain receptors in the body that initiate a pain sequence.

Question 44

Explain neuropathic pain.

Answer 44

Malfunctioning nerves send pain signals or the misfiring of somatosensory system in the brain.

Question 45

What ways can pain be measured?

Answer 45

Behavioural observation, self-report visual analogue, questionnaires, facial scales, ecological momentary assessment.

Question 46

Explain the difference between experienced and remembered pain.

Answer 46

Remembered pain tends to be higher in intensity than experienced pain, as it is biased when reporting pain from over a long period.

Question 47

What are peak and end effects of pain?

Answer 47

The tendency to prioritize high intensity pain episodes and more recent pain episodes when summarizing pain.

Question 48

What is duration neglect?

Answer 48

The tendency to ignore pain-free periods of time when summarizing pain.

Question 49

Explain bottom-up effects when referring to pain.

Answer 49

Nocioceptors at the site of injury are activated and carry nerve impulses from the site of injury up to the brain through the spinal cord. Gate in the spinal cord is usually open and pain will go to the brain.

Question 50

What can be done to reduce or remove the pain of a bottom-up effect?

Answer 50

Activation of A-delta fibers can close the gate at the spinal cord and can prevent pain signals from A-delta fibers (sharp pain) and C fibers (dull pain) to reach the brain. Touching or rubbing the pain activates A-delta fibers, reducing pain.

Question 51

Explain top-down effects when it comes to pain.

Answer 51

Descending analgesic nerves (brain to spinal cord) with receptors that match exogenous opiates and endorphins. When these are ingested or activated, they inhibit ascending pain signals by closing the gate from the spinal cord to the brain through activating inhibitory interneurons.

Question 52

How is the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) involved in pain?

Answer 52

It is involved with how distressed we feel in response to pain. Involved in how we feel toward a sensory component.

Question 53

What are the common links between emotional and physical pain?

Answer 53

Anterior cingulate cortex can cause increased pain-evoked activity and anterior insula.

Question 54

What are the common links between social and physical pain?

Answer 54

Social isolation and rejection increases pain-evoked activity in the ACC regions similar to physical pain.

Question 55

What four psychological factors increase pain?

Answer 55

1. Pain catastrophizing: tendency to magnify the threat value of a pain stimulus.
2. Negative emotion: increases pain-evoked activity in the ACC.
3. Isolation and rejection: pain evoked activity in the ACC.
4. Greater brain connectivity and dysfunction of pain inhibition pathways: increases chances of developing a chronic pain condition.

Question 56

What four psychological factors decrease pain?

Answer 56

1. Distraction: reduces the transmission of pain signals ascending from the spinal cord.
2. Reduction in emotional or social pain: mindfulness decreases activity in the ACC.
3. Self-induced analgesia: increases endorphin activity and activated descending analgesic pathways.
4. Psychological treatments: can reduce the experience of pain.

Question 57

Define complementary and alternative medicine.

Answer 57

Treatments to cure illness and improve health and well-being that are outside of the standard westernized medical approach.

Question 58

What evidence is there for acupuncture? What happened to it?

Answer 58

Cho et al. (1998) found that there was correlations between acupuncture spots on the foot and the brain - when the point of the foot was acupunctured, brain showed activation of the visual area.
The evidence was later retracted.

Question 59

What was the findings from Linde et al. (2005) regarding non-specific effects of acupuncture on pain?

Answer 59

Sham and acupuncture both showed reduced headaches compared to controls. Shows that acupuncture process may work, but the needling process to specific points of the body is not needed as needling anywhere seems to work.

Question 60

What is the difference between acupuncture and sham?

Answer 60

Acupuncture places needles into specific parts of the body that ‘correlate’ to specific parts of the brain. Sham needles do not go into the skin, and they do not go into specific parts of the body.

Question 61

What three mechanisms are possible for how placebos influence pain?

Answer 61

1. Placebos may change the sensation coming up the spinal cord. Placebos may dampen the sensory signals coming from the brain stem.
2. Placebos may change our interpretation of the sensory signals. Placebos dampen the interpretation within the prefrontal cortex.
3. Placebos may change the way we report our pain. Placebos change our verbal reporting in the Broca’s area.

Question 62

How do placebo analgesics dampen sensory signals coming from the periphery?

Answer 62

Activate endogenous opioids, which activate descending analgesic nerves, which inhibit ascending pain signals by closing the gate from the spinal cord to the brain.

Question 63

Explain the purpose of Naloxone and how it works.

Answer 63

Naloxone is an opioid antagonist that reverses overdose.

Question 64

What have studies about Naloxone shown regarding placebo effects and pain?

Answer 64

Naloxone also blocks placebo effects as well as opioids. Placebos have blocked the pain, but since Naloxone blocks the placebo, pain increases again when Naloxone is present.

Question 65

How are placebos similar to our emotional responses to movies?

Answer 65

Placebos mirror some of the common everyday processes like movies by activating corresponding psychobiological mechanisms in the brain, even though we are aware they are not real.

Question 66

Explain the six caveats/complexities.

Answer 66

1. Expectancies are important - stronger effect if expectations are clear and if drug is expensive.
2. Visual input is important - drug works better if someone see’s it being administered.
3. Most studies find placebo non-responders and responders - some researchers only analyze the responders rather than booth. Individual differences in responding is not known.
4. Placebos are not without negative consequences - nocebo effect of making you feel worse instead of better.
5. Placebo is a misonomer (there are multiple mediated placebo effects) - expectancies, beliefs, instructions can all influence pathways.
6. Placebos could be more broadly defined as stimulating an active therapeutic process occurring within a psychosocial context - idea that circumstances, people etc are part of the body’s approach to healing itself.

Question 67

What are the three stages that information goes through when it is released? At what stage does the bias tend to occur?

Answer 67

Original article, university press release, news publications.
University press release is the main source of exaggeration.

Question 68

Explain the results about the Sumner et al. (2014) study about media bias within the different media sources.

Answer 68

Studied what part of media released exaggerated advice, made unfair causal claims, or made inaccurate human inferences. Results showed that university press is the main source of exaggeration. These exaggerated press releases caused increase likelihood of bad advice, causal claims, or human inference.