Chapter 14: Health Psychology

Question 1

Health psychology

Answer 1

A subfield of psychology that emphasizes psychology’s role in establishing and maintaining health and preventing and treating illness

Question 2

Behavioral medicine

Answer 2

An interdisciplinary field that focuses on developing and integrating behavioral and biomedical knowledge to promote health and reduce illness; overlaps with and is sometimes indistinguishable from health psychology

Question 3

Health behaviors

Answer 3

Practices that have an impact on psychical well being

Question 4

Stages of Change model

Answer 4

Theoretical model describing a five-step process by which individuals give up bad habits and adopt healthier lifestyles

Question 5

Precontemplation

Answer 5

Occurs when individuals are not yet genuinely thinking about change

Question 6

Contemplation

Answer 6

People acknowledge the problem but may not be ready to commit to change

Question 7

Preperation/determination

Answer 7

People are getting ready to take action. It is key that people are optimistic toward the fact that they can see the change through

Question 8

Action/willpower

Answer 8

People commit toward making a real behavioral change and enact an effective plan

Question 9

Maintenance

Answer 9

People successfully avoid temptation and consistently pursue healthy behaviors

Question 10

Relapse

Answer 10

A return to former unhealthy patterns

Question 11

General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

Answer 11

Selye’s term for the common effects of stressful demands on the body, consisting of three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion

Question 12

Alarm stage

Answer 12

A temporary state of shock during which resistance to illness and stress falls below normal levels. During these initial effects of stress, the body releases hormones that in a short time negatively effects the immune system, making injury and illness more likely

Question 13

Resistance stage

Answer 13

Glands throughout the body release hormones that protect the individual. Endocrine and sympathetic nervous system are not as high as during the alarm stage, although they are still elevated. The body can fight off infection to a remarkable degree, and hormones reducing inflammation are running at high levels in the body

Question 14

Exhaustion stage

Answer 14

If the body’s efforts to fight off stress fail, and the stress persists, the person moves into this stage. At this point the wear and tear takes its toll, the person might collapse in exhaustion and vulnerability to illness persists. Serious, potentially fatal damage to the body can occur, including heart attack and death

Question 15

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA-axis)

Answer 15

The complex set of integrations among the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland, and the adrenal gland that regulate various body processes and control reactions to stressful events

Question 16

Psychoneuroimmunology

Answer 16

A new field of scientific inquiry that explores connection among psychological factors (such as attitudes and emotions), the nervous system, and the immune system

Question 17

Type A behavior pattern

Answer 17

A cluster of characteristics- including being excessively competitive, hard-driven, impatient, and hostile- that is related to a higher incidence of heart disease

Question 18

Type B behavior pattern

Answer 18

A cluster of characteristics- including being relaxed and easy going- that is related to a lower incidence of heart disease

Question 19

Type D behavior pattern

Answer 19

A cluster of characteristics- including being generally distressed, having negative emotions, and being socially inhibited- that is related to adverse cardiovascular outcomes

Question 20

Health disparities

Answer 20

Refer to often preventable differences in physical functioning (including disease, injury, violence) and psychological functioning (including depression and anxiety) that are experiences by socially disadvantaged groups

Question 21

Cognitive appraisal

Answer 21

Individual’s interpretation of the events in their life as harmful, threatening, or challenging and their determination of whether they have resources to cope effectively with events

Question 22

Coping

Answer 22

Managing taxing circumstances, expending effort to solve life’s problems, and seeking to master or reduce stress

Question 23

Primary cognitive appraisal

Answer 23

Individuals interpret whether an event involves harm or loss that has already occurred, a threat of some future danger, or a challenge to overcome

Question 24

Secondary cognitive appraisal

Answer 24

People evaluate their resources and determine how effectively they can be marshaled to cope with the event

Question 25

Problem-focused coping

Answer 25

The coping strategy of squarely focusing one’s troubles and trying to solve them

Question 26

Emotion-focused coping

Answer 26

The coping strategy that involves responding to stress that one is feeling- trying to manage one’s emotional reaction- rather than focusing on the root of the problem itself

Question 27

Positive reappraisal

Answer 27

Reinterpreting a potentially stressful experience as positive, valuable, or even beneficial

Question 28

Hardiness

Answer 28

A personality trait characterized by a sense of commitment rather than alienation and of control rather than powerlessness; a perception of problems as challenges rather than threats

Question 29

Stress management

Answer 29

A regimen that teaches individuals how to appraise stressful events, how to devlop skills for coping with stress, and how to put these skills into use in everyday life