Midterm Exam Flashcards
Define well-being
Well-being is considered an overall state or feeling comfortable, healthy, and happy. It is made up of many components one of which is mental health.
Well-being can be paralyzed by physical fitness. Being physically fit means that you can get the most out of your bodies capabilities; having high levels of well-being means that you were living well, doing meaningful things, and working towards the things that matter to you in life.
Define mental health
Mental health includes physiological, emotional, and social aspects of thinking, feeling, and behaving. It is a prerequisite to realizing potential, being able to cope with normal life stress, and being productive at work or school.
Mental health can be paralyzed with physical health. Having good physical health means that your body and organ systems are functioning well; having good mental health means that your mental and emotional systems are functioning well and you can manage the typical stresses of life.
What are the historical origins to mental health and well-being?
Aristotle thought the goal of life was eudaimonia, often translated as happiness but more aply corresponding to the idea of not just being happy but flourishing.
Various religions and cultural traditions historically played a part in perpetuating injustice and thus the isolation, marginalization, and oppression of individuals and communities. Different cultures describe and understand individual health and well-being endeverse ways. In Buddhism traditions, balance and harmony with self and environment are important. In African religious and cultural traditions, relationships with the land and community members are important to wellness. They believe that a person cannot flourish an isolation, but can only grow in connection with others.
What are the components of well-being?
Well-being is made up of many components including mental health, physical health, and a supportive and secure environment.
Mental Health: embodies positive physiological, emotional, and social functioning. Positive mental health includes Feeling happy and satisfied with life, positive functioning and self realization, and positive social value. Mental health is related to your physical health and contributes to your ability to strive and reach your potential, cope with normal life stress, establish good relationships, and be productive at work.
Physical Health: taking proper care of your body for optimum health and functioning, as well as disease prevention. Physical health is closely related to mental health and requires good sleep, exercise, nutrition, and mental health.
Supportive/Secure Environment: your current environment and past experiences affect mental and physical health. A supportive and secure environment is one in which a person feels socially, emotionally, and physically safe and valued.
What are the components of mental health?
Realizing potential: your mental health is affected by the degree to which you feel you are reaching your potential and making a meaningful contribution to the world around you, in a way that aligns with your interests and perspective.
Emotional health: emotional health contributes to your overall mental health. Emotional well-being is made up of your feelings and emotions including feelings of happiness, security, and confidence. It also relates to your ability to regulate feelings across challenges, experiences, and contexts.
Social connectedness: a social network or social connectedness involves creating and maintaining good relationships with others and behaving in a socially responsible and acceptable way. It relies upon the development of positive social skills such as empathy.
Psychological health: psychological health involves how you think about things and regulate your feelings this includes the ability to self reflect, problem-solve, manage emotions, be resilient, think, and be attentive.
What is the mental health spectrum?
The mental health spectrum provides a way to think about mental health states based on certain threshold‘s. It is shown as a triangle that indicates the proportion of individuals in the population who are likely to meet these thresholds. As you go up and intensity, there are fewer people that are likely going to meet that threshold.
Well: being well is reflected in feeling content, capable, and happy. Stress and disappointment are normal parts of life, but when feeling well, these are manageable and any associated discomfort is short-lived and appropriate to the stressor or context.
Symptoms: symptoms refer to experiences that can be associated with some distress but may be situational and not necessarily indicated of a problem or disorder. The most common symptoms include anxiety, depression, and sleep problems. Symptoms can be transient and subside when a stressor resolves or be helped by lifestyle changes, self-help, and short-term problem focused counselling.
Concerns or problems: a mental health problem is the presence of symptoms that persist and are associated with distress or difficulty, but are not severe enough to be considered a diagnosable mental illness, condition, or disorder. A mental health concern relates to a persistent life event or stress. These problems can be uncomfortable and prolonged but do not necessarily reflect a diagnosable disorder. Often support and problem focused counselling can be helpful.
Disorders/conditions/illness: disorders are clinically diagnosed illnesses that require evidence-based treatments provided by healthcare professionals. They are comprised of clinically significant symptoms characterized by a disturbance in thoughts, feelings, and perception that negatively affect day-to-day functioning and cause significant distress and impairment.

What is the current state of student mental health?
Evidence suggests that the rate of mental health concerns are rising among university students worldwide. It is understood that mental health is important to academic success and overall well-being. However, encountering challenges with mental health at university is common.
Canada: Over a quarter of Canadian post secondary students reported being diagnosed or treated by a professional for one or more mental health conditions within a 12 month period of starting University. The most common conditions were anxiety and depression. Additionally the rights of students reported experiencing mental health related symptoms has continuously increased.
UK: 19% of 16 to 24–year-olds in England have a mental health condition. There was a five fold increase in the number of students reporting a mental health problem, probable mental disorders have increased in young adults, there were a significant increase in the number of dropouts, and there has been an increase in student suicides.
Worldwide: roughly one third of first year college students screen positive for a mental disorder, specifically those related to anxiety, mood, and substance use disorders. The majority of students with anxiety and depressive disorders had an onset prior to entering university, well substance use disorders tend to onset after entering university.
Why is there a greater need for university mental health services?
Demand for mental health services is increasing among university students due to biological, psychological, and sociological factors that are interacting with and contributing to increasing demand.
At risk age: the transition to university is happening at a time when the brain is undergoing accelerated growth and development and has not yet fully matured.
Difficult transitioning: University is a difficult transitioning. As a student may encounter a new set of academic, financial, and social stressors.
Vulnerable brain: The emerging adult brain is vulnerable to a stressful environment. Young individuals brains are undergoing accelerated growth and are vulnerable when exposed to risk factors and stressors such as poor sleep, recreational drugs, and alcohol.
Lacking support: resources to support student mental health are limited and only provided for short term services that are not designed to meet the needs of students. There is also a need for reliable information about what university student mental health services should include and how they should be tailored to meet the needs of diverse student populations.
Decrease in stigma: an increase in students reporting mental health problems and seeking care reflect a reduction in stigma around mental health. However, it also increases the amount of students who need mental health services.
How does well-being and mental health associated with goals?
Because well-being and mental health are about achieving positive states, it can be helpful to think of them in terms of goals. These goals include:
Community: be part of a broader community, find support, and contribute to positive change for others.
Social: make new social connections and develop a broader social network.
Recreational: maintain physical fitness, engage in recreation, hobbies, and cultural activities to achieve a healthy study-life balance.
Career: look for enriched or applied learning experiences, such as volunteering or internships.
Academic: achieve and maintain good grades and self-directedness in learning.
Relationships: make new and keep existing meaningful personal relationships.
Cultural: every culture has a different way of thinking about well-being and mental health. Overcomes stigma and share your story with those who understand.
What are the important factors influenced by mental health?
Energy levels and motivation: your mental health influences how you feel in your daily life including if you were motivated and have the energy to complete daily tasks.
Concentration and cognition: mental health influences the mental processes of concentration and cognition.
Self efficacy: Self-efficacy is the extent to which someone believes in their ability to achieve certain outcomes.
Managing stressful situations: stressful situations are a common occurrence throughout an individuals life but the ability to manage these situations is related to mental health.
Belongingness: a sense of belonging this fosters a prosocial dimension of feeling part of a learning community, and collaborating with others on the University journey.
What are important mental health concepts?
Risk factors: biological, psychological, or sociological characteristics or exposures that are associated with a higher likelihood of a negative outcome. Examples are not getting enough sleep, not having support, and overthinking.
Protective factors: characteristics or exposures that lower the likelihood of negative outcomes. Examples are having a reliable network of friends, having a healthy sleep schedule, and feeling included.
Stressors: a person, place, or situation that causes a state of psychological strain or tension. Examples include exams and relationship problems.
Resilience: if an individual learns to effectively manage their stressors, they develop resilience. This is the ability to adjust, adapt, overcome, and cope with disappointment, stressors, threat, or adverse events.
Signs and symptoms: if individuals do not adapt, they develop signs and symptoms which respectively can be observable or experienced indicators of being under stress. These are indicators which either distress the individual or impair their ability to function emotionally, socially, or academically. They may be a signal of the emergence of an illness or problem, or can be circumstantial and short-lived.
What are the different historical perspectives on mental disorders?
Although disturbances of the mind have been recognized since antiquity, the perspective and approach to mental illnesses has changed over time.
Psychodynamic model: developed by Sigmund Freud in the late 19th century. It proposes that the processes of the mind interplay with psychological forces and that distresses arise because the conscious interpretation masks true unconscious origin. It was believed that the relationship with a therapist could make these unconscious feelings made clear to resolve mental conflict between a conscious and unconscious mind.
Medical/disease model: based on the work of Aristotle, Galen, and Hippocrates. The belief that psychiatric illness was a disease caused by biological and genetic malfunction due to the notion that illness runs in families or comes from mood disorders. This model views problems of mental functioning from a disease perspective with a biological basis at the core and emphasizes recovery through somatic treatment such as medication and brain stimulation.
Behavioural model: developed by Pavlov, Watson, and Skinner. The model theorizes that how you behave day today is conditioned due to the reinforcement you receive for your actions. It proposes that in anxiety disorders, maladaptive learning has taken place and a Harmless stimulus has been linked to extreme fear that causes avoidance. In depression, it proposes that short term benefit of avoiding things has become outweighed by the reduction in positive experiences increasing the desire to withdraw. behaviour therapy aims to reverse this learning by creating a different association with the stimulus.
Cognitive model: contributors included Abraham, Seligman and Teasdale, Beck, and Brown and Harris. this model takes the perspective that mental disorders are a result of error in thinking or bias. It assumes that perspective is a result of your thinking so errors in thought can cause upset and mental disorders. This model was later combined with the behaviour model to create a therapy protocol that includes a cognitive component to the behaviour therapy, allowing patients to identify errors and bias in thinking, distortions, overgeneralization, and negative automatic thoughts.
Social/cultural models: the social model focusses on holistic influences including social, cultural, and environmental context emphasizing the provision of support through addressing factors. The cultural model focusses on voices of experience in response to feeling talked at. An example is hearing voices which six to reject the stigma imposed on the experience and six to encourage a positive response to voice hearing.
Biopsychosocial model: introduced by George Engel. Best model emphasizes the interacting roles of biological factors, psychological factors, and social factors as contributors to mental illness. Modern uses of this model emphasize that the three factors are not always equal in the role in determining mental illness.
Osler medical humanist model: rather than adopting a singular reductionist approach or originally enforced multifaceted approach, this approach reminds us to take the whole individual person into account when assessing for a diagnosis and developing a treatment plan. It is the holistic approach to incorporate all medical, biological, social, and psychological aspects.

What is the pathway to determine mental health and academic success?
To understand mental health and academic success, it is important to look at distal and proximal risk factors.
Distal risk factors: include family environment during childhood, nutrition, housing, abuse, bullying, and neglect.
Proximal risk factors: include choices that we make such as using cannabis, drinking alcohol, establishing a healthy sleep routine, and exercising.
Outcomes: University student mental health, well-being, and academic outcomes are associated with each other and determined by a combination of distal and proximal risk factors and stressors.
How do you genetics and the environment interact as risk factors?
Genes are the basic physical and functional unit of heredity that are passed down through generations in your family. Epigenetic‘s is the modification of gene activity which can occur through certain exposures including biological, environmental, and psychological factors. The environment refers to your physical, psychological, and social surroundings. Research shows that environmental and lifestyle factors further increase risk in individuals who are already vulnerable or at genetic risk. This is seen in schizophrenia and cannabis use.
A model of mental illness based on interactions between genes in the environment, and the wear and tear effect of chronic risk exposures related to stress on your mind and your body is the stress diathesis model. The differences in cultures also have a big range of implications for mental health practices, ranging from the ways that people view health to treatment seeking patterns.
How is resilience hidden in the saying, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger” ?
This phrase makes a point that struggle or discomfort is an opportunity to build and realize your strengths as a extreme and overly simplistic view since finding a balance between challenging yourself and stress is important because chronic and overwhelming stress is associated with emotional and physical ill health.
How is resilience hidden in the saying, “Like Tiny seeds with potent power to push through tough ground and become mighty trees, we hold any reserves of unimaginable strength. We are resilient.” ?
This quote from the gift of nature anthropomorphizes Seeds to describe the resilient tendencies people have. Although there is a level of strength that is innate, many resilient characteristics are not innate and a product of experience.
Is stress adaptive?
Yes stress, in the short term, is often adaptive and helps keep you safe. Small doses of stress, commonly furred to as eustress, or “good stress” are important for being successful in daily activities and building resilience to cope with challenging situations.
What illustrates the relation between pressure and performance?
The inverted U theory illustrates the relation between pressure and performance as a good example of one stress shifts from being helpful to harmful.
Low Pressure: Results in boredom and weak performance. As pressure increases, you see increased attention and interest.
Optimal Pressure: More pressure can improve performance up to a certain point by preparing us to cope effectively with a challenge. This is known as the optimal performance point.
High Pressure: When stress becomes too high, performance decreases. High anxiety is associated with impaired performance and distress. When effective coping strategies are not in place, high stress can lead to a complete meltdown.
What can influence your stress?
The way you think you can influence your stress. Focusing on the negatives, overthinking, and worrying can exacerbate and prolonging stress, well keeping things in perspective and problem-solving can reduce stress.
The way you act can influence your stress. Being proactive and tackling problems tend to be more helpful than avoiding them and putting them off.
What is flow theory?
Flow theory is based on the optimal level of performance that is achieved when finding the sweet spot between boredom and anxiety. It is when people feel mostly immersed in what they are doing, where they perform optimally, and where they feel incredibly relaxed and positive. The flow states are very powerful for increasing happiness and well-being and strongly counteract worry and stress.
Flow states are more likely when you intensely focus on the task, only do one thing at a time, remove distractions, focus on the process, practice the activity, try something that is not too easy, set clear goals, and find the activity intrinsically rewarding.
What is sleep and how is it essential?
Sleep is a state of the mind and body characterized by altered or reduced consciousness. Good quality sleep is essential to survival and plays a crucial role in both physical and mental health. It is important for repairing cells, emotional regulation, and cognitive function.
What is self-regulation?
Self-regulation refers to control over behavior, thoughts, and emotion which can interact with each other.
Behavioral: involves setting a healthy rhythm to your day by keeping a balanced routine that incorporates activities, exercise, mindfulness, socializing, and other self-care activities or hobbies.
Cognitive: involves managing difficult, negative, or intrusive thoughts and worries with cognitive strategies to manage stress like spotting the thoughts that impact your mood and checking to see if they are accurate before creating a plan to mentally reframe the situation.
Emotional: includes slowing yourself down and calming yourself when stressed, and pausing to think before acting according with your values.
What are the three body structures important for initiation and termination of stress?
Adrenal gland: endocrine gland located above the kidney that produces hormones which regulate a number of bodily functions. It produces cortisol, a major hormonal mediator of the stress response.
Hypothalamus: small portion of the brain that controls the release of hormones from the pituitary gland and links the endocrine system to the nervous system.
Pituitary gland: pea-sized gland attached the base of the brain, playing a major role in growth and development while controlling the functioning of other endocrine glands. It is divided into the anterior and posterior pituitary.
What is the biological stress response system?
The biological stress response system is the HPA axis.
1) The sudden onset of a stressor triggers the release of CRH from the hypothalamus.
2) CRH stimulates the release of ACTH from the anterior pituitary.
3) The glucose corduroid hormone, cortisol, is secreted from the adrenal gland as the end product of the axis. During acute stress, this response helps you deal with the problem by helping you think clearly and quickly assess the situation.
4) once the threat is assessed to be minimal and Flight is not required, cortisol inhibits the loop through negative feedback.
What are the psychological factors that influence stress?
Your response to stress is influenced by how your thoughts, bodily sensations, feelings, and behaviours all interact together. Some patterns help you manage and tackle stressful events, while others can exacerbate and prolong stress.
How do you social factors influence stress?
Social factors that increase stress include early trauma, feeling excluded, being discriminated against, feeling trapped, poverty, and limited social support.
Social factors that reduce stress include having a supportive social network, a strong social identity, a sense of agency, a sense of belonging, feeling heard, and having access to opportunities.
What is perfectionism and imposter syndrome?
Perfectionism is the tendency to set unrealistically high expectations for yourself, involving unattainably high standards so that nothing but perfect is seen as a failure. This leads to high levels of self criticism, fear of failure, and procrastination. It increases vulnerability for anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems.
Imposter syndrome is having feelings of insecurity or self-doubt that come from comparing yourself to other people and thinking you aren’t good enough.
