week 18 - interacting through tough content, self-care, and wellness

Question 1

Describe basic terminology used in the field of health psychology.

Answer 1

Chronic disease - A health condition that persists over time, typically for periods longer than three months (e.g., HIV, asthma, diabetes).
Health psychology considers how the choices we make, the behaviours we engage in, and even the emotions that we feel, can play an important role in our overall health
Biopsychosocial model of health - An approach to studying health and human function that posits the importance of biological, psychological, and social (or environmental) processes

Question 2

explain theoretical models of health

Answer 2

Explain theoretical models of health, as well as the role of psychological stress in the development of disease.
Health psychology relies on the Biopsychosocial Model of Health. This model posits that biology, psychology, and social factors are just as important in the development of disease as biological causes (e.g., germs, viruses), which is consistent with the World Health Organisation (1946) definition of health. This model replaces the older Biomedical Model of Health, which primarily considers the physical, or pathogenic, factors contributing to illness. Thanks to advances in medical technology, there is a growing understanding of the physiology underlying the mind–body connection, and in particular, the role that different feelings can have on our body’s function. Health psychology researchers working in the fields of psychosomatic medicine and psychoneuroimmunology, for example, are interested in understanding how psychological factors can “get under the skin” and influence our physiology in order to better understand how factors like stress can make us sick.

Question 3

describe psychological factors that contribute to resilience and improved health

Answer 3

Describe psychological factors that contribute to resilience and improved health.
Addressing their needs and maintaining their quality of life will require skilled individuals who understand how to properly treat these populations. Health psychologists will be on the forefront of work in these areas.
With this focus on prevention, it is important that health psychologists move beyond studying risk (e.g., depression, stress, hostility, low socioeconomic status) in isolation, and move toward studying factors that confer resilience and protection from disease. There is, fortunately, a growing interest in studying the positive factors that protect our health (e.g., Diener & Chan, 2011; Pressman & Cohen, 2005; Richman, Kubzansky, Maselko, Kawachi, Choo, & Bauer, 2005) with evidence strongly indicating that people with higher positivity live longer, suffer fewer illnesses, and generally feel better. Seligman (2008) has even proposed a field of “Positive Health” to specifically study those who exhibit “above average” health—something we do not think about enough. By shifting some of the research focus to identifying and understanding these health-promoting factors, we may capitalise on this information to improve public health.

Question 4

defend the relevance and important of psychology to the field of medicine

Answer 4

Defend the relevance and importance of psychology to the field of medicine.
The main task of medical psychology is to protect the patient and doctor from undesirable consequences of technization of medicine, narrow specialisation and bureaucratization of the operation of the health services and to use psychological findings and procedures in the prevention of disorders and diseases and in the …
Psychologists provide vital mental and behavioural health services in primary care; they identify and modify behaviours to promote the health and wellness of individuals across the lifespan.

Question 5

adherence

Answer 5

Adherence - In health, it is the ability of a patient to maintain a health behaviour prescribed by a physician. This might include taking medication as prescribed, exercising more, or eating less high-fat food.

Question 6

behavioural medecine

Answer 6

Behavioural medicine - A field similar to health psychology that integrates psychological factors (e.g., emotion, behaviour, cognition, and social factors) in the treatment of disease. This applied field includes clinical areas of study, such as occupational therapy, hypnosis, rehabilitation or medicine, and preventative medicine.

Question 7

biofeedback

Answer 7

Biofeedback - The process by which physiological signals, not normally available to human perception, are transformed into easy-to-understand graphs or numbers. Individuals can then use this information to try to change bodily functioning (e.g., lower blood pressure, reduce muscle tension).

Question 8

biomedical model of health

Answer 8

Biomedical Model of Health - A reductionist model that posits that ill health is a result of a deviation from normal function, which is explained by the presence of pathogens, injury, or genetic abnormality.

Question 9

biopsychosocial model of health

Answer 9

Biopsychosocial Model of Health - An approach to studying health and human function that posits the importance of biological, psychological, and social (or environmental) processes.

Question 10

chronic disease

Answer 10

Chronic disease - A health condition that persists over time, typically for periods longer than three months (e.g., HIV, asthma, diabetes).

Question 11

emotion focused coping

Answer 11

Emotion-focused coping - Coping strategy aimed at reducing the negative emotions associated with a stressful event.

Question 12

general adaptation syndrome

Answer 12

General Adaptation Syndrome - A three-phase model of stress, which includes a mobilisation of physiological resources phase, a coping phase, and an exhaustion phase (i.e., when an organism fails to cope with the stress adequately and depletes its resources).

Question 13

health

Answer 13

Health - According to the World Health Organisation, it is a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Question 14

health behaviour

Answer 14

Health behaviour - Any behaviour that is related to health—either good or bad.

Question 15

mind-body connecition

Answer 15

Mind–body connection - The idea that our emotions and thoughts can affect how our body functions.

Question 16

problem focused coping

Answer 16

Problem-focused coping - A set of coping strategies aimed at improving or changing stressful situations.

Question 17

psychoneuroimmunology

Answer 17

Psychoneuroimmunology - A field of study examining the relationship among psychology, brain function, and immune function.

Question 18

psychosomatic medicine

Answer 18

Psychosomatic medicine - An interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on how biological, psychological, and social processes contribute to physiological changes in the body and health over time.

Question 19

resilience

Answer 19

Resilience - The ability to “bounce back” from negative situations (e.g., illness, stress) to normal functioning or to simply not show poor outcomes in the face of adversity. In some cases, resilience may lead to better functioning following the negative experience (e.g., post-traumatic growth).

Question 20

social integration

Answer 20

Social integration - The size of your social network, or number of social roles (e.g., son, sister, student, employee, team member).

Question 21

social support

Answer 21

Social support - The perception or actuality that we have a social network that can help us in times of need and provide us with a variety of useful resources (e.g., advice, love, money).

Question 22

type a behaviour

Answer 22

Type A Behaviour - Type A behaviour is characterised by impatience, competitiveness, neuroticism, hostility, and anger.

Question 23

type b behaviour

Answer 23

Type B Behaviour - Type B behaviour reflects the absence of Type A characteristics and is represented by less competitive, aggressive, and hostile behaviour patterns.

Question 24

describe three major forms of happiness and a cause of each of them

Answer 24

Describe three major forms of happiness and a cause of each of them.
High life satisfaction
Ex. “life is great”
Cause - good income, achieving your goals, high self esteem
Frequent positive feelings
Ex. enjoying life, loving others
Cause - supportive friends, interesting work, extroverted personality
Infrequent negative feelings
Ex. Few chronic worries, rarely sad or angry
Cause - positive outlook, low neuroticism, goals in harmony

Question 25

Be able to list two internal causes of subjective well-being and two external causes of subjective well-being.

Answer 25

internal - inborn temperament, outlook, resilience | external - sufficient social resources, desirable society

Question 26

Describe the types of societies that experience the most and least happiness, and why they do.

Answer 26

Can you guess what might make some societies happier than others? Much of North America and Europe have relatively high life satisfaction, and much of Africa is low in life satisfaction. For life satisfaction living in an economically developed nation is helpful because when people must struggle to obtain food, shelter, and other basic necessities, they tend to be dissatisfied with their lives. However, other factors, such as trusting and being able to count on others, are also crucial to the happiness within nations. Indeed, for enjoying life our relationships with others seem more important than living in a wealthy society. One factor that predicts unhappiness is conflict—individuals in nations with high internal conflict or conflict with neighbouring nations tend to experience low SWB.

Question 27

Describe the typical course of adaptation to events in terms of the time course of SWB.

Answer 27

The process of adaptation is important in understanding happiness. When good and bad events occur, people often react strongly at first, but then their reactions adapt over time and they return to their former levels of happiness. For instance, many people are euphoric when they first marry, but over time they grow accustomed to the marriage and are no longer ecstatic. The marriage becomes commonplace and they return to their former level of happiness. Few of us think this will happen to us, but the truth is that it usually does. Some people will be a bit happier even years after marriage, but nobody carries that initial “high” through the years.

Question 28

Describe several of the beneficial outcomes of being a happy person.

Answer 28

health and longevity, social relationships, productivity, citizenship,

Question 29

describe how happiness is normally measured

Answer 29

Describe how happiness is typically measured. SWB researchers have relied primarily on self-report scales to assess happiness—how people rate their own happiness levels on self-report surveys. People respond to numbered scales to indicate their levels of satisfaction, positive feelings, and lack of negative feelings. The scale goes from 1-7 (strongly disagree to strongly agree)

Question 30

adaptation

Answer 30

Adaptation - The fact that after people first react to good or bad events, sometimes in a strong way, their feelings and reactions tend to dampen down over time and they return toward their original level of subjective well-being.

Question 31

bottom up/external causes of happiness

Answer 31

“Bottom-up” or external causes of happiness - Situational factors outside the person that influence his or her subjective well-being, such as good and bad events and circumstances such as health and wealth.

Question 32

happiness

Answer 32

Happiness - The popular word for subjective well-being. Scientists sometimes avoid using this term because it can refer to different things, such as feeling good, being satisfied, or even the causes of high subjective well-being.

Question 33

life satisfaction

Answer 33

Life satisfaction - A person reflects on their life and judges to what degree it is going well, by whatever standards that person thinks are most important for a good life.

Question 34

subjective well being

Answer 34

Subjective well-being - The name that scientists give to happiness—thinking and feeling that our lives are going very well.

Question 35

subjective well being scales

Answer 35

Subjective well-being scales - Self-report surveys or questionnaires in which participants indicate their levels of subjective well-being, by responding to items with a number that indicates how well off they feel.

Question 36

top down or internal causes of happiness

Answer 36

“Top-down” or internal causes of happiness - The person’s outlook and habitual response tendencies that influence their happiness—for example, their temperament or optimistic outlook on life.