Health phycology study guide Midterm

 health psychology
study of understanding psychological influences on how people stay healthy, why they
become ill, and how they respond when they do get ill
health
"a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of
disease or infirmity"

 wellness
the balance among physical, mental, and social well-being
etiology
origins or causes of illness

 mind-body relationship
philosophical position regarding whether the mind and body operate indistinguishably as a
single system or whether they act as two separate systems; the view guiding health
psychology is that the mind and body are indistinguishable
 coversion hysteria
Frued's theory that specific unconscious conflicts can produce particular physical
disturbances that symbolize repressed psychological conflicts; no longer a dominant view in
health psychology
 psychosomatic medicine
a field within psychiatry, related to health psychology, that developed in the early 1900s to
study and treat particular diseases believed to be caused by emotional conflicts, such as
ulcers, hypertension, and asthma. the term is now used more broadly to mean an approach to
health-related problems and diseases that examines psychological as well as somatic origins
 acute disorders
illness or other medical problems that occur over a short time, that are usually the result of an
infectious process, that are reversible
 biomedical model
viewpoint that illness can be explained on the basis aberrant somatic processes and that
psychological and social processes are largely independent of the disease process; the
dominant model in medical practice until recently
 chronic illness
illnesses that are long lasting and usually irreversible

 correlational research
measuring two variables and determining whether they are associated with each other. studies
related to smoking to lung cancer are correlational, for example

 epidemiology
the study of the frequency, distribution, and causes of infectious and noninfectious disease in
a population, based on an investigation of the physical and social environment. thus, for
example, epidemiologists not only study who has what kind of cancer but also address
questions such as why certain cancers are more prevalent in particular geographic ares than
other cancers are
  longitudinal research
the repeated observation and measurement of the same individuals over a period of time

 morbidity
the number of cases of a disease that exist at a given point in time; it may be expressed as the
number of new cases (incidence) or as the total number of existing cases (prevalence).

 mortality
the number of death due to particular causes

 prospective research
a research strategy in which people are followed forward in time to examine the relationship
between one set of variables and later occurences. for example, prospective research can
enable researchers to identify risk factors for disease that develop at a later time

 randomized clinical trials

an experimental study of the effects of a variable (such as a drug or treatment) administered
to human subjects who are randomly selected from a broad population and assigned on a
random basis to either an experimental or control group. the goal is to determine the clinical
efficacy and pharmacologic effects of the drug or procedure

 retrospective research
a research strategy whereby people are studied for the relationship of past variables or
conditions to current ones. interviewing people with a particular disease and asking them
about their childhood health behaviors or exposure to risks can identify conditions leading to
an adult disease, for example

 systems theory
the view that all levels of an organization n any entity are linked to each other heirarchically
and that change in any level will bring about change in other levels

 acute stress paradigm

a laboratory procedure whereby an individual goes through moderately stressful procedures
(such as counting backward by 7s), so that stress-related changes in emotion and
physiological and/or neuroendocrine processes may be assessed

 aftereffects of stress
performance and attentional decrements that occur after a stressful event has subsided;
believed to be produced by the residual physiological, emotional, and cognitive draining in
response to stressful events

 allostatic load
the accumulating adverse effects of stress, in conjunction with preexisting risks, on biological
stress regulatory systems

 chronic strain
a stressul experience that is a usual but continually stressful aspect of life
  daily hassles
minor daily stressful events; believed to have a cumulative effect in increasing the likelihood
of illness
 fight-or-flight response
a response to a threat in which the body is rapidly aroused and motivated via the sympathetic
nervous system and the endocrine system to attack or flee a threatening stimulus; the
response was first desribed by Walter Cannon in 1932

 general adaptation syndrome

developed by Hans Selye, a profile of how organisms respond to stress; the general
adaptation syndrome is characterized by three phases: a nonspecific mobilization phase,
which promotes sympathetic nervous system activity; a resistance phase, during which the
organism makes effort to cope with the threat; and an exhaustion phase, which occurs if the
organism fails to overcome the threat and depletes its physiological resources

 perceived stress
the perception that an event is stressful independent of its objective characteristics
person-environment fit
the degree to which the needs and resources of a person and the needs and resources of
environment complement each other

 post-traumatic stress (PTSD)

a syndrome that results after exposure to a stressor of exteme magnitude, marked by
emotional numbing, the relieving of aspects of the trauma, intense responses to other stressful
events, and other symptoms such as hyperalterness, sleep disturbance, guilt, or impaired
memory or concentration

 primary appraisal
the perception of a new or changing environment as beneficial, neutral, or negative in its
consequences; believed to be a first step in stress and coping

 reactivity
the predisposition to react physiologically to stress; believed to be genetically based in part;
high reactivity is believed to a risk factor for a range of stress-related diseases

 role conflict
a situation in which an individual occupying two different social statuses or positions is
confronted when conflicting role expectations

 secondary appraisal
assessment of whether individual's coping abilities and resources are adequate to overcome
the hard, threat, or challenge posed by the potential stressor

 stress
apprasing events as harmful, threatening, or challenging, and assessing one's capacity to
respond to those events; events that are perceived to tax or exceed one's resources are
considered stressful

 stressful life events

events that force an individual to make changes in his or her life

 stressors
events perceived to be stressful
 tend-and befriend
a theory of responses to stress maintaining that in addition to fight-or-flight, humans respond
to stress with social affiliation and nurturant behavior toward offspring; thought to depend on
the stress hormone oxytocin; these responses may be especially true of women

 approach (confrontive, vigilant) coping style

the tendency to cope with stressful events by tackling them directly and attempting to
develop solutions; may ultimately be an especially effective method of coping , although it
may produce accompanying stress

 avoidant (minimizing) coping style

the tendency to cope with stressful events by withdrawing, minimizing, or avoiding them;
believed to be an effective short-term, though not an effective long-term, response to stress

 buffering hypothesis
the hypothesis that coping resources are useful primarily under conditions of high stress and
not necessarily under conditions of low stress

 control-enhancing intervention
interventions with patients who are awaiting treatment for the purpose of enhancing their
perception of control over those treatments

 coping
the process of trying to manage demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding one's
resources

 coping outcomes
the beneficial effects that are thought to result from successful coping; these include reducing
stress, adjusting more successfully to it, maintaining emotional equilibrium, having satisfying
relationships with others, and maintaining a positive self-image

 coping style
an individual's preferred method of dealing with stressful situations

 direct effects hypothesis

the theory that coping resources, such as social support, have beneficial psychological and
health effects under conditions of both high stress and low stress

 emotion-focused coping
efforts to regulate emotions associated with a stressful encounter; can be associated with
distress

 emotional-approach coping
the process of clarifying focusing on and working through the emotions experienced in
conjunction with a stressor; generally has positive effects on psychological functioning and
health
  emotional support
indications from other people that one is loved, valued, and cared for; believed to be an
important aspect of social support during times of stress

 informational support
the provision of information to a person experiencing stress by friends, family, and other
people in the individual's social network; believed to help reduce the distressing and health-
compromising effects of stress

 invisible support
support received from another person that is outside the recipient's awareness
matching hypothesis
the hypothesis that social support is helpful to an individual to the extent that the kind of
support offered satisfies the individual's specific needs

 negative affectivity
a personality variable marked by a pervasive negative mood, including anxiety, depression,
and hostility; believed to be implicated in the experience of symptoms, the seeking of
medical treatment, and possibly illness

 problem-focused coping
attempts to do something constructive about the stressful situations that are harming,
threatening, or challenging an individual

 psychological control
the perception that one has at one's disposal a response that will reduce, minimize, eliminate,
or offset the adverse effects of an unpleasant event, such as a medical procedure
 self-esteem
a global evaluation of one's qualities and attributes

 social support
information and feedback from others indicating that one is loved and cared for, esteemed
and valued, and included in a network of communication and mutual obligation
 stress carriers
individuals who create stress for others without necessarily increasing their own level of
stress
 stress management
a program for dealing with stress in which people learn how they appraise stressful events,
develop skills for coping with stress, and practice putting these skills into effect
 stress moderators
internal and external resources and vulnerabilities that modify how stress is experienced and
its effects
 tangible assistance
the provision of material support by one person to another, such as services, financial
assistance, or goods