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Summary Introduction to Health Psychology
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Health PsychologyAddresses factors that influence wellbeein & illness, as well as measures that can be taken to
promote health & prevent illness.
Biological, psychological, & environmental factors that
contribute to disease processes & health
1. Lifestyle: health-impairing & healthbprotective behaviour (e.g., diet, exercise, smoking,
drinking, brushing teeth)
2. Healthbrelevant eehaviour (e.g., compliance with medical regimens & seeking medical
care) ; Cultural norms (eg. traditonal medicines) ; Social relatonships (eg. Being around
smokers. Want to be similar)
3. Factors afectng physiolo ical systems & equilierium (e.g., stress, conditoning)
4. Other eiolo ical response modifers: Age ; Race (some are more prone to illnesses than
others) ; Gender (males: more behaviour disorders); Genetics (mental illnesses)
What is Stress? b NB: learn to explain the 3 ways stress can be defned
Stress as stmulus
• Stressors: Events that place stron demands on us/threatening situatons
• “I’ve got a lot of stress in my life right now. I have three exams next week, I lost my
notes…”
Stress as a response, with co nitive, physiolo ical & eehavioural components
• Response to stressors
• “I’m feeling stressed out. I’m tensed up. I’m having trouble concentratng, and I’ve been
flying of the handle all week.”
• Ne ative emotions involved
Stress as an onb oin transaction between the organism & environment
• A pattern of co nitive appraisals, physiolo ical responses, & eehavioural tendencies that
occurs in response to a perceived imealance between situatonal demands & the
resources needed to deal with them
• A person-situaton interacton
Stressors b NB: learn to diferentate between physical and psychological stressors
Stmuli that place demands on us & require us to adapt in some way
• Physical (e.g., mugging)
• Psychological (e.g., teasing)
,Eustress vs. Distress
• Eustress: Optimal level, benefcial, enhancin
performance
• Distress: Demands outwei hin resources
Severity of stressors
• Micro-stressors
− Daily hassles & annoyances
− E.g., trafc cam, difcult colleague
• Major negatie eients
− Personal ne ative events placing major demands on the individual
− E.g., divorce, death of a loved one, serious illness
• Catastrophic eients
− Tend to occur unexpectedly & affect lar e numeers of people
− E.g., acts of war, natural disasters
Valence also important
• Both positive & ne ative stressors can result in stress
All stressors result in adaptation. A positve stressor = a promoton at work; marriage; exercise.
Measuring Stressful Life Events
Life event scales
• Selfbreport measures
• Quantify the amount of life stress a person has experienced over a given period of time
Valence - the intrinsic atractveness or aversiveness of an event
• Some life event scales include positive & ne ative events
• Only ne ative consistently predict health & eehaviour proelems
• Some events could ee positve or negatve – perception maters
The Stress Response
Cognitve, physiological & behavioural components
, 1: Cognitie response: Cognitive appraisal
• We ofen respond to situatons as we appraise (perceive) them
2: Physiological response: General Adaptation Syndrome
• Our eody responds to stress (i.e., what we perceive)
1: Cognitive Appraisal
A theory of emotons, which states that a person's evaluative
jud ment (or appraisal) of a situaton, event or obcect determines
or contrieutes to his or her emotional response to it.
Primary appraisal – 1st line of questoning
• Is it good/bad/etc? Your perception of it
• Positve, negatve, benign, neutral/irrelevant or
threatening?
Secondary appraisal
• Can I cope? Do I have the resources?
Aspects of the appraisal process
• Appraise nature & demands of situaton (primary
appraisal)
• Appraise resources availaele to cope with it (secondary
appraisal)
• Jud ments of potential consequences (e.g., if fail to cope)
• Appraise personal meanin , or what the outcome might imply aeout us
2: General Adaptation Syndrome
A physiolo ical response patern to stron &
prolon ed stressors
Organisms have a eneral, nonbspecifc response to a
variety of stressful events
1. Alarm phase: Actvaton of the sympathetic
nervous system & release of stress
hormones by the endocrine system
2. Resistance phase: Resources are moeilised
(& being depleted) by stress hormones
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