Health Psychology, Stress, Addiction, Persuasion, and Treatments Review

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the key concepts, models, physiological pathways, cognitive factors, and treatments from Booklets 1 through 6 on Health, Stress, Addiction, Persuasion, and Treatments.

Biomedical Model

An approach that views illness as being caused by biological factors such as viruses, bacteria, genetics or physical abnormalities, focusing on medical treatment.

Biopsychosocial Model

An approach that explains health through the interaction of biological factors (genes and physical health), psychological factors (thoughts and emotions) and social factors (family, relationships and environment).

Health as a Continuum

The idea that health exists on a scale ranging from poor health and illness to optimal health and wellbeing, rather than simply being healthy or ill.

Griffiths' Six Components of Addiction

A model developed by Mark Griffiths that identifies six characteristics of addiction: salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict and relapse.

Salience

When an addictive behaviour becomes the most important thing in someone's life and dominates their thoughts, feelings and actions.

Mood Modification

When an addictive behaviour changes someone's emotional state, such as making them feel relaxed, excited or happier.

Tolerance

When someone needs to increase the amount or frequency of an addictive behaviour to achieve the same effect.

Withdrawal

Unpleasant physical or psychological symptoms experienced when someone reduces or stops an addictive behaviour.

Conflict

When an addiction causes problems with relationships, education, work or other areas of life, as well as internal struggles.

Relapse

When someone returns to an addictive behaviour after attempting to stop.

Theories of Stress and Addiction

Explanations of how stress can contribute to addictive behaviours, with people sometimes using substances or activities to escape negative emotions.

Health Belief Model (HBM)

A psychological theory explaining health behaviour through perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers and cues to action.

Perceived Susceptibility

How likely someone believes they are to develop a particular illness or health problem.

Perceived Severity

How serious someone believes the consequences of an illness or health problem would be.

Perceived Benefits

How much someone believes a particular action will improve their health or reduce their risk of illness.

Perceived Barriers

Obstacles that prevent someone from taking action to improve their health, such as cost, time or lack of motivation.

Cues to Action

Events or reminders that encourage someone to take action to improve their health, such as a doctor's warning or health advertisement.

Self-Efficacy (HBM)

A person's belief that they are capable of successfully carrying out a particular health behaviour.

Locus of Control (LOC)

A theory explaining whether people believe that their lives are controlled by their own actions or by external forces.

Internal Locus of Control

The belief that personal actions, decisions and effort determine what happens in someone's life.

External Locus of Control

The belief that life events are controlled by outside forces such as luck, fate or other people.

Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB)

A theory explaining how attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control influence someone's intention to perform a behaviour.

Attitudes (TPB)

A person's positive or negative feelings and beliefs about performing a particular behaviour.

Subjective Norms

The perceived social pressure from other people to perform or avoid a particular behaviour.

Perceived Behavioural Control

How easy or difficult someone believes it will be to perform a particular behaviour.

Behavioural Intention

A person's plan or motivation to carry out a particular behaviour.

Self-Efficacy

A person's belief in their ability to successfully complete a task or overcome a challenge.

Transtheoretical Model

A model explaining how people change unhealthy behaviours through five stages: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance.

Pre-contemplation

The stage where someone does not intend to change their behaviour and may not recognise that they have a problem.

Contemplation

The stage where someone recognises a problem and begins thinking about changing their behaviour.

Preparation

The stage where someone intends to change their behaviour soon and begins making plans.

Action

The stage where someone actively changes their unhealthy behaviour.

Maintenance

The stage where someone works to maintain their new healthy behaviour and prevent relapse.

Cognitive Approach

An approach that explains health behaviours through thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and expectations.

Behaviourist Approach

An approach that explains behaviour through learning, conditioning, rewards and punishments.

Biological Approach

An approach that explains behaviour through physical and biological factors such as genetics, brain chemistry and hormones.

Social Learning Theory

Bandura's theory explaining how people learn behaviours by observing and imitating others, particularly when they see them being rewarded.

Modelling

Learning a behaviour by watching and copying another person's actions.

Vicarious Reinforcement

Learning by observing someone else being rewarded for a behaviour, making the observer more likely to copy it.

Identification

When someone is more likely to imitate another person because they admire them or see them as similar to themselves.

Life Events

Major changes or experiences in someone's life that require adjustment and can cause stress, such as bereavement, divorce or moving house.

Daily Hassles

Small, frequent everyday problems that cause stress, such as traffic, arguments, deadlines and financial worries.

Workplace Stress

Stress caused by working conditions such as excessive workloads, long hours, job insecurity and poor relationships with colleagues.

Stress and Personality

The idea that personality characteristics influence how people experience and respond to stressful situations.

Type A Personality

A personality type characterised by competitiveness, impatience, ambition, time urgency and hostility.

Type B Personality

A personality type characterised by being relaxed, patient, less competitive and less easily frustrated.

Physiology of Stress

The study of how the body responds physically to stressful situations through the nervous system and release of hormones.

Fight or Flight Response

An automatic physiological reaction to a perceived threat that prepares the body to either confront danger or escape from it.

Sympathetic-Adreno-Medullary (SAM) Pathway

A fast-acting stress response where the sympathetic nervous system stimulates the adrenal medulla to release adrenaline and noradrenaline.

Adrenaline

A hormone released by the adrenal medulla during stress that increases heart rate, breathing rate and blood flow to muscles.

Noradrenaline

A hormone and neurotransmitter that increases alertness, arousal and blood pressure during stressful situations.

Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis

A slower stress response involving the hypothalamus, pituitary gland and adrenal cortex, resulting in the release of cortisol.

CRH

A hormone released by the hypothalamus during stress that stimulates the pituitary gland to release ACTH.

ACTH

A hormone released by the anterior pituitary gland that stimulates the adrenal cortex to release cortisol.

Cortisol

A steroid hormone released by the adrenal cortex during prolonged stress that increases glucose availability and helps the body cope with stress.

Negative Feedback

A process where rising cortisol levels signal the hypothalamus and pituitary gland to reduce their activity, preventing excessive stress hormone release.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

Hans Selye's theory explaining the body's response to prolonged stress through three stages: alarm, resistance and exhaustion.

Alarm Stage

The first stage of GAS where the body detects a stressor and activates the fight-or-flight response.

Resistance Stage

The second stage of GAS where the body attempts to adapt to ongoing stress while remaining physiologically aroused.

Exhaustion Stage

The final stage of GAS where prolonged stress depletes the body's resources and increases vulnerability to illness.

Evaluation of Physiological Stress

The evaluation of physical explanations of stress, including their scientific evidence, but also their limitations in overlooking psychological and individual differences.

Stress and Ill Health

The idea that prolonged stress can negatively affect physical and psychological health, contributing to high blood pressure, weakened immunity, anxiety and depression.

Acute Stress

Short-term stress caused by an immediate challenge or threat.

Chronic Stress

Long-term stress that continues over an extended period and can increase the risk of physical and psychological health problems.

Smoking Addiction

A dependence on tobacco mainly caused by nicotine, which stimulates the brain's reward system and encourages repeated smoking.

Learning Explanation of Smoking

An explanation that smoking addiction develops through classical and operant conditioning, where smoking becomes associated with situations and reinforced by rewards.

Classical Conditioning

Learning through association, where a previously neutral stimulus becomes associated with a natural response.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

Something that naturally produces a response without prior learning.

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

A natural, automatic response to an unconditioned stimulus.

Neutral Stimulus

Something that initially produces no particular response but can become associated with another stimulus.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

A previously neutral stimulus that produces a learned response after being associated with an unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A learned response produced by a conditioned stimulus.

Operant Conditioning

Learning through consequences, where behaviours are strengthened by rewards or weakened by punishment.

Positive Reinforcement

Strengthening a behaviour by adding something pleasurable or rewarding.

Negative Reinforcement

Strengthening a behaviour by removing something unpleasant.

Biological Explanation of Smoking

An explanation that smoking addiction develops because nicotine affects brain chemistry and stimulates dopamine release in the brain's reward system.

Nicotine

An addictive chemical found in tobacco that stimulates nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and increases dopamine activity.

Dopamine

A neurotransmitter involved in pleasure, motivation and reward that encourages repeated addictive behaviour.

Reward Pathway

A system in the brain involved in pleasure and motivation that reinforces behaviours such as smoking.

Tolerance (Smoking)

When the body becomes accustomed to nicotine and requires more to achieve the same effects.

Withdrawal (Smoking)

Unpleasant symptoms experienced when nicotine levels decrease, including irritability, anxiety and cravings.

Alcohol Addiction

A dependence on alcohol where someone struggles to control their drinking despite negative consequences.

Learning Explanation of Alcohol Addiction

An explanation that alcohol addiction develops through conditioning and reinforcement because drinking produces pleasurable effects or temporary relief from unpleasant emotions.

Positive Reinforcement (Alcohol)

Drinking is encouraged because alcohol produces pleasurable feelings such as confidence, relaxation and enjoyment.

Negative Reinforcement (Alcohol)

Drinking is encouraged because alcohol temporarily removes unpleasant feelings such as anxiety, sadness or stress.

Classical Conditioning (Alcohol)

Alcohol becomes associated with particular situations, people or environments, causing those situations to trigger cravings.

Operant Conditioning (Alcohol)

Drinking behaviour is strengthened by rewards such as pleasure, enjoyment or temporary relief from stress.

Cognitive Explanation of Alcohol Addiction

An explanation that alcohol addiction develops through thoughts, beliefs and expectations about the effects of drinking.

Alcohol Expectancies

Beliefs about what alcohol will do, such as making someone more confident, relaxed or sociable.

Positive Alcohol Expectancies

Beliefs that alcohol will produce desirable effects such as enjoyment, confidence and reduced anxiety.

Negative Alcohol Expectancies

Beliefs that alcohol will produce harmful effects such as illness, arguments or loss of control.

Cognitive Distortions

Irrational or inaccurate thinking patterns that encourage unhealthy behaviours.

Gambling Addiction

A behavioural addiction involving repeated gambling despite financial, emotional or social problems.

Learning Explanation of Gambling

An explanation that gambling addiction develops through reinforcement and conditioning, particularly because unpredictable rewards encourage repeated gambling.

Positive Reinforcement (Gambling)

Gambling is encouraged because winning money or receiving rewards produces pleasurable feelings.

Negative Reinforcement (Gambling)

Gambling is encouraged because it temporarily distracts someone from unpleasant feelings such as stress or anxiety.

Variable Ratio Reinforcement

A reinforcement schedule where rewards are given after an unpredictable number of responses, making behaviour difficult to stop.

Intermittent Reinforcement

When rewards are provided occasionally rather than every time a behaviour occurs, encouraging repeated behaviour.

Near Miss

An outcome where someone almost wins but does not, which can encourage them to continue gambling.

Classical Conditioning (Gambling)

Gambling-related sights, sounds and environments become associated with excitement and rewards, triggering cravings.