Health Psych Lecture Flashcards for Exam #2

Stages of sleep: N1 is the ______ stage of sleep, lasting about 1-5 minutes, and begins when more than 50% of the alpha waves are replaced with low-amplitude mixed-frequency activity.

- Hypnic jerks may occur

lightest

Caffeine, medication, nighttime exercise, stress and anxiety, external noise, and bright lights may be causes of ______.

Hypnic jerks

The ____ stage of sleep is a deeper stage, characterized by the presence of sleep spindles and K-complexes.

Heart rate and body temperature drop

N2

The _____ stage of sleep is the deepest stage of sleep, characterized by delta waves.

Body repairs and regrows tissues, builds bone and muscle, and strengthens immune system.

Most difficult to awaken from, leading to mental fogginess.

N3

_____ stands for rapid eye movement and is the final stage of sleep. Dreams.

- EEG looks a lot like an awake person. SNS is more active, higher brain blood flow, HR, BP, breathing rate increase.

- Memory storage and retention
- Memory organization
- Learning and memory

REM

People typically _____ the amount of sleep they get.

overestimate

The Sleep Deprivation Crisis tells us that....

Most people are moderately to severely sleep deprived, where young adults get the least.

College students get an average sleep of 6.1 hours.

- 75% of people experience sleep problems each week. Costs about $66 billion each year.

Drowsiness, microsleeps and sleep seizures, colds and flu, weight gain, heart disease, and poor athletic performance are examples of the _____

Physical consequences of sleep deprivation

People who got less than ____ hours of sleep were ____ times more likely to get a cold.

7, 3

Sleep deprived people have lower levels of _____ and raised _____ levels, leading to weight gain.

leptin, ghrelin

Sleep deprived people are perceived as less _____, less _____, and more ____ than after a normal night's sleep.

People had _____desire to associate with people who were perceived as sleepy.

healthy, attractive, tired, less

Worsened mood, increased stress and anxiety, reduced mental functioning, concentration problems, and memory problems are examples of the _____

psychological consequences of sleep deprivation.

_______ are 24-hr cycles that are a part of the body's internal clock, running in the background to carry out essential functions and processes.

Circadian rhythm

______ is the promotion of good sleep habits and regular sleep.

Helps maintain a regular sleep/wake schedule 7 days a week.

Sleep hygiene

Avoiding caffeine after 2 pm, avoiding alcohol 3 hours before bed, quitting smoking, exercising in the afternoon/early evening, and improving bedroom quality are all _______

strategies for getting the best sleep.

When you take a nap, you should aim for sleeping ____ or ____.

15-20 minutes, 90 minutes.

We should be doing _____ minutes of moderate-intensity or _____ weekly minutes of vigorous intensity aerobic activity

150-300, 75-150

Sedentary behavior is an _______ risk factor for health problems even if you are getting adequate exercise.

independent

Only ____ of American adults are meeting exercise recommendations.

20%

The cross-stressor adaptation hypothesis says that....

Over time,

1. Our response to stressors is less extreme
2. Stress response turns off when the stressor is gone

Exercise ______ processing speed, attention, and inhibition.

increases

How can we decrease sedentary time?

Put up signs in study rooms to encourage students to stand.

Remove the chairs so that the default is studying

How can we keep exercise consistent?

Exercise at the same time of day, social partners, location, types of exercise, surrounding events in one's routine, and mood.

Basically, we need a consistent routine to make regular exercise a habit.

What is the typical solution given to people who have severe obesity?

Dieting - severely restricting calorie intake for the purpose of weight loss.

- Dr. Mann doesn't agree.

Should we recommend dieting to treat obesity?

A doctor should recommend dieting if obesity is unhealthy, dieting is safe, and dieting is effective. All three should be true to recommend dieting.

How is an effective diet measured? Changes throughout time:

If you can reach your ideal weight based on your height / frame on a specific chart.

- The new standard was being able to lose 40 pounds for every obese person (only 5% succeeded).

- 1960's: Lowered the standard to lose 20 pounds.

- 1970's/80's: Lose 10% of your starting weight

- 1995-Now: Lose 5% of your starting weight

Weight Watchers and other diet companies said that their average customer enrolls back into the program ____ times, indicating that the program does not work and people always regain the weight.

4

Long-term diet studies show us that the average weight of change for dieters was losing _____ lbs, but the average weight of the control group changed by gaining _____ lbs.

Basically, there is no change between the dieters and non-dieters in the long-run.

2, 1

Based on evidence, is dieting effective?

No

Twin / adoption studies show that obesity is mostly rooted in their ______ and less by their _____.

Genes, environment

Genetic differences answer these questions...

How hungry are you after you eat something?
How tempting are certain foods?
How much do you think about certain foods?
How rewarding is a certain food?
How fast do you burn that food off?

When put on the same diet, there was a large amount of ______ in the participants, where some lost weight and some gained weight, showing how differing metabolic rates (genetics) determined weight.

Variance

After dieting, what happens to our mind and body when we think about or eat a donut?

1. Takes longer to burn off
2. Still hunger after you eat it
3. More tempting
4. Can't stop thinking about it
5. More rewarding

How might stress lead to weight gain?

1. Decreased physical activity
2. Increased food intake
3. Disrupted sleep

Stress can lead to weight gain by what 2 pathways?

SNS activation: --> sAA increase --> increased caloric absorption

HPA axis activation: --> cortisol increase --> insulin resistance --> visceral fat deposition

Is dieting stressful, causing diets to be less effective? - Study using different restricting and monitoring (food diary) of diet

Monitoring and restricting: Classic diet

Monitoring and restricting: Food diet

No monitoring and restricting: Food provided

No monitoring and no restricting: Control

If participants were on a restricting diet, they had an increased cortisol output. This suggests dieting may not be safe.

There is evidence that dieting can lead to what effects?

1. Stress and its consequences
2. Mood problems (depression, guilt, shame)
3. Cognitive impairments
4. Physical harms
5. Weight cycling
6. Telomere length

Overall, is dieting safe?

Maybe not

Since obesity research is entirely _____, there is potential for a lot of ______.

Correlational, confounds

Obesity-health confounds include...?

- Sedentary lifestyle

- Weight cycling

- Under-use of medical system

- Low income/SES

Correlations related to obesity are not _____ or _____, and only the most extreme levels of obesity are related to _____ health outcomes such as diabetes or osteoarthritis.

strong, consistent, poor

Why are we blaming health problems on weight and not on fitness?

When you start exercising, your health improves before you lose any weight.

Exercise improves your health even if you don't lose any weight at all.

What are four generally healthy habits?

1. Eat 5+ servings of fruits/vegetables per day

2. Exercise regularly: 12+ times per month

3. Drink no more than 1 alcoholic drink/day (for women, for men it is 2)

4. Don't smoke

There is no difference in risk of death if you do some _____ habits no matter if you are normal weight, overweight, or obese.

Basically, healthy habits make you healthier, not skinnier.

If those groups of people do zero healthy behaviors, obese people have a much higher risk of death.

healthy.

Overall, is obesity unhealthy?

Not necessarily.

What is an easier new goal for the "obesity epidemic?"

Engage in healthy behaviors (including exercise) and NOT recommending dieting.

Why is eating important?

1. Do it several times a day
2. Food choices impact health
3. Source of pleasure / reinforcement
4. Crucial for sustaining life.

What determines when people eat?

1. If other people are eating
2. If you actually feel hunger
3. Stress/emotional
4. It's time for the meal
5. Something smells or might taste good (reward)

The undergraduate student who came up with the ice cream dieting study found what?

Non-dieters: No milkshakes ate - ate a lot of ice cream. If they had 2 milkshakes before, they ate half as much ice cream

Dieters: No milkshakes ate- ate a little ice cream. If they had 2 milkshakes before, they ate a ton of ice cream.

Basically, dieters who break their diet a little bit or break the rule binge ate.

How do health psychologists view healthy eating?

Healthy eating is eating in response to hunger.

More implications from the dieting and overeating ice cream study:

1. Dieters regulate their eating differently than non-dieters.

2. Dieting may lead to overeating

3. Recognized dieters are an important group for psychologists to study

4. Invented a new methodology for studying eating.

When the participants in the study think they broke their diet even when they didn't, what happened to the amount of ice cream they ate?

They overate and binge ate more ice cream than non-dieters. It's the dieters cognitive beliefs or thoughts that lead them to overeat.

When the participants in the study thought the milkshake was low-calorie, but it wasn't (they didn't think they broke their diet), what happened to the amount of ice cream they ate?

The dieters did not binge eat ice cream, since they thought they could continue with their diet.

Dieters are _____ likely to binge eat if others are in the room when compared to non-dieters.

Less

Dieters are ____ likely to binge eat when stressed when compared to non-dieters.

More

Overall, the eating of non-dieters is influenced ____ by hunger than by cognitive, social, or emotional factors:

More

Overall, The eating of dieters is influenced ______ by cognitive, social, and emotional factors than by hunger:

More

When little kids (aged 2-5) are allowed to eat as much as they want, with no adult input, how much did the kids eat?

- Their amount of calories eating at particular meals from day to day was highly variable

- The total amount of calories eaten per day, from day to day, was highly stable.

Overall, children regulate their intake by day very successfully.

What should the division of labor be for feeding kids?

1. Parents decide what foods to offer, when meals occur, where meals will occur

2. Kids decide how much to eat, or whether to eat at all.

How can you make your kids hate a food?

- Reward them for eating it
- Require them to eat it
- Remove it from the normal food rotation

How do you make your kids like a food?

- Limit how much of it they can have
- Keep it in the normal food rotation

What determines what we eat?

Ethnic or cultural group (Ex. Spicy peppers, what you eat for Thanksgiving)

What happens to starving explorers psychologically?

They become irritable, unreasonable, weak, apathetic, or may have hallucinations and being obsessed with food.

What did the semi-starvation study find, where Ancel Keys starved 36 healthy Conscientious Objectors from WWII in comfortable conditions?

1. They lost 25% of their body weight during starvation
2. Their starvation resulted in a big drop in body fat, then their rehabilitation diet increased their body fat extremely fast.
3. When they were allowed on their free diet, their body fat went above their body weight, until they returned back to their starting point.

How did Ancel Keys starvation participants react psychologically?

Obsession with food, eating rituals, weak, tired, irritable, no self control, anxious, nervous, self-centered, apathetic, clinical depression, psychotic reactions in 1/6th of the subjects.

Ancel Keys starvation study was really just a ____ study, because the semi-"starvation" period allowed the participants to eat 1570 calories a day, where typical diets today are only about ____ calories.

Diet, 1200.

Signs used to prevent harm/danger and change behaviors are examples of _____

Health interventions

_____ are strategies intended to manipulate public opinion about a particular issue by arousing fear or alarm.

Ex. the doorway to death

Scare tactics

Another example of a health intervention is using _____, such as the Ohio vaccine lottery.

Only vaccinated Ohioans were put in the lottery, and if they drew your name, you won.

The evidence showed that the Ohio lottery was _____

incentives, not effective

The Philadelphia Vaccine lottery used a ____ frame to get people to think they were missing out on not getting vaccinated.

The evidence showed that the Philadelphia vaccine lottery was _____

loss, not effective

Why are effective interventions based on theory?

1. Interventions are designed a specific way based on scientific reason

2. Its a matter of ethics (no scare tactics)

3. We cannot simply rely on intuitions, gut feelings, and good intentions.

What levels do effective interventions target?

1. Individual
2. Couple
3. Family
4. Community
5. Policy/Legal
6. Medical
7. Technological

Why are effective interventions usually intense in size and scope?

1. Sustained interventions are more likely to lead to sustained behavior change

2. More intense interventions are more likely to result in larger changes

3. With interventions, more is usually more.

The Stanford 5-city study targeted _____ by changing diet, exercise, and smoking behavior.

- 2 intervention cities, 3 control cities, and lasted for 6 years.

The study also had _____ levels. (mass media, provider education, group education, community, schools, policy/environment).

Overall, the study ____ cholesterol, BP, HR, and smoking rate.

heart disease, multiple, lowered

D.A.R.E. targeted ____ use in students K-12 at multiple levels, including schools, community, and policy/environment using the ____.

10 studies have shown that it is _____ in reducing drug use at any point in time, yet most public schools still use it.

drug, police, ineffective

If the data shows why D.A.R.E. is ineffective, why is it still in use?

1. Fits with the values of this country.

2. The program looks like it works.

_____ peer pressure is an actual demand, and is less common.

Ex. "Have a drink or you are a loser"

Active

_____ peer pressure is an internalized norm, that is very common.

- Ex. You notice that the cool kids drink

Passive

Why do effective interventions target people who are actually at risk?

A good example are cigarette pack warning labels, which target the people who are at risk for smoking (smokers).

1. They don't miss people who ARE at risk

2. They don't target people who are NOT at risk.

Why are effective interventions tailored to the risk group/factor?

1. Relatable interveners

2. Understandable language

3. Not condescending

4. Demographically appropriate content.

What was the goal of Nancy Reagan's intervention program?

To reduce or resist active peer pressure, "Just say NO!"

The American Legacy foundation gave rise to the _____ campaign, that exposed the deceptive marketing tactics of "big tobacco"

Enticed kids to _____ against it.

The more your town saw the ads, the _____ smoking occurred.

High cost, high yield (Costed 100 mil a year)

truth, rebel, less

What was the Master Settlement Agreement?

Cigarette company owners refused to acknowledge cigarettes cause health problems.

Then they were sued by states' attorney generals for Medicaid expenses. - Couldn't use the personal responsibility defense

The companies had to fund/found the American Truth Campaign. + $280 billion settlement.

What was the It Gets Better Project?

Tried to prevent suicides among bullied gay teens.

Showed young LGBTQ+ people the potential of their lives if they could just get through high school and they are not alone.

Why do effective interventions keep primary and secondary preventions distinct?

1. Primary prevention keeps someone from starting something unhealthy/getting an illness (prevent)

2. Secondary prevention is intervening early to stop a behavior before it gets worse/ reduce damage. (stop)

An abstinence pledge is an example of a _______ prevention in abstinence-only sex-ed programs, which found _____ difference in things the program was trying to prevent, where pledges were even _____ likely to use birth control

primary, no, less

A warning on cigarette labels is an example of a ______ prevention, targeted towards people already using cigarettes.

secondary

The preventing teen pregnancy study found that ________ made things worse later on for girls given the realistic doll at ages 13-15.

Baby simulator programs

Free long-term birth control dropped the teen birth and abortion rate by ____ in the Colorado study for preventing teen pregnancy.

40%.

Why should effective interventions be ethical?

1. The control group should have access to intervention

2. What could happen when you stop the intervention - could it make things worse?

3. Is your prevention causing more harm than good in the community?

What is the naive model of behavior change?

1. Knowledge/info about unhealthy behavior
2. Changing attitudes
3. Change behavior

The health belief model depends on the belief that there is a ______ and the belief that a behavior can ______.

health threat, reduce threat

In the health belief model, your belief that there is a health threat depends on....

1. Your general health views
2. Beliefs about vulnerability to threat
3. Beliefs about severity of threat

"Why should I be scared of COVID? I'm a healthy young male. Everyone at the U is vaccinated anyways so It's not like I'll get it. Plus if I did, It wouldn't even effect me"

In the health belief model, your belief that a behavior can reduce threat depends on....

1. Belief that the behavior will work (ex. do masks work?)

2. Belief that benefits of the behavior outweigh its risks. (is preventing Covid worth the hassle of wearing a mask?)

Using the health belief model, the mammogram study on breast cancer aimed at women's ____, ____, ____, and ____.

The intervention had a big effect by increasing mammogram use by 40% in the next 6 months.

1. belief about vulnerability to threat (breast cancer is common)

2. Belief about severity of threat (breast cancer is deadly)

3. Belief behavior will work (mammograms decrease risk of dying to breast cancer)

4. Belief that benefits of the behavior outweigh its risks (early detection leads to better treatment options and radiation from mammogram is minimal).

What are the strengths of the health belief model?

1. Includes useful constructs

2. Focuses on people's beliefs, it is subjective

What are the weaknesses of the health belief model?

1. Assumes behavior is rational based on beliefs

2. Assumes people have the skills to alter the behavior

3. Ignores social context of many health behaviors

The theory of planned behavior model says that ____, ____, and ____ predict intentions --> actions.

Attitudes, norms, perceived behavioral control

In the theory of planned behavior, attitudes are a function of....

1. Beliefs about the outcome of an action (will dieting lead to weight loss?)

2. Evaluation of the outcome (would it be good to lose weight?)

In the theory of planned behavior, norms are a function of....

1. Perceptions of others' support for that action (do my friends think I should diet?)

2. Motivation to comply with others' wishes (Do I want to do what my friends want me to do?)