Health, Stress and Coping

Health Psychology

Aims to use cognitive & behavioural principles to prevent and treat illness, and promote well-being.

Risk factors: Behavioral, social, psychological.

Behavioral Risk Factor

Lifestyle diseases: Diseases related to health-damaging personal habits.

Psychologists work on reducing these risks, and increasing health promoting behaviours.

Social Risk factors

Factors can act as protective or increase the risk of physical & mental illness and affect individuals.

Stress, education, poverty, social exclusion, discrimination and violence.

Psychological Risk Factors

Attention, emotions and personality.

Type A Personality: Hard driving, ambitious, highly competitive. Higher risk of heart attack.

Type B Personality: More laid-back, flexible, easy going. Lower risk of heart attack.

Type D Personality: Tendency to worry, expresses many negative emotions, and is disease-prone.

Role of Personality

Salvatore Maddi studied ‘hardy personality’.

Identified individuals as being unusually resistant to stress.

Described as:

1. Sharing sense of personal commitment.

2. Perceive a sense of control over their lives and work.

3. Sees life as a series of challenges, rather than a series of threats or problems.

Hardiness and happiness are correlated.

Addressing Risks

Early Prevention: Parents, peers, community, education system.

Health Programmes: Prevention programmes, self-protection, self-control.

Community Health: Community wide education projects designed to lessen major risk factors.

Stress

Stress is the mental and physical experiences that occur when we adapt to the environment.

Psychosomatic illness: Illness of psychological origins, that usually lack medical explanations.

Psychoneuroimmunology: Study of connections among behavior, stress and immune system.

Psychosomatic disorders: Illnesses in which psychological factors contribute to bodily damage or changes in bodily functioning.

GAS: General Adaptation Syndrome

GAS

Alarm Reaction:

Body mobilises its resources to cope with added stress.

Adrenaline is released to speed up or slow down bodily processes.

Initial symptoms include headache, fever, fatigue.

Stage of Resistance:

Bodily adjustments to stress stabilise.

Body copes with original stressor better, but resistance to other stressors is lowered.

Stage of Exhaustion:

Continued stress leading to depletion of body resources and health consequences.

Learned Helplessness

Psychological state that occurs when an appraisal suggests that events do not appear to be controllable.

An acquired inability to overcome obstacles and avoid aversive stimuli.

Learned helplessness may help explain the hopelessness of depression.

Burnout

A work-related condition of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion.

Appraising Stress

To appraise means to assess or evaluate.

Primary Appraisal: Whether a situation is relevant or irrelevant, positive or threatening.

Secondary Appraisal: Assessing resources and deciding how to cope with a threat or challenge.

Factors: Perceived Control, Perceived Competence, Unpredictability, Pressure.

Social Readjustment Scale

Holmes and Rahe (1967) developed a rating scale that rates the impact of various life events on the likelihood of illness.

Impact is expressed in Life Changing Units (LCUs).

Positive life events can be stressful as well as less positive ones.

Add up all the LCUs, you have experienced in the past year and compare the total to the table.

Improving Health

Income: Barrier to treatment accessibility.

Older adults less likely to delay treatment seeking as compared to adolescents.

May consider alternative treatments.

Stress Management

Strategies to reduce stress and improve coping skills.

Ex: Exercise, meditation, guided imagery, organize, journaling.