Health and Social Psychology

These flashcards cover key concepts from health psychology and social psychology, including definitions, theories, and models relevant to understanding psychological factors related to health, behavior, and personality.

Health Psychology

The application of psychological principles and research to the enhancement of health, and the prevention and treatment of illness.

Chronic Diseases

Diseases that can be managed but not cured, requiring changes in behavior and lifestyle along with medication adherence.

Biosocial Perspective

The viewpoint that the interaction of biological mechanisms, psychological processes, and social influences determines health and behaviors.

Stress

The tension, discomfort, or physical symptoms that arise when a stressor strains our ability to cope effectively.

Trauma

A situation marked by extreme levels of stress that can produce long-term consequences.

Cognitive Reappraisal

The process of reassessing our initial evaluation of a situation to change our emotional response.

Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS)

A scale used to identify stressful events where each event has a score based on how many stressful events you have experienced.

Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome

A three-phase stress response model including Alarm, Resistance, and Exhaustion.

Fight or Flight Response

The body's physiological reaction to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat.

Tend and Befriend

A behavioral response to stress characterized by nurturing others and seeking social support, typically more common in females.

Mindfulness

The practice of maintaining a non-judgmental state of heightened awareness of one's thoughts, emotions, or experiences in the present moment.

Hardiness

A personality trait characterized by resilience and the ability to cope effectively with stress.

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overestimate dispositional influences on others' behavior while underestimating situational ones.

Bystander Effect

The phenomenon where individuals are less likely to help a victim when others are present.

Diffusion of Responsibility

The tendency for individuals to feel less responsible for taking action when others are present.

Altruism

Helping others for unselfish reasons, driven by empathy or compassion.

Cognitive Dissonance

An unpleasant mental experience of tension resulting from two conflicting thoughts or beliefs.

Prejudice

A preconceived, typically negative judgment of a group and its individual members.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information in a way that confirms one’s preexisting beliefs.

Defense Mechanisms

Unconscious strategies used to reduce anxiety stemming from conflicts between the id and the superego.

Sublimation

Channeling socially unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable and productive outlets.

Hierarchy of Needs

A motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid.

Stressor

An event or situation that causes stress.

Problem-focused coping

A coping strategy aimed at directly changing or eliminating the source of stress.

Emotion-focused coping

A coping strategy that involves managing the emotional reaction to stress rather than the stressor itself.

Social Support

The comfort, assistance, and guidance received from caring individuals when coping with stress.

Attitude

A predisposition to respond positively or negatively toward a certain idea, object, person, or situation.

Foot-in-the-door technique

A persuasion strategy where agreeing to a small request increases the likelihood of agreeing to a larger request later.

Low-ball technique

A persuasion strategy where an item or service is offered at a lower price than intended, and then the price is abruptly increased.

Social Norms

Unwritten rules for acceptable behavior in a group or society.

Conformity

The tendency to adjust one's thoughts, feelings, or behavior to align with those of a group or social norm.

Obedience

Compliance with commands or orders given by an authority figure.

Milgram's Obedience Study

A classic psychology experiment demonstrating the extent to which people will obey even morally objectionable orders from an authority figure.

Asch's Conformity Study

A classic psychology experiment demonstrating the power of social conformity, where participants conformed to incorrect group judgments.

Stereotype

A generalized belief about a group of people.

Discrimination

Unfair or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.

Tight vs. Loose Cultures

Cultures that have strong norms and low tolerance for deviance (tight) versus cultures that have weaker norms and higher tolerance for deviance (loose).

Group Polarization

The tendency for a group to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members, often in the direction of the dominant viewpoint.

Personality

An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Psychic Determinism

The psychoanalytic assumption that all psychological events have an underlying cause.

Symbolic Meaning

The psychoanalytic assumption that all actions, no matter how trivial, have deeper symbolic meaning.

Unconscious Motivation

The psychoanalytic assumption that unconscious drives and conflicts influence behavior, thoughts, and feelings.

Psychosexual Stages

Freud's theory of personality development through a series of stages, each focused on a different erogenous zone.

Oedipal Complex

In Freudian theory, a boy's sexual desires toward his mother and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival father.

Electra Complex

In Freudian theory, a girl's sexual desires toward her father and feelings of jealousy and hatred for the rival mother.

Id

In Freudian theory, the primitive, instinctual component of personality that operates on the pleasure principle.

Ego

In Freudian theory, the realistic component of personality that mediates between the id and the superego, operating on the reality principle.

Superego

In Freudian theory, the moral component of personality, representing internalized ideals and providing standards for judgment (the conscience) and for future aspirations.

Humanistic Personality Theory

A psychological perspective that emphasizes the study of the whole person, focusing on concepts like free will, self-efficacy, and self-actualization.

Self-Actualization

According to Maslow, the ultimate psychological need that arises after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; the motivation to fulfill one's potential.

Carl Rogers' Actual vs. Ideal Self

Rogers' concept that mental health is a state of congruence (overlap) between one's actual self (who one is) and ideal self (who one wishes to be).

Collective Unconscious

In Jungian psychology, a shared reservoir of inherited memories and archetypes common to all humanity.

Big Five Factors (OCEAN)

A model of personality traits including Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

Abnormal Behavior

Behavior that is deviant, distressful, dysfunctional, and dangerous.

Diagnostic Labeling (Pros/Cons)

The process of assigning mental disorder diagnoses, which can facilitate communication and treatment but also lead to stigma and overgeneralization.

Panic Attack Symptoms

Sudden episodes of intense fear or discomfort, often peaking within minutes, accompanied by physical symptoms like heart palpitations, sweating, shortness of breath, and dizziness.

Obsessions (in OCD)

Recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges, or images that are experienced as intrusive and unwanted.

Compulsions (in OCD)

Repetitive behaviors or mental acts that an individual feels driven to perform in response to an obsession or according to rules that must be applied rigidly.

Learned Helplessness

The tendency to feel helpless in the face of events we can't control, often leading to passivity and depression.

Personality Disorders

Enduring patterns of behavior, cognition, and inner experience that deviate markedly from the expectations of an individual's culture, are pervasive and inflexible, have an onset in adolescence or early adulthood, are stable over time, and lead to distress or impairment.

ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder)

A neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent patterns of inattention, hyperactivity, and/or impulsivity that interfere with functioning or development.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

A disorder characterized by persistent, excessive, and uncontrollable worry about everyday events for at least six months.

Panic Disorder

A disorder characterized by recurrent unexpected panic attacks, followed by at least one month of persistent concern about having another attack or about the consequences of an attack.

Phobias

Persistent, irrational fears of specific objects, activities, or situations.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)

A mood disorder characterized by persistent depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

A disorder that develops in some people who have experienced a shocking, scary, or dangerous event, characterized by intrusive memories, avoidance, negative changes in thinking and mood, and changes in arousal and reactivity.

Schizophrenia

A severe mental disorder characterized by profound disruptions in thought, perception, emotion, and behavior, including symptoms like hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech, and negative symptoms.

Bipolar Disorder

A mood disorder characterized by significant mood swings, including episodes of elevated mood (mania or hypomania) and episodes of depression.

Eating Disorders

Mental disorders characterized by severe disturbances in eating behaviors and related thoughts and emotions.

Treatment for ADHD

A common treatment approach involves a combination of medication (stimulants or non-stimulants) and behavioral therapy (e.g., organizational skills training, parent training).

Situational Attribution

Attributing behavior to external factors such as the environment, social context, or luck, rather than internal characteristics.

Dispositional Attribution

Attributing behavior to internal factors such as personality traits, abilities, or feelings, rather than external circumstances.

Conditioning and Phobias

Phobias can develop through classical conditioning (associating a neutral stimulus with a feared stimulus), operant conditioning (avoidance leading to reduced anxiety, reinforcing the phobia), and observational learning (witnessing others' fears).