HD 3490 Final Active Recall

What are the three main components of socioeconomic status (SES)?

Education, income, and occupation

How does education impact health, according to Adler and Newman?

It improves health literacy, job opportunities, and long-term earning potential, which all support better health outcomes

According to Adler and Newman, what is the relationship between income and health outcomes?

Higher income improves access to nutritious food, safe housing, healthcare, and recreation → Income inequality also independently predicts poorer health

According to Adler and Newman, how does occupational status affect health?

Lower-status jobs have more physical hazards and psychosocial stress, which increase health risks

What does “behavioral justice” refer to?

The idea that public policies should ensure equal access to health-promoting environments and behaviors, especially for low-SES groups

What is one key conclusion of the Whitehall Study on occupation and health?

Lower occupational status was linked to higher heart disease, largely due to lower job control

How can early education policies reduce health disparities?

Programs like Head Start and Perry Preschool show long-term benefits in cognitive and health outcomes

What is the role of chronic stress in SES-health disparities?

Chronic stress from economic insecurity and low control environments leads to physiological changes that worsen health

What do Adler and Newman examine with socioeconomic status?

How SES (comprising income, education, and occupation) influences outcomes as it underlies key health determinants (access to care, environmental exposure, and health behavior)

What is the discovery of Adler and Newman’s research?

Lower SES is associated with higher morbidity and mortality across a range of diseases

What are the five pathways linking SES and health?

healthcare access, environmental exposure, social environment, health behaviors, and chronic stress

How can education policies reduce SES-related health disparities?

• Studies found that education remained a significant predictor of health, even when income and occupation were controlled

• Programs like Head Start and Perry Preschool provided early educational experiences that had long-term benefits, including cognitive and health improvements

• Invest in early childhood education and increase high school/college access!

How can policies regarding income reduce SES-related health disparities?

• Strengthening redistributive programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) which has increased income for working-poor families, improving financial stability and theoretically reducing health risks

• Ex: A Canadian randomized trial with income supplements for single parents showed improved child health and cognitive functioning among those ages 3-8

How can policies in labor markets reduce SES-related health disparities?

• Promoting policies that increase wages and job security

• Ex: Tight labor markets and supportive Federal Reserve policies in the late 1990s reduced unemployment and increased wages for low-income workers, improving access to health resources

How can environmental policies reduce SES-related health disparities?

• Enforcing environment laws in low-income areas (i.e., considering SES in zoning areas)

• Ex: In Massachusetts, strong enforcement of housing lead laws led to lower blood lead levels in children. In contrast, lax enforcement elsewhere resulted in 4x higher exposure risk

How can healthcare policies reduce SES-related health disparities?

• Expanding coverage and access, especially for children

• Ex: The introduction of Social Security reduced elderly poverty significantly, which may explain why SES-health gaps narrow after age 65 in the U.S.

How can policies for behavioral justice reduce SES-related health disparities?

• Tailoring health promotion to the needs of lower-SES communities

• Ex: Tobacco taxes reduced smoking, especially among low-income populations, but work best when paired with access to cessation resources

Health is shaped by ______, ________, ______, and _________ factors, not just biology or access to care

economic, environmental, social, and behavioral

SES Ladder

• metaphor of socioeconomic status

• rungs = resources that determine whether people can live a good and healthy life

• people standing on the top rungs have the most resources (therefore the highest SES)

• people on the bottom have far less resources and have nothing really to fall back on

What was George Davy Smith’s study on the Glasgow cemetery?

• Analyzed if the height of the grave markers compared to the overall life span of the individuals

• Found that the taller the grave marker, the longer the life

• Obviously not a causal relationship

How does SES psychologically affect health?

• Neighborhood environment and resources

• Determines risky or safe health behaviors

• Determines levels of stress and greater disease risk

How does SES sociologically effect health?

SES has a direct effect on health that cannot be reduced to simple mechanistic explanations

What are the three prototypical forms of love discussed by Hazan?

Child-to-parent (attachment), parent-to-child (caregiving), and romantic love

What does Attachment Theory propose about the human capacity to love?

Love is an evolved, innate behavior essential for survival, bonding, and reproduction

What are the main adult attachment styles, originally founded by Mary Ainsworth?

Secure, anxious (ambivalent), avoidant, and disorganized

Which hormone is associated with bonding in both maternal and romantic love?

Oxytocin

What is the Strange Situation Test by Ainsworth tested to measure?

• Used with 12 month old infants to measure proximity seeking, contact maintenance, resistance, and avoidance

• Assessed attachment via reactions to separation/reunion

What is an example of the Strange Situation Test by Ainsworth?

An infant who avoids eye contact and turns away from their mother during reunions is likely avoidant

What was the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) by George, Kaplan, and Main designed to test?

• A semi-structured interview to adults about childhood experiences with caregivers

• Assesses their coherence in recalling early relationships with their adult attachment styles

What is an example from the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) by George, Kaplan, and Main?

A person idealizing parents but unable to recall specific details may be classified as dismissing

What was the Adult Attachment Prototypes assessment by Hazan and Shaver designed to test?

• Self-report questionnaire with 3 brief paragraph-style descriptions

• Participants choose which best describes their romantic relationship style

What is an example from the Adult Attachment Prototypes assessment by Hazan and Shaver?

A person who says they’re uncomfortable depending on others in a relationship may identify as avoidant

What does the ECR (Experience in Close Relationships) assessment test?

• A 36-item Likert-scale questionnaire that measures two dimensions: anxiety (fear of abandonment) and avoidance (discomfort with intimacy) in adolescents

• Ex: Someone with high anxiety and low avoidance worries about rejection but seeks closeness

What therapy is based on Attachment Theory and used for adult romantic relationships?

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)

According to Hazan, what is a secure base?

An attachment figure who provides comfort and support, allowing exploration and autonomy

What are the two correlates of attachment?

• Secure children (socially competent, confident, better peer relationships)

• Secure adults (higher relationship satisfaction, less depression/anxiety, better conflict resolution, safer sex practices, and lower divorce risk)

______ ________ arises from caregiver sensitivity to responsiveness

Secure attachment

_______ ________ emerge from neglect, inconsistency, or rejection

Insecure patterns

_______ ______ from childhood shape later relationship expectations and behaviors, but can change over time with positive experiences

Working models

How do cultural and gender differences change attachment styles?

• Secure attachment is universal, but the distribution of insecure styles varies across cultures

• Gender differences are minor, though some stereotypes appear in relationship dynamics

According to Carstensen and DeLiema, what is the positivity effect?

An age-related shift where older adults attend to and remember more positive than negative information

What theory explains the motivational changes behind the positivity effect?

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST)

According to SST, what happens to people’s goals as they age?

Goals shift from exploration and learning to emotional satisfaction and meaning

What brain regions are involved in the positivity effect in older adults?

Amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), particularly in processing positive stimuli

According to Carstensen and DeLiema, how do experimental goals affect the positivity effect?

The effect is stronger when participants passively view stimuli → it diminishes under externally-imposed tasks

Why is the positivity effect not explained by cognitive decline, according to Carstensen and DeLiema?

It is the strongest in older adults with the best executive functioning

What happens to the positivity effect when negative information is personally relevant?

It disappears, older adults attend to negative info when it is goal-relevant (e.g., serious health issues)

How can the positivity effect be used in health communication?

Positive message framing (e.g., benefits of exercise) is more persuasive for older adults than fear-based messages

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST)

As people move through life, they move from a more open-ended time perspective (optimize future, information seeking) to a more limited time perspective (optimize present, focus on emotion-regulation)

What is an example of SST?

• Imagine you have half an hour of free time with no pressing commitments, who would you like to spend your time with?

• A new acquaintance, a close friend or family member, or the author of a book you’ve just read?

• The proportion of people who want to be friends or family increases with age

• Social networks also shift → not an age-related loss, but more likely a way that people are weeding out relationships that don’t make them feel good

Positivity Effect

age-related tendency to favor positive over negative information in attention and memory

How does the positivity effect contrast with youth?

Younger people show a negativity bias, which is evolutionarily adaptive in early life for survival and learning

What were the three methodologies Cartensen and DeLiema used to test the positivity effect on aging?

• Eye-tracking and memory tasks (show greater attention and recall for positive faces/images in older adults)

• Functional neuroimaging (fMRI) → older adults showed decreased amygdala activation for negative stimuli, but preserved or enhanced responses for positive stimuli

How have some studies failed to find the positivity effect?

The effect is weakened when tasks impose externally-directed goals (ex: rating stimuli) rather than allowing passive or self-directed viewing

What is visual acuity?

The sharpness or clarity of vision

According to Langer, Dijikic, and Prison, what does their study suggest about the nature of visual acuity?

It is partially malleable and influenced by psychological factors like belief and mindset

Mindlessness

automatic, habitual behavior based on fixed expectations or rules

What was a key finding of the Flight Simulator/Pilot Experiment?

Those role-playing as pilots in a flight simulator had significantly better vision scores opposed to those who were just in the flight simulator

What was the key finding of the Eye-Chart Orientation experiment?

Participants had better vision when charts were arranged in reverse from easy to difficult levels (implied success)

What was the key finding of the Motivation Through Reward experiment?

The incentivized group saw better than the control group (the one that was not given money)

What was the key finding of the Contextual Framing/Vision Improvement Program experiment?

Those who were told they were part of a vision training program showed better vision as opposed to those who were told to participate in a generic study

What was the key finding of the Reading from a Distance experiment?

The group told to read letters from afar performed better in reading than those that were told to identify them, implying that mindset matters in visual acuity

What is the main implication of the research done by Langer et. al?

Expectations and mental framing can alter physical performance, even in vision

What psychological concept is Langer et al.’s research closely related to?

The placebo effect

What does the Langer et. al study imply about traditional eye exams?

Going from difficult to easy levels may unintentionally prime failure by reinforcing fixed expectations

Mindfulness Theory

posits that being aware of context and pssibility (rather than acting automatically) can significantly influence outcomes

belief effects

expectations can shape outcomes → what we believe we can do influences what we actually do

What is the difference between mindlessness vs. mindfulness?

Mindlessness is automatic behavior based on established rules and expectations, while mindfulness involves active engagement, openness to new information, and awareness of multiple perspectives

What is the key idea of Simmons’ Selective Attention Test?

Mindlessness is costly but also invisible → we don’t notice when we’re mindless, yet it leaks through life in small unnoticed moments

What is the corollary to the Selective Attention Test?

Certainty does NOT equal mindfulness

How is mindlessness characterized?

• An entrapment in old categories

• Action that operates from a single perspective

• Automatic behavior that precludes attending to new signals

How is mindfulness characterized?

• The continuous creation of new categories

• Awareness of more than one perspective

• Process before outcome

What did the study by Roden and Langer (1977) show about mindful aging?

• Older adults at a nursing home either encouraged to make decisions for themselves to take care of a plant, or they were told that the nurses would take care of them

• Less percentage of mortality in the experimental group compared to the control group

• Example of how mindfulness can have an effect on health

What did the study by Crum and Langer (2007) find about the Placebo Effect?

• Our perception of exercise vs. the function of our actual bodies

• Researchers explained to maids how many calories their daily tasks burned and informed participants that the activity met the surgeon general’s weight-loss requirements, while another group of maids were not told this info

• Results showed that the maids who knew about the calories they were losing from their everyday work actually lost weight compared to the other group of nurses who did the same work

languishing

the opposite of being in flow → the foggy feeling of “meh”, not functioning at full capacity, time seems to move but meaning doesn’t

flow

moments that provide flashes of intense living against the dull background of our everyday lives

What are the six dimensions of the flow experience?

• Attention is focused on a limited stimulus field

• Action and awareness merge

• There is freedom from worry about failure

• Self-consciousness disappears

• The sense of time becomes distorted

• The experience becomes its own reward (autotelic)

What are the three conditions of the flow experience?

• There are clear goals every step of the way

• There is immediate feedback to one’s actions (e.g. Beeper Study)

• There’s a balance between high challenge and high skills

What is the enemy of flow?

The attachment to outcome

What are the three dimensions of purpose in life according to McKnight and Kashdan?

Scope, Strength, and Awareness

How does purpose differ from goals?

Purpose is broader and not necessarily outcome-based, while the other is specific and finite

How does purpose differ from meaning?

Purpose drives direct behavior, while the other supports the development of purpose

How does purpose differ from religion/spirituality?

Purpose does not require faith → religious purpose is a subtype

How does purpose differ from the Self-Determination Theory?

Purpose adds a broader life framework, while the other focuses on autonomy and motivation

How does purpose differ from the Terror Management Theory (TMT)?

Purpose focuses on approach-oriented motivation and positive outcomes, while the other emphasizes fear of death

Why is awareness important in the model of purpose?

It allows for efficient action, reduced cognitive load, and more adaptive behavior

How does purpose support resilience?

It provides structure and meaning, enabling quicker recovery from stress and trauma

What are the health implications of purpose?

Greater longevity, improved immune functioning, and better physical and mental health

What is “purpose” according to McKnight and Kashdan?

A central, self-organizing life aim that gives meaning, motivates goals, and structures behavior

What does the scope of purpose refer to?

How widely purpose influences a person’s life domains and decisions

What does strength refer to in the context of purpose?

The degree to which purpose influences relevant actions, thoughts, and emotions

What is meant by awareness of purpose?

How conscious and articulate a person is about their purpose

What role does purpose play in psychological flexibility?

It enables adaptation to change and resilience in the face of stress or trauma

How does purpose affect resource allocation?

It helps allocate physical, cognitive, and emotional energy more efficiently

What are some health benefits linked to having a purpose?

Stronger immune function, longer life, better mental health, and greater life satisfaction

What is one key psychological function of purpose during trauma or adverisy?

It buffers against stress and aids in recovery through enhanced coping mechanisms

What are the five essential elements of purpose?

• Behavioral consistency (guides action despite obstacles)

• Appetitive motivation (encourages approach behaviors, not just avoidance)

• Psychological flexibility (enables adaptation to change)

• Efficient resource allocation

• Higher-Order cognition (purpose arises from conscious and deliberate thought)

What is Ricardo’s Theory of Comparative Advantage?

• Suggests that nations (or individuals) should specialize in producing goods or services they can produce more efficiently than others, even if they are better at everything

• The idea is to maximize total productivity by delegating or outsourcing tasks that others can do more efficiently

How do McKnight and Kashdan apply Ricardo’s Theory of Comparative Advantage to psychological functioning?

A person living with a clear purpose tends to:

• Focus on tasks aligned with their strengths and values

• Delegate or deprioritize tasks that do not serve their purpose

• Operate with greater efficiency, much like nations that specialize economically

What is a Potentially Traumatic Event (PTE)?

An event that can cause serious psychological harm, meeting DSM criteria for trauma (e.g., violence, injury, loss)