Health Psych Ch1

Health has been defined inadequately as an absence of sickness or illness. How is this correct and incorrect?

We can be less than healthy even when we have no signs/symptoms of illness...

AND

we can be relatively healthy even when quite sick .

definition of health that is more accurate

A comprehensive and dynamic status, comprising physical, mental, social, and spiritual well - being

major historical developments in western conceptions of health: humoral theory (Hippocrates)

Cause of illness is knowable

Wellness = balance among humors (four bodily fluid: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm) through diet and lifestyle

‘Better to know the patient... than the disease’ → attention to individual differences in illness

Guidance on ethics (‘Hippocratic Oath’); do no harm, confidentiality, boundaries of competence

major historical developments in western conceptions of health: Galen

• Early contributions to understanding anatomy

• Revived Hippocrates’ focus on humors

– Humors’ qualities associated w/ illness states

major historical developments in western conceptions of health: Renaissance

Spiritual conceptions of illness dominated the Middle

Ages (~476 - 1450, CE); e.g., plaque as punishment

Renaissance (early 16th Century): relaxing prohibitions against dissection.

• Vesalius (1514 - 1564): Flemish Anatomist & Artist

– De Humani Corporis Fabrica : authoritative volumes of human anatomy » dispelled many misconceptions

Cartesian (mind-body) dualism

Mental and physical human nature are separate... (Kagan, 2007)

Body subject to physical/mechanical forces; mind is not

cartesian dualism benefits and drawbacks

» Inspired further examination of human physiology

Medicine informed by science and rationality

» But this cemented a split b/t mental and physical conceptions of health

how historical technology contributed to advancements in health

– Advances in microscopic observation

– Rise of Cellular and Germ Theory : Disease → cellular death or ‘pathogens’ invade.

• 1800s: exploding discovery of microorganisms.

– Biomedical model : Illness has a biological cause.

• Disease results from a pathogen (virus, etc.): Illness reduced to simple cause.

• Mind/body dualism

• Health = “absence of disease”

historical shit that highlighted the limitations of the biomedical model

Alexander (1940s): Repressed energy directed inward;

» Specific illnesses result from specific ‘conflicts’ (e.g., dependency → ulcers).

– “corrective emotional experience”

The case of ‘Anna O’ (Freud and Breuer)

• Caring for dying father, Anna developed neurological problems (e.g., cough, mutism)

• Autohypnotic states : Self-induced trances → would then feel better

e.g., With expressed emotion; symptoms lessened.

• A. couldn’t ‘will problems away’ (real).

• If there is no physiological basis, must have psychological basis

• Note the implications for dualism...

describe the shift in the leading cases of death in the US how this might have contributed to the maturation of health psychology as a discipline

– Vaccinations, antimicrobials, antibiotics, indoor plumbing shaped mortality...

– Health and death linked to lifestyle, behavior, and social determinants more than ever.

– Health was redefined as multifactorial → reductionistic biomedical model has limitations...

describe what it means to view health as a biopsychosocial phenomenon.

Health and illness/wellness encompass the:

• Biological : pathophysiology , genetics, immune function, etc.

• Psychological : attitudes, beliefs, emotions, personality, learning, etc.

• Social : Life circumstances, cultural beliefs & circumstances, socioeconomic status, etc.

health psychology

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

health disparities

Preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations.

germ theory

the idea that bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms that invade body cells cause them to malfunction.

biomedical model

The dominant view of twentieth-century medicine that maintains that illness always has a physical cause

biopsychosocial model

The dominant view of twentieth-century medicine that maintains that illness always has a physical cause

pathogen

A virus, bacterium, or some other microorganism that causes a particular disease.

chronic illness

An illness that lasts a long time and is usually irreversible.

psychosomatic medicine

A branch of psychiatry that developed in the 1900s and focused on the diagnosis and treatment of certain diseases believed to be caused by emotional conflicts.

alexythymia

no words for emotions

biopsychosocial perspective

The viewpoint that health and other behaviors are determined by the interaction of biological mechanisms, psychological processes, and social influences.

etiology

The scientific study of the causes or origins of specific diseases.

epigenetic effects

The effects of environmental forces on how genes are expressed.

health literacy

The capacity to obtain and understand health information and services, and to use them to make appropriate decisions about one’s health.

birth cohort

A group of people who, because they were born at about the same time, experience similar historical and social conditions.