5.1-5.2 vocab psych

Health Psychology

A subfield of psychology that explores the impact of psychological, behavioral, and cultural factors on health and wellness.

Psychoneuroimmunology

The study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes together affect our immune system and resulting health.

Stress

The process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging.

Approach and Avoidance Motives

The drive to move toward (approach) or away from (avoid) a stimulus.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress in three phases — alarm, resistance, exhaustion.

Tend-and-Befriend Response

Under stress, people (especially women) may nurture themselves and others (tend) and bond with and seek support from others (befriend).

Coronary Heart Disease

The clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; a leading cause of death in many developed countries.

Type A

Friedman and Rosenman’s term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people.

Type B

Friedman and Rosenman’s term for easygoing, relaxed people.

Catharsis

In psychology, the idea that 'releasing' aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges.

Coping

Alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods.

Problem-Focused Coping

Attempting to alleviate stress directly — by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor.

Emotion-Focused Coping

Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to our stress reaction.

Personal Control

Our sense of controlling our environment rather than feeling helpless.

Learned Helplessness

The hopelessness and passive resignation humans and other animals learn when unable to avoid repeated aversive events.

External Locus of Control

The perception that outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate.

Internal Locus of Control

The perception that we control our own fate.

Self-Control

The ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification for greater long-term rewards.

Positive Psychology

The scientific study of human flourishing, promoting strengths that foster well-being, resilience, and positive emotions.

Subjective Well-Being

Self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life.

Feel-Good, Do-Good Phenomenon

People’s tendency to be helpful when in a good mood.

Adaptation-Level Phenomenon

Our tendency to form judgments of sounds, lights, or income relative to a neutral level defined by prior experience.

Relative Deprivation

The perception that we are worse off relative to those with whom we compare ourselves.

Broaden-and-Build Theory

Proposes that positive emotions broaden awareness and help build skills and resilience over time.

Character Strengths and Virtues

A classification system to identify positive traits, organized into wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence.

Resilience

The personal strength that helps people cope with stress and recover from adversity.

Aerobic Exercise

Sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness and helps alleviate depression and anxiety.

Mindfulness Meditation

A reflective practice where people attend to current experiences in a nonjudgmental manner.

Gratitude

An appreciative emotion often experienced when benefiting from others' actions or recognizing one's good fortune.