Health Psych Exam 3

Primary prevention:

Taking measures to prevent illness before it occurs. (Example: Vaccination, healthy diet promotion).

Secondary prevention:

Detecting or treating illness at an early stage to reduce its potential effects. (Example: Breast self-examinations, screenings).

Tertiary prevention:

Actions taken to minimize or slow the damage caused by an illness that has developed past an early stage. (Example: Rehabilitation programs, managing chronic disease complications).

What are the levels of prevention ?

Individual, group, organization, community, and population.

What is prospect theory?

Decisions are affected by how messages are presented (framed) and the type of behavior targeted.

Loss-framed:

Emphasizes the costs or negative consequences of a behavioral choice.

Gain-framed:

Emphasizes the benefits or positive outcomes of a behavioral choice.

For what types of health behaviors (detection vs. prevention) are loss- and gain-framed messages most effective?

Loss-framed messages are generally more effective for screening/detection behaviors (which carry risk of finding a disease), while gain-framed messages are more effective for prevention behaviors (which are generally not risky).

Meyerowitz & Chaiken (1987):

Found that loss-framed messages regarding breast self-examination (BSE) led to more positive attitudes, greater intentions, and higher self-reported BSE behavior than gain-framed messages.

Detweiller et al. (1999):

Demonstrated a gain-frame advantage in promoting sun-protective behaviors (sunscreen use) among beachgoers.

How effective are information-based interventions (e.g., Leventhal et al., 1965)?

Providing risk/benefit information alone has limited effectiveness in driving long-term behavior change unless combined with specific action strategies (as shown with tetanus shots).

What are emotion-based interventions?

Interventions that induce positive or negative emotions (such as fear, anxiety, or guilt) to motivate behavior change.

How effective are fear-based interventions (e.g., Leventhal et al., 1965)?

They have mixed effectiveness; high fear can impair cognitive processing or lead to defensive avoidance, though moderate fear combined with specific change strategies can be effective (e.g., Leventhal's tetanus shot study).

What factors contribute to the effectiveness of fear-based interventions?

Featuring a moderate level of fear, providing a specific, clear strategy for change, and focusing on short-term consequences or graphic images of a condition.

Behavioral nudges:

Interventions that aim to promote positive behaviors without limiting choice.

Dai et al. (2021) results:

Text message reminders combined with messages creating psychological ownership ("claim your dose") significantly increased appointment scheduling and Covid-19 vaccination rates compared to holdout groups.

Psychological factors:

Optimistic bias (low perceptions of personal susceptibility due to age), depression, low self-esteem, and perceived benefits like weight control.

Social factors:

Modeling by media, parents, siblings, and friends.

What are tolerance and withdrawal symptoms?

Tolerance is when the body no longer responds to a particular dose, requiring more of the substance for the same effect; withdrawal symptoms are physical and psychological reactions experienced when discontinuing use.

What are the effects of nicotine (e.g., increased alertness)?

Stimulates the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and causes the release of serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins, providing physical relaxation and mental alertness.

What is the nicotine fixed-effect model?

Nicotine increases the action of neurotransmitters that enhance pleasure, making smoking feel good.

What is the nicotine regulation model?

An extension of the fixed-effect model proposing that nicotine levels must be maintained above a certain "set-point" in the body for pleasurable effects; smokers compensate when smoking lower-nicotine cigarettes by changing puff size or frequency.

What was Strasser et al.’s (2007) study?

Measured the number and size of puffs when smokers smoked lower-nicotine cigarettes, supporting the nicotine regulation model by demonstrating compensation.

What is the affect-regulation model?

The theory that people smoke to increase positive affect (enhance pleasure) or decrease negative affect (cope with anxiety, stress, or tension).

Schachter et al. (1977):

Participants exposed to high stress smoked more puffs than those under low stress.

McEwen et al. (2008):

Smokers at a cessation clinic cited stress relief, concentration, boredom, and enjoyment as key reasons for smoking.

What are important aspects of social influence programs to prevent smoking (e.g., highlight peer attitudes)?

Targeting high-risk adolescent groups, providing education on short-term negative effects, highlighting anti-smoking peer attitudes, and utilizing role models.

Nicotine-fading:

Gradually reducing nicotine intake over time.

Nicotine-replacement:

Using aids like nicotine patches or gum to deliver nicotine without tobacco to ease withdrawal.

Aversion strategies:

Classical conditioning techniques pairing smoking with an unpleasant stimulus, such as rapid-smoking, unpleasant images, or electric shocks.

Government programs:

Increasing cigarette taxes, restricting advertisements, prohibiting smoking in public places, and enforcing legal purchasing age laws.

self-management strategies

Stimulus control, response substitution, stress management, and contingency contracting.

behavioral disinhibition?

A reduction in the association between attitudes and behavior, often leading to accidents or violence.

alcohol myopia

A state where behavior is heavily influenced by the most salient cues while ignoring less salient, more important or relevant cues.

What were the results of MacDonald et al.’s (1995) study with contingent and non-contingent questions?

Intoxicated participants reported significantly higher intentions to drink and drive when asked a contingent question ("If I only had a short distance…") compared to a non-contingent question ("I would drive while intoxicated").

tension-reduction theory?

The idea that people drink alcohol to cope with negative emotions and lower self-awareness in the face of negative feedback.

the results of Hull and Young’s (1983) study on self-consciousness and alcohol consumption?

High self-conscious participants given failure (negative) feedback drank significantly more wine than high self-conscious participants given success feedback, showing that self-consciousness moderates the effect of negative feedback on drinking.

How does social learning theory explain alcohol use?

People learn norms for alcohol use through modeling, advertisements, and peer norms.

Pluralistic ignorance:

The assumption that our own attitudes and beliefs differ from those of others, despite everyone's outward behavior being the same.

Prentice & Miller (1993) study:

Found that college students believed there was too much campus alcohol use and that their own comfort level with drinking was lower than what they perceived to be the average student's comfort level.

Providing consequences information:

Educating on health impacts.

Providing strategies for decreasing use:

Training in moderation skills.

Challenging expectations:

Using real or placebo alcohol to decouple beliefs from pharmacological effects.

Challenging perceptions of others' use:

Correcting normative misperceptions about peer drinking.

What are aversion techniques to treat alcohol abuse (e.g., Antabuse)?

Pairing alcohol consumption with an aversive drug stimulus (like Antabuse or Emetine) that causes severe physical illness.

What are self-management techniques to treat alcohol abuse (e.g., contingency contracting)?

Stimulus control, response substitution, contingency contracting, and coping with stress.

How is obesity measured (e.g., BMI)?

Body Mass Index (BMI), calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared (BMI = \frac{kg}{m^2}).

What is problematic about the use of BMI to measure obesity?

It does not account for muscle mass or body composition, misclassifying muscular individuals (like athletes) as overweight or obese.

What did Tomiyama et al. (2016) find about using BMI to predict health (e.g., blood pressure)?

A substantial percentage of overweight and obese individuals were metabolically healthy, while a substantial percentage of normal-weight individuals were metabolically unhealthy.

How does the distribution of fat (i.e., apples vs. pears) relate to health outcomes of obesity?

"Apple-shaped" bodies (weight above the waist / central adiposity) carry a higher risk of chronic health diseases compared to "pear-shaped" bodies (weight below the waist / hips).

What is the estimated genetic contribution to obesity?

Twin and adoption studies show high correlations in BMI among identical twins regardless of being reared apart, indicating a strong genetic influence on metabolism and weight regulation.

What did Levine et al. (1999) find participants consumed 1000 extra calories per day?

Normal-weight participants who consumed 1,000 extra calories per day for 9 weeks exhibited a large range in actual weight gain, highlighting individual metabolic differences.

Set-point theory

The theory that the body seeks to maintain a specific target weight; when calories decrease, metabolism slows, and when calories increase, metabolism increases.

Internal-external hypothesis

The tendency to eat based on external food cues (such as taste, smell, and variety) rather than internal hunger cues.

What is mood regulation theory?

The use of food to manage moods like stress, anxiety, or depression (emotional/stress eating).

Rutters et al.’s (2009) study?

Found that induced acute stress led to higher consumption and energy intake of snack foods, particularly among emotional eaters.

What is restraint theory?

People restrict the amount and type of food they eat to lose weight, which can paradoxically lead to overeating when restraint is broken (disinhibition).

Herman and Mack’s (1975) study?

Demonstrated that dieters (high-restraint individuals) who consumed a milk-shake preload subsequently ate more ice cream in a taste test than non-dieters, illustrating the "what-the-hell" disinhibition effect.

What was Tomiyama et al.’s (2009)?

Investigated naturalistic food intake outside the lab and found that restrained eaters did not necessarily consume more calories on days following a diet violation.

What are disinhibition and compensation?

Disinhibition is losing dietary control after a perceived rule violation; compensation involves adjusting subsequent intake to make up for previous overconsumption.

How do social factors affect how much people eat?

People tend to be less sensitive to internal hunger cues and eat more when dining in social groups or around others.

What are some strategies for preventing and treating “obesity” (e.g., set proximal goals)?

Setting proximal goals, utilizing operant conditioning, contingency-contracting, seeking social support, group approaches, public/institutional changes (like calorie posting and sugar taxes), and increasing physical activity.

Do diets work?

Often fail; one-third to two-thirds of dieters regain more weight than they lost, leading to unhealthy weight cycling.

How does dieting affect stress levels (Tomiyama et al., 2010)?

Assigning participants to restrict or monitor food intake for 3 weeks resulted in significantly increased stress levels and cortisol production.

What are the barriers to physical activity (e.g., environmental barriers)?

Lack of time, money, energy, low self-efficacy, and environmental barriers.

What are some important aspects of physical activity interventions (e.g., create habits)?

Changing environmental factors, creating automatic habits, utilizing social support, leveraging mHealth, and implementing lifestyle change