Health Psychology: Unit 2 Practice Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards for Health Psychology Unit 2, covering Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9, and 15, including prevention, exercise, nutrition, substance use, and complementary medicine.

health behavior

Health-enhancing behavior or habit, actions that people take to improve or maintain their health.

health habit

Automatic health behavior that has become a firmly established part of everyday life.

health belief model (HBM)

Nonstage theory that identifies four factors that influence decision making regarding health behavior: perceived susceptibility to a health threat, perceived severity of the disease or condition, perceived benefits of and barriers to the behaviors, and cues to action.

theory of planned behavior (TPB)

A theory that predicts health behavior on the basis of three factors: personal attitude toward behavior, the subjective norm regarding the behavior, and the perceived degree of control over the behavior.

behavioral intention

The rational decision to engage in a health-related behavior or to refrain from engaging in the behavior, shaped by attitude toward the behavior, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control.

subjective norm

An individual’s interpretation of the views of other people regarding a particular health-related behavior.

transtheoretical model (TTM)

Stage theory contending that people pass through five stages in altering health-related behavior: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance.

precontemplation

The stage of the TTM where people are not seriously thinking about changing their behavior.

contemplation

The stage of the TTM where people acknowledge the existence of a problem.

preparation

The stage of the TTM where people engage in both thoughts and actions.

action

The stage of the TTM where people have actually changed their behavior.

maintenance

The stage of the TTM where people continue to be successful in their efforts to reach their final goal.

primary prevention

Health-promoting actions taken to prevent a disease or injury from occurring, such as using seatbelts.

secondary prevention

Action taken to identify and treat an illness early in its course, such as monitoring high blood pressure.

tertiary prevention

Actions taken to contain damage once a disease or disability has progressed beyond its early stages, such as chemotherapy.

gain-framed message

A health message that focuses on attaining positive outcomes or avoiding undesirable ones by adopting a health-promoting behavior.

loss-framed message

A health message that focuses on a negative outcome from failing to perform a health-promoting behavior.

cognitive-behavioral interventions for prevention

Health interventions that focus on the conditions that elicit health behaviors and the factors that help maintain and reinforce them.

Self-monitoring

The act of people keeping track of their own target behavior to be modified, including the stimuli associated with it and the consequences that follow it.

discriminative stimuli

Environmental signals that certain behaviors will be followed by reinforcement, such as the smell of cookies serving as a signal for overeating.

stimulus-control intervention

Behavioral intervention aimed at modifying the environmental discriminative stimuli that control a target behavior by signaling its reinforcement.

relapse prevention

Training in coping skills and other techniques intended to help people resist falling back into old health habits following a successful behavioral intervention.

contingency contract

A formal agreement between a person attempting to change a health behavior and another individual regarding the consequences of target behaviors.

positive psychology

The study of optimal human functioning and the healthy interplay between people and their environments.

Thriving

A paradoxical outcome in which adversity somehow leads people to greater psychological or physical well-being.

Agency

A feeling of control over actions and their consequences.

allostatic overload

The consequences of long-term elevations of stress-related catabolic hormones, including hypertension, wasted muscles, ulcers, fatigue, and increased risk of chronic disease.

biological embedding

Processes by which the structure and functioning of the brain are shaped by feedback from neuroendocrine systems during efforts to maintain homeostasis.

social integration

The number of social roles a person participates in.

Physical activity

Bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires the expenditure of energy.

physical exercise

Planned, repetitive, and purposeful physical activity intended to improve or maintain one or more aspects of physical fitness.

aerobic exercise

Light-to-moderate intensity exercise performed for an extended period of time using oxygen to meet energy demands, such as swimming, cycling, and running.

anaerobic exercise

High-intensity exercise performed for a short period of time, such as weight training and sprinting.

basal metabolic rate (BMR)

The minimum number of calories the body needs to maintain functions at rest; estimated by $ext{body weight} \times 13$.

Calorie

A measure of food energy equivalent to the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of $1\,\text{gram}$ of water by $1\,^{\circ}\text{C}$.

physical fitness

A set of attributes relating to the ability to perform physical activity including muscular strength, endurance, flexibility, and healthy body composition.

cardiorespiratory endurance

The ability of the heart, blood vessels, and lungs to supply oxygen to working muscles during physical activity for prolonged periods.

Osteoporosis

A disease involving a loss of bone mineral density leading to an increased risk of fracture, most common in postmenopausal women.

metabolic flexibility

The body’s ability to switch fuel sources, from carbohydrates to fats, when needed.

functional plasticity

The brain’s ability to move functions from damaged areas to undamaged ones.

behavior change technique (BCT)

A theory-based method for changing one or more determinants of a health behavior, such as self-efficacy.

mHealth

The use of smartphones and other mobile technologies to promote health and well-being.

compulsive exercise

Physical activity that becomes obsessive and causes dysfunction in a person’s life.

sleep disorder

Any problem with sleeping, including insomnia, narcolepsy, or sleepwalking.

circadian rhythm

A biological clock that operates on a $24\,\text{hour}$ cycle.

Insomnia

A persistent problem in falling or staying asleep.

cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I)

Structured treatment aimed at replacing thoughts and behaviors that worsen sleep problems with habits that promote sound sleep without medication.

Narcolepsy

A sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks.

sleep apnea

A sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing.

unintentional injury

Harm that is accidental and not meant to occur.

intentional injury

Harm that results from behaviors designed to hurt oneself or others.

injury control

Systematic efforts to prevent injuries and limit the consequences of those that have already occurred.

occupational health psychology (OHP)

Application of psychology to improving the quality of work life and protecting the safety, health, and well-being of workers.

Overweight

Body weight that exceeds the typically healthy weight for a given height, age, and body shape.

Obesity

Excessive accumulation of body fat.

multiple chronic conditions (MCC)

Two or more chronic conditions lasting a year or more, requiring medical attention, or limiting daily activities, affecting a person at the same time.

food security

Having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.

set-point hypothesis

The idea that each person’s body weight is genetically set within a range that the body works hard to maintain.

Adipocytes

Collapsible body cells that store fat.

Leptin

The weight-signaling hormone monitored by the hypothalamus as an index of body fat.

weight stigma

Prejudice and discrimination directed at people based on their weight or body size.

body mass index (BMI)

A measure of obesity calculated by $\frac{\text{body weight}}{\text{height}^2}$.

abdominal obesity

Excess fat around the stomach and abdomen, also called male-pattern obesity.

weight cycling

Repeated weight gains and losses through repeated dieting.

stress eating

Eating in the absence of hunger when upset, anxious, or under stress.

poverty income ratio (PIR)

Ratio of household income to the poverty threshold after accounting for inflation and family size.

food deserts

Geographical areas with little or no access to foods needed to maintain a healthy diet.

competitive foods

Foods and beverages often high in calories, sugar, fat, and sodium sold in schools in vending machines or a la carte lines.

intuitive eating

An approach to health emphasizing mindfulness and paying attention to internal cues of hunger and fullness.

eating disorder (ED)

Illnesses in which people experience severe disturbances in their eating behaviors and related thoughts and emotions.

anorexia nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by self-starvation, a distorted body image, and amenorrhea in females.

bulimia nervosa

An eating disorder characterized by cycles of binge eating followed by purging via vomiting or laxative abuse.

binge-eating disorder (BED)

An eating disorder in which a person frequently consumes unusually large amounts of food.

muscle dysmorphia (MD)

A psychological disorder in which body image dissatisfaction is accompanied by an excessive desire to develop a more muscular build.

Interoception

The sense that helps an individual understand and feel what is going on in their body.

family therapy

Psychotherapy in which individuals within a family learn healthier ways to interact and resolve conflicts.

substance use disorder (SUD)

Pattern of behavior characterized by impaired control, social impairment, and risky use of a drug.

behavioral addiction

A category of behaviors, such as gambling, that display the characteristics of substance abuse disorders.

blood–brain barrier

A network of tightly packed capillary cells that separates the blood and the brain.

Teratogens

Drugs, chemicals, and environmental agents that can damage the developing person during fetal development.

Agonist

A drug that attaches to a receptor and produces neural actions that mimic or enhance those of a naturally occurring neurotransmitter.

Antagonist

A drug that blocks the action of a naturally occurring neurotransmitter or agonist.

Dependence

A state in which the use of a drug is required for a person to function normally.

Withdrawal

Unpleasant physical and psychological symptoms that occur when a person abruptly ceases using certain drugs.

psychoactive drugs

Drugs that affect mood, behavior, and thought processes by altering neuron functioning; includes stimulants, depressants, and hallucinogens.

drug potentiation

The effect of one drug to increase the effects of another.

concordance rate

The rate of agreement between a pair of twins for a given trait.

nucleus accumbens (NAC)

A brain region that plays a central role in pleasure and addiction.

gateway drug

A drug that serves as a stepping-stone to the use of other, usually more dangerous drugs.

common liability to addiction

Model proposing that drug use is determined by tendencies and environmental circumstances rather than preceding use of specific legal drugs.

wanting-and-liking theory

A two-stage theory of addiction: first, good feelings from drug use prevail; second, drug use becomes automated behavior.

blood alcohol level (BAL)

The amount of alcohol in the blood, measured in $\text{grams}/100\,\text{ml}$.

at-risk drinking

Two or more episodes of binge drinking in the past month, or an average of two or more alcoholic drinks per day in the past month.

fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)

A cluster of birth defects caused by alcohol use during pregnancy, including facial abnormalities and low intelligence.

behavioral disinhibition

A false sense of confidence and freedom from social restraints resulting from alcohol consumption.

alcohol myopia

A tendency to increase concentration on immediate events and reduce awareness of distant events due to alcohol.

alcohol use disorder (AUD)

A maladaptive drinking pattern in which drinking interferes with role obligations.

behavioral undercontrol

A general personality syndrome linked to alcohol dependence characterized by aggressiveness and impulsiveness; also called deviance proneness.

negative emotionality

A state of alcohol abuse characterized by depression and anxiety.

alcohol expectancy effects

The effects of an individual’s beliefs about how alcohol affects behavior.