Health Psych Rutgers Keiko (Exam 1)

What is health?

absence of disease (can be limited- might not have any diseases but not be healthy or have diseases and still be healthy---some problems with it)

Bio medical model

when you consider diseases or illness, we look for a cause for that—something physical that can cause the problem, bacteria, virus, tumors, etc- some problems with it; all illness can be explained on the basis of abnormal somatic processes (includes Mechanical, Reductionistic, Dualistic)

Mechanical

Focus on specific parts; if someone has a disease traditionally the doctor would focus on that part of the body and not the rest of the body—an auto mechanic finds out its this part that's creating the problem and we'll replace it, and sometimes doctors do this—you have strep we'll give you medicine--but in other cases what other psychologic part and what happens when we fix that part

Reductionistic

Reduces illness to low level processes; suggests that what causes diseases are disordered cells- don't; consider things like personality

Dualistic

Views psychological health as separate from physical health; separates psychological and physical health—now we understand that the mind and the body are not separate—physical state effects emotions and vice versa

What is the biopsychosocial model

Considers biological factors (genes and traits) in health, psychological factors (thoughts, emotions, feelings), and social factors (support and socialness), and environmental factors (too noisy, nice room etc) these things can affect the way and amount of time it takes someone to recover

How have the major health problems in the U.S. changed since the beginning of the 20th century?

In the 20th century the major cause of death/health problems was infectious diseases, but we have better technology and medicine to control the spread and treat it; the nature of our health has changed a lot)

What is the role of health behaviors in current major health problems in the U.S.?

It effects the major causes of death; tobacco is the 2nd leading cause of death, and it is a behavior, people choice to smoke it, poor diet is a behavior, alcohol consumption; all these things are choices that people make and can change, and they can lead to big health problems

What are operational definitions?

statement about the procedures the researcher used to measure a variable; State what you mean by each variable in hypothesis

What is correlational research

simply an association between 2 variables; correlational does not mean causation, can be third variables and other factors that could alternative explain

positive correlational

variables change in the same directions

negative correlational

variable change in opposite directions

correlation coefficients

measure of the strength of the association between two variables (ranges from -1.00 to +1.00)

What is an experiment (randomized clinical trial)?

Comparison between a treatment (experimental) group and a control (comparison) group

IV- independent variable

the cause (manipulated)

DV- Dependent variable

the outcome of the IV

Experimental group

receives treatment/stimulus

Control groups

does not receive treatment or stimulus, just for comparison to experimental group

What is random assignment?

◦ participants have an equal chance of being in every experimental group; to make the difference in the group smaller, not random sampling, once you have your sample how do you pick control group vs the treatment group, completely random with no criteria

What is experimental control?

researcher makes sure that no other factors are changing and thus could affect the DV; what can reduce the confound

What is generalization?

Can the results be applied to other situations

What are moderators?

Difference between groups in which the relation between the IV and DV is different for different groups

What is quasi-experimental design?

unethical to do studies so compare pre-existing groups; like smoking; No random assignment, conditions that must be met for causality to be tentatively assumed;

What conditions must be met for causality to be tentatively assumed in quasi-experimental design (e.g., temporal priority)?

Compare pre-existing groups, temporal priority, dose the response relationship, consistent with existing knowledge, consistent in different populations, animals analogs, intervention has an effect

What are artifacts (e.g., measurement)?

finding resulting from factors other than the

one intended; Factors that can jeopardize the validity of the conclusions; (if I asked you to describe your chest pains some might tolerate pain better some may not, so they may vary and be unclear)

Survey

asking people questions about their thoughts, feelings, desires, and actions; lots of info short amount of time

Case studies

in-depth analysis of one subject (or more), usually because the case is rare

Observational

describe and measure people's and/or animal's behavior systematically

Archival methods

use of existing data source; using data was already collect and using it for other purposes

Retrospective designs

using data already data gathered to predict outcome; When doing study u already know what the outcome is and then you look back at the patient and try and find what predicted; can have hindsight bias

Prospective designs

predictor assessed in advance of outcome; measure what you think create the outcomes first then measure the outcome, you can be sure the predictor variable happened before the outcome with certainty

Cross-sectional

collecting data at one point in time; measure how much social support they get and how health they are at the same time

Longitudinal

collecting data at more than one point in time; if I measure the social support now I wonder what the health will be in 5 years

Field research

conducting study in natural setting; higher realism, easy to generalize, lacks control- can't control what participants are doing in their regular life

Laboratory research

conducting study in laboratory setting; can control what they are and are not doing- but lacks mundane realism; can be hard to generalize;

Internal validity

likelihood that changes in DV were caused by IV; is about whether or not you can be confident that you don't have confounds in your experiment---how confident you are that your IV changed your DV

External validity

likelihood that the same results would be obtained using the same study with other people and in other situations; generalizability- how likely is it that you can take your results from your study and apply them to others that weren't in your study

What are confounds?

Threat to internal validity; something else that could have affected the DV that's not the IV---alternative explanations

What do the bodily humors indicate

Ancient Greece thought of them indicating personality, people have different levels of these bodily fluids than others and this creates personality; if someone has a lot of black vile they will have cancer etc- and the only way to fixed it was to reduce the level of black vile

What is Descartes' mind/body dualism (Cartesian dualism)?

the idea that mind/ soul and body are separate; positive - they could study the body because it wasn't against the religions etc

What is Claude Bernard's idea of the mileur interne?

all living things must maintain a constant or balanced internal environment; most important for our health wasn't about toxins and bacteria but that our bodies become balanced when they are internally balanced

What is homeostasis?

Is about balance in body; maintaining equilibrium through adjustments in physiological processes

What is Cannon's wisdom of the body?

The body is self-correcting; when you are too hot your body will lower its temperature on its own

What is allostasis?

Active process of adaption and maintaining homeostasis; the idea that we seek balance and balance is good for us

What is allostatic load?

Repeated allostasis causes cumulative physiological toll; explanation of what causes stress and therefore disease- occurs when we have to seek allostasis too often---allostasis is good, but when we require our bodies to do it too often it wears the body down

How did psychoanalysts (e.g., Alexander) explain the relation between psychology and health?

Alexander- diseases cause by unconscious emotional conflicts

What is the autonomic nervous system

Manages internal organs without conscious control; sympathetic nervous system, parasympathetic nervous system

Sympathetic nervous system

mobilizes body to react to stressor or activity; flight or fight

Parasympathetic nervous system

restores body to normal state after arousal- what calms us down from fight or flight

What is the endocrine system

Regulatory system that secretes hormones, Starts out with a thought then goes to the glands and releases stress system; (the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and adrenal glands)

Hypothalamus

releases hormones; controls pituitary gland

Pituitary gland

master gland, secretes hormones that directly influence other endocrine glands

Adrenal glands

above kidneys; adrenal medulla and adrenal cortex

Sympathetic-adrenal-medullary system (SAM)-

the adrenal medulla release epinephrine and the other one--- they both cause arousal—due to epinephrine and norepinephrine---not the same exact hormone but act in similar ways

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system (HPA)

responsible for the release of cortisol---another stress hormone that increases the amount of something in the blood and increases inflammation- when you sprain ur ankle it swells bc that's how our body deals with it

Which hormones are released by each system?

SAM- epinephrine or nonrepinephrine

HPA- cortisol

What is the immune system and how is it affected by stress?

Protects bodily tissues from bacteria, viruses, cancer cells, function to protect our bodies; short term stressors aren't bad but long term stressors are a problem

What was Ader and Cohen's (1975) study on the immune system and classical conditioning?

The immune system can be classical conditioned; Found that the sugar level in rats suppressed the immune system bc it was associated with the drug that came after; idea that our thoughts play a role in our immune system

What is the evidence for a relation between stress and immune system functioning (e.g., induced stress in the lab, bereavement)?

did experiments and found that prolonged stress can wear down the immune system

What is the cardiovascular system

Pumps blood to transport oxygen, nutrients, and hormones

how is cardiovascular system affected by stress?

Stress-> sympathetic nervous system activation-> increase in heart rate, blood pressure

What is the evidence for a relation between stress and cardiovascular system functioning (i.e., Kaplan's research with monkeys)?

monkeys live in hierarchies, Moneys at the bottom are the weakest, lowest status, Also stressful to be on the top bc u have to keep holding ur power; Did studies and found those at the top and bottom had cardio vascular outcomes—to test to see if stress caused this they gave beta blockers- so they didn't't have increased heart rate etc and stuff

What is Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) concept of cognitive appraisal?

Interpretation rather than objective circumstances; the way u think about things- not just the thing that is happening to u but how you think about it and how u cognitively think about it

Primary appraisal

determination of whether an event has any potential negative effects; is this event harmful- could this be a threat to me or be an obstacle? If no then not that stressful—if yes then go to 2nd appraisal; stuck in traffic and late for interview

Secondary appraisal

determination of whether one has abilities and resources to overcome threat of harm; do I have the resources to overcome this threat- can I deal with this? Can I call them and say im sorry im running late?

Illness behavior

response to stressful events- sick role; stress makes it appear as though were sick even if were not—due to stress we behavior like were sick but were not-----so stressed a lot going on and worrying about a lot of stuff—don't go to work, but don't want to say I'm stressed so I call in sick to work---I enter the sick role bc of stress, sounds strange -beyond just faking sick

Indirect effect model

(including information about eating sweet, starchy, fatty foods)- stress leads to unhealthy behaviors in attempt to cope with stress; model- stress indirectly effects our health bc of the things we engage in bc of stress---when stressed might smoke more or eat a lot of junk food etc which effects your health

Direct effect model

direct link between stress and disease- stress has a direct effect on our bodies and health; life events-> physiological reactions-> disease00

Diathesis-stress

condition does not develop without both diathesis and stress; Stress by itself doesn't cause disease and diathesis by itself doesn't't cause disease but together they can

What is Cannon's fight-or-flight response?

a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival

What physical changes are involved?

Heart rate increases, become more aware, sweating, digesting stops, etc

What is Selye's general adaptation syndrome?

Body responds to noxious stimulus by arousal of system of defenses

What are the 3 stages in the stress response?

alarm, resistance, exhaustion

alarm

body mobilizes to respond to stress

resistance

body adapts to stressor, but becomes weakened

exhaustion

physical resources are depleted`

What is the evidence for the physiological stress and illness model?

• Logan et al., 1998 - stress and cold sores (direct effect)

• Cohen et al., 1993 - stress and colds

• Cohen et al., 1998 - duration and type of stressors and colds

• Marucha et al., 1998 - stress and wound healing

• Uchino et al., 1995 - stress and heart rate/blood pressure

What is cardiovascular reactivity?

Reaction to stress

What is the life change approach to conceptualizing stress?

Bring changes in how individual lives and requires considerable adaption

What is the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (Holmes & Rahe, 1967)?

Scale to measure positive or negative life events

What are some problems with the scale?

It can be hard and limited to rank events

What are daily hassles?

Minor annoying events which require some degree of adjustment

What does research show regarding the relation between daily hassles and health (e.g., DeLongis et al., 1982)?

Daily hassles -> negative cumulative effects on health

Instrumental/tangible support

provision of material support, such as services, financial assistance, or goods

Informational support

advice and guidance about how to cope with a particular problem

Emotional support

expression of caring, concern, and empathy as well as the provision of comfort, reassurance, and love

How do social network size, received support, perceived support, providing support, and negative relationships relate to health? What do studies show about these relations (e.g., Berkman & Syme, 1979; Brown et al., 2003)?

number of relationships; associated with decreased mortality risk ; the more ties you have to community the decreased mortality rate; in study with Berkman found that more people who had more support and network were alive in the 9 year follow up

Received social support

amount of support accessed by an individual

Perceived social support

amount of support appraised to be available; satisfaction with available support

Providing support

related to decreased mortality risk, related to reduced sympathetic arousal

Negative relationships

associated with poorer health

What is the size of the relation between social support and health (relative to other known predictors of health; Holt-Lunstad & Smith, 2012)?

Relations between aspects of social support and morality; comparison of relations between difference factors associated with mortality

Direct effect hypothesis

social ties provide protection during stressful and non stressful times

Buffering effect hypothesis

social ties provide protection against effects of stress

What are the potential mechanisms in the relation between social support and health?

Cognitive appraisal, health behaviors, adherence, psychoneuroimmunological pathways

What is the evidence for psychoneuroimmunological pathways between social support and health (Coan et al., 2006; Cohen et al., 1997; Lepore et al., 1993?

Measure social relationships; participants asked to give a speech some had support some didn't and they measured BP; women given shocks and some had no hand to hold others did stress levels went down when people can a hand

What is the tend-and-befriend hypothesis? What is the evidence for the role of oxytocin in physiological stress responses (Detillion et al., 2004)?

Tending and befriending; behavior exhibited by some animals, including humans, in response to threat. It refers to protection of offspring (tending) and seeking out the social group for mutual defense (befriending).

Oxytoxin released in response to stress; ppl with more oxytocin heal faster