health psychology

health

not the absence of disease but the state of complete physical, social and mental wellbeing

ill health

biomedical model

focuses on physical/biological aspects, such as genetics.
considers mind as a separate part therefore not influential in cause of treatment.
e.g when your arm hurts this is physical pain being a biological factor

biopsychosocial model

integrated biological, psychological and social elements into a combined model.
e.g stress being psychological factor, because of stress can lead to things such as heart issues which is a biological factor both these things can lead to isolation which is a social factor.

health as a continuum

sees wellbeing and illness on a spectrum, people can move along the spectrum based on internal and external factors and experience.
people can move up and down the spectrum.

biological approach

our behaviour is a direct result to our biology, looks at factors such as genetics, hormones neurotransmitters etc. to explain someone being healthy or ill
2 types of neurotransmitters (chemicals used to transmit messages in our brain)
> excitatory - increase brain activity enabling more signals to be sent around the brain e.g dopamine (pleasure)
> inhibitory - decrease brain activity has more calming effect. e.g serotonin (emotions and mood) or GABA (main type)
too much or too little of each neurotransmitter can cause health issues.
genetic predisposition - genetic code contains certain versions of genes that mean we are more likely to develop disorders.
> not definitely develop them but are more likely. E.g depression
strengths
> has positive real life applications, knowledge of biology allows us to treat disease effectively not waste time on treatments.
> supported by scientific research, allows us to be confident in the validity of info
weaknesses
> focuses completely on ones nature, ignoring nurture means lack of validity and cannot explain development of health conditions.
> is deterministic, reduces peoples motivation to exercise self control and make good choices, may have negative impact.

behaviourist approach

says our behaviour is a direct result of our experiences. health and ill health would be explained by looking at learning that has taken place in the past.
role of cues - cue is something that prompts behaviour in some way
> can be internal or external cues.
> result of classical conditioning (associating 2 things together)
operant conditioning
> positive reinforcement - rewarding behaviour therefore more likely to be repeated.
> negative reinforcement - behaviour that removes unpleasent feelings is likely to be repeated.
operant conditioning to encourage and incentivise behaviour.
> incentivising behaviour means giving incentives to cause positive behaviour to continue.
strengths
> positive real life applications, e.g aversion therapy for addiction , must have some validity
> supported by wealth of research e.g skinner, prisons, suggets has valdity.
weaknesses
> deterministic, ignores other factors, removes peoples motivation to quit.
> doesn’t explain why only some people are addicted, cannot be complete explanation of health related behaviour.

social learning

learn behaviour from observing others around us.
role models being someone we imitate
> more likely to become a role model when we identify with them or they have a high status.
> parents, peer role models, role models in health education.
strengths
> wealth of research e.g bandura, vuolo and staff 2013.
> positive real life applications, using role models can make people do things, makes an difference in the real world.
weakness
> doesn’t explain why only some people copy their parents, Vink et al 2005, cant fully explain why people may engage in healthy or unhealthy behaviour.

cognitive approach

thought processes are the main influence upon our behaviour.
decisions to engage in behaviour for relief of stress, boredom or anxiety e.g shopping to escape reality.
mitigate impacts of other health problems e.g take drugs to minimise pain of injury.
cognitive dissonance (Festinger 1957) when 2 thoughts are inconsistent with each other puts us at a state of dissonance (an uncomfortable negative psychological state) to change this usually change on attitude. E.g i love smoking, smoking causes cancer. My auntie smoked for years and never got cancer im going to carry on smoking.
strength
> positive real life application, can be tackled within therapy, demonstrates theory has validity and makes difference to people in real world.
> understand effect on unconscious bias has had a big positive impact on the healthcare service, healthcare centres are running training to help identify and prevent unconscious bias, improve healthcare for many people.
weakness
> not a complete explanation, many different factors influence complex decisions, lacks validity.
> research relied on inference, scientists need to make assumptions about what has happened, evidence is not as scientific, cant have much confidence in theory.

stress

a state which occurs when the perceived demands of a situation exceed the perceived ability to cope.
causes of stress
> life events, involve looking at individuals daily life factors and how they affect someone who is ‘stressed’. Holmes and rahe 1967 developed social readjustment rating scale which is a self report scale that uses questionnaires to measure life events and stress. Rahe et al 1970 investigated whether scores of the holmes and rahe srrs correlated with the onset of illness.
> daily hassles, its the frustrating and distressing everyday events that were more closely related to stress (kanner et al). He developed a scale to measure stress by asking people how irritating or annoying these hassels were.
> role of stress in workplace,