KIN240: Principles of Biobehavioral Health - Module 1 Exam Notes

Chapter 1: Cognitive Bias

Experience: Refers to the knowledge or skills acquired over a period of time through involvement in or exposure to events or things. In the context of cognitive bias, personal experience can greatly shape an individual's perception and decision-making, sometimes leading to biases if not critically evaluated.
Confirmation Bias: The tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses. It causes individuals to ignore evidence that contradicts their views, leading to skewed perspectives and potentially flawed judgments, especially in health-related choices or interpretations of symptoms.
Expertise: Deep knowledge and skill in a particular area, typically gained through extensive experience, study, or practice. While expertise is valuable, even experts can be susceptible to cognitive biases, such as overconfidence or confirmation bias, which can affect their diagnoses or recommendations.
Dunning–Kruger Effect: A cognitive bias in which people with low ability at a task overestimate their own ability, and people with high ability at a task underestimate their own ability. This often leads to unskilled individuals feeling confident in their flawed decisions and highly skilled individuals doubting their correct judgments. In health, this can manifest as individuals with limited health literacy overestimating their understanding of complex medical conditions or treatments.
Halo Effect: A cognitive bias where an observer's overall impression of a person influences their feelings and thoughts about that person's character or properties. If a person is perceived positively in one aspect (e.g., attractive), they might be incorrectly assumed to be positive in other unrelated aspects (e.g., intelligent, trustworthy, healthy). In health contexts, this could influence patient-doctor perceptions or how health information is received from a charismatic but unqualified individual.

Chapter 2: Health and Wellness

Historical Concepts of Health: Historically, health was often viewed primarily as the absence of disease or infirmity (biomedical model). Early concepts often focused on supernatural explanations, moral failings, or imbalances of bodily humors (e.g., Hippocratic theory of four humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile). Disease was external or a punishment. Public health focused on sanitation and quarantines.
Modern Concepts of Health: Contemporary understanding of health has evolved beyond merely the absence of disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. This biopsychosocial model acknowledges the interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors in determining health outcomes. Wellness is seen as an active, lifelong process of becoming aware of choices and making decisions toward a more successful existence.
Physical Activity: Any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure. This broad definition includes exercise, sports, occupational activities, household chores, and active transportation. It is a key determinant of health and wellness.
Physical Fitness: A set of attributes that people have or achieve that relates to the ability to perform physical activity. It encompasses various components such as cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, body composition, and sometimes skill-related components like agility and balance.
Physical Activity Intensities: Refers to how hard a person is working during physical activity. It can be measured in absolute terms (e.g., METs, oxygen consumption) or relative terms (e.g., percentage of maximum heart rate, rating of perceived exertion). Common categories include:
- Light-intensity: Activities that require little effort and allow conversation, e.g., casual walking.
- Moderate-intensity: Activities that require a moderate amount of effort and noticeably accelerate the heart rate, allowing for conversation but not singing, e.g., brisk walking, swimming.
- Vigorous-intensity: Activities that require a large amount of effort, cause rapid breathing and a substantial increase in heart rate, making sustained conversation difficult, e.g., running, intense sports.
Endpoint Perspective of Sedentary Behavior: This perspective views sedentary behavior simply as the opposite of physical activity or an absence of movement. It defines sedentary behavior by its outcome (lack of energy expenditure) rather than its specific activities or postures. This definition is often limited as it doesn't account for the unique physiological consequences of prolonged sitting.
Sedentary Behavior as an Independent Construct: This modern perspective recognizes sedentary behavior as a distinct behavior characterized by sitting, reclining, or lying, and an energy expenditure of $\le 1.5$ Metabolic Equivalents (METs) while awake. It is considered an independent risk factor for chronic diseases (e.g., cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes) and premature mortality, separate from physical activity levels. Even physically active individuals can be considered