Health Psychology

• Type A is when a person is excessively competitive, impatient, hard-driven

• Type D is when a person is generally distressed, has negative emotions, socially inhibited

  • These people are more likely to have coronary heart disease

• Health Psychology- role in psychology in maintaining health and preventing and treating illness

  Theory of Reasoned Action and Theory of Planned Behavior:

  1. Intentions to change behavior

  2. Positive attitude about new behavior

  3. Belief of social group support

  4. Perceptions about control over behavior

Stages of Change Model

1. Precontemplation- not ready to even think about it

2. Contemplation- acknowledge problem

3. Preparation/determination- plan action, explore options

4. Action/will power- commit to and enact plan

5. Maintenance- long term success/ avoiding relapse

Social support- resources provided by others in times of need

• emotional

• Tangible

• Informational

Faith Factor- religious people tend to live longer than those who aren’t religious

Stress- the process by which we develop a response to stressors

• General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

  • Alarm- shock→ hormones released that affect immune system

  • Resistance→ different hormones protect person

  • Exhaustion→ extended stress taking toll, vulnerability increases

• Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis

  • Controls reactions to stressful events

  • Cortisol

• Psychoneuroimmunologists- study mind-body interactions

  • Stress affects B and T lymphocytes and NK cells

• External locus of control - No control

• Internal locus of control - inner belief of control

• Cognitive appraisal model of stress- whether we experience stress depends on our congnitive appraisal of the event we have to deal with

  • Primary interpretation- event needs to be interpreted as harmful or challenging

  • Secondary interpretation- then ask, “do i have the resources to deal with this?”

• Coping strategies

  • Problem-centered coping

    • Focused on changing stressor

  • Emotion-centered coping

    • Internal and private

    • Control distress that can’t be changed

    • Focused on changing how we feel about the stressor

• attribution/ explanatory style

  • Optimistic- helps person respond to stress

  • Pessimistic- produces more stress

Hardiness- control, commitment, and challenge

• control- person regards most experiences as controllable

• Commitment- find interest and meaning in daily activities

• Challenge- view as normal part of life

Healthy Living

• Exercise

• Eating right

• Quitting smoking

• Safe sex