Unit 5: Mental and Physical Health Review

Health Psychology

  • Examines the connection between the mind and body.
  • Studies how psychological, biological, and social factors impact health and well-being.
  • Focuses on the interaction between thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and physical health.
  • Aims to not only treat illness but also to prevent it by promoting healthy habits and stress management.

Stress

  • Defined as the body's response to any demand or challenge.
  • Not all stress is negative.
    • Eustress: Positive stress, like excitement before a game.
    • Distress: Negative stress, like feeling overwhelmed before a test.
  • Types of stressors:
    • Quick stressors: Running late.
    • Longer stressors: Financial problems.
    • Traumatic stress: Natural disasters, abuse.
    • Daily hassles: Annoying events that accumulate.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

  • Stressful or traumatic events during childhood.
  • Can have long-lasting effects on health and behavior into adulthood.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) by Hans Selye

  • Explains how the body responds to stress in three stages:
    • Alarm Reaction:
      • The sympathetic nervous system activates.
      • Fight or flight response.
      • Increased heart rate, dilated pupils, sweating.
    • Resistance:
      • The body attempts to sustain the stress response.
      • The brain goes into overdrive.
    • Exhaustion:
      • The body's resources are depleted.
      • Increased susceptibility to stress-related illnesses.
      • Weakened immune system, heart disease, anxiety, depression.

Tend-and-Befriend Response

  • Proposed by Shelley Taylor.
  • Involves seeking social support and caring for others during stress.
  • Oxytocin, known as the love hormone, plays a significant role.
  • Promotes bonding, trust, and social connections.
  • Has stress-reducing effects.
  • Women are more likely to exhibit tend-and-befriend due to hormonal and evolutionary factors.

Gender Differences in Stress Response

  • Men tend towards fight-or-flight.
  • Women tend toward tend-and-befriend.
  • Both responses have benefits depending on the situation.

Coping Strategies

  • Strategies used to manage stress.
  • Two main types:
    • Problem-Focused Coping:
      • Addressing the stressor directly.
      • Creating a study schedule for a test.
      • Seeking help from a teacher.
      • Reduces the stressor itself.
    • Emotion-Focused Coping:
      • Managing the feelings associated with stress.
      • Taking deep breaths.
      • Reframing thoughts.
      • Taking breaks.
  • The best approach depends on the situation, often a mix of both is ideal.

Positive Psychology

  • Focuses on what makes life worth living, strengths, well-being, and happiness.
  • Asks what makes people happy and how well-being can be increased.

Subjective Well-Being

  • A person's self-perceived happiness and life satisfaction.
  • Two perspectives:
    • Positive Subjective Experiences:
      • Internal emotions and thoughts.
      • Practicing gratitude boosts happiness and lowers stress.
    • Positive Objective Experiences:
      • External circumstances influencing well-being.
      • Happiness is influenced by relationships and achievements.

Character Strengths

  • Identified by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman.
  • Six core virtues:
    • Wisdom
    • Courage
    • Humanity
    • Justice
    • Temperance
    • Transcendence
  • Each virtue includes character strengths like creativity and honesty.

Post-Traumatic Growth

  • The idea that people can grow stronger after facing difficult life events.
  • Leads to a deeper sense of meaning and stronger relationships.

Psychological Disorders

  • Conditions causing significant disturbances in thoughts, emotions, or behaviors.
  • Criteria for identifying disorders:
    • Level of Dysfunction: Interference with daily life.
    • Perception of Distress: Suffering experienced.
    • Deviation from Social Norms: Behavior drastically different from normal.

Diagnosis of Disorders

  • Benefits include clarity, relief, and access to treatment.
  • Downsides include stigma and potential for misdiagnosis.
  • Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is used in the U.S.
  • International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is used internationally.

Psychological Perspectives on Abnormal Behavior

  • Behavioral Psychology: Focuses on learning and reinforcement.
  • Cognitive Psychology: Examines thought patterns.
  • Psychodynamic Psychology: Explores the unconscious mind.
  • Humanistic Psychology: Focuses on personal growth and self-actualization.
  • Biological Psychology: Considers brain and body chemistry.
  • Evolutionary Psychology: Considers evolved instincts.
  • Sociocultural Psychology: Examines environmental influences.
  • Eclectic Approach: Combining multiple perspectives for a comprehensive understanding.

Biopsychosocial Model

  • Explains disorders through the interaction of:
    • Biological Factors: Genetics and brain chemistry.
    • Psychological Factors: Thought patterns and coping skills.
    • Environmental Factors: Family life and culture.

Diathesis-Stress Model

  • Diathesis: Predisposition or vulnerability to a disorder.
  • Stress: External pressures that trigger or worsen a disorder.
  • Interaction: The combination of diathesis and stress leads to the development of a disorder.

Neurodevelopmental Disorders

  • Appear early in life and impact brain development.
    • Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
      • Inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
      • Linked to brain structure and function differences.
    • Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
      • Affects communication, socialization, and sensory processing.
      • Involves varying levels of support needs.
  • Genetic and physiological factors play a role, as well as the environment.

Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders

  • Schizophrenia: Affects thinking, emotions, and behavior.
    • Acute Schizophrenia: Sudden onset with better recovery.
    • Chronic Schizophrenia: Gradual onset with less recovery.
  • Symptoms:
    • Positive Symptoms: Additions to normal experiences (delusions and hallucinations).
    • Negative Symptoms: Absence of normal experiences (flat affect and catatonic stupor).
  • Causes:
    • Prenatal Virus Hypothesis: Exposure to viruses in the womb.
    • Dopamine Hypothesis: Excess dopamine activity in the brain.

Depressive Disorders

  • More than just sadness; affects mood, thoughts, and functioning.
    • Major Depressive Disorder: Intense sadness, loss of interest, and physical symptoms lasting at least two weeks.
    • Persistent Depressive Disorder (PDD): Long-term, lower-level depression lasting at least two years.
  • Causes include biological imbalances, genetics, social factors, culture, behavioral patterns, and negative thought patterns.

Bipolar Disorders

  • Mood disorders involving dramatic shifts between highs (mania) and lows (depression).
    • Bipolar I: Full manic episodes lasting at least a week.
    • Bipolar II: Hypomanic episodes that are less extreme but with severe depressive episodes.
  • Causes include biological imbalances, genetics, social factors, culture, behavioral patterns, and cognitive distortions.

Anxiety Disorders

  • Excessive fear or worry that interferes with daily life.
    • Specific Phobias: Irrational fear of objects or situations.
    • Panic Disorder: Sudden, intense panic attacks.
    • Social Anxiety Disorder: Fear of being judged in social situations.
    • Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): Excessive worry about everyday things.
  • Causes include learned associations, maladaptive thoughts, and biological/genetic roots.

Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders

  • Involve obsessions (intrusive thoughts) and compulsions (repetitive actions).
    • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Overwhelming obsessions and compulsions.
    • Hoarding Disorder: Difficulty parting with possessions.
  • Causes include learned associations, cognitive factors, and biological factors.

Dissociative Disorders

  • Involve a disconnection from consciousness, often due to trauma.
    • Dissociative Amnesia: Forgetting personal information.
    • Fugue States: Sudden travel with loss of identity.
    • Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID): Fragmentation of identity into distinct states.
  • Primarily linked to trauma and stress as a defense mechanism.

Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders

  • Develop in response to highly distressing experiences.
    • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Long-term effects after a traumatic event involving hypervigilance, anxiety, flashbacks, and detachment.
  • Increased risk due to severity, genetics, and lack of social support.

Feeding and Eating Disorders

  • Involve severe disturbances in eating behavior.
    • Anorexia Nervosa: Fear of weight gain and extreme restriction.
    • Bulimia Nervosa: Binge eating followed by compensatory behaviors.
  • Risk factors include genetics, brain chemistry, social pressure, and distorted thinking.

Personality Disorders

  • Enduring patterns of behavior significantly differing from cultural expectations.
    • Cluster A (Odd/Eccentric): Paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal personality disorders.
    • Cluster B (Dramatic/Emotional): Antisocial, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic personality disorders.
    • Cluster C (Anxious/Fearful): Avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders.
  • Causes include biological, psychological, and social influences.

Treatment of Psychological Disorders

  • Two main approaches:
    • Biological Treatments: Use medications or procedures.
    • Psychotherapy: Focuses on changing thoughts and behaviors.

Biological Treatments

  • Psychiatric Medications: Manage symptoms of disorders like schizophrenia and depression.
  • Deinstitutionalization: Shift from long-term hospitals to community-based treatment.
  • Evidence-Based Interventions: Therapies backed by scientific research.
  • Cultural Humility: Respecting cultural differences in mental health.
  • Strong Therapeutic Alliance: Trust between therapist and client is one of the biggest factors in successful treatment.

Psychotherapy

  • Psychodynamic Therapy: Uncovers unconscious thoughts and feelings based on Freud's ideas focusing on free association and dream interpretation.
  • Cognitive Therapy: Challenges negative thought patterns through cognitive restructuring and fear hierarchies.
  • Aaron Beck's Cognitive Triad: Focuses on negative views of oneself, the world, and the future.
  • Behavioral Therapy: Changes behaviors using principles of learning, exposure therapy, aversion therapy, token economies, and biofeedback.
    • Applied behavior analysis (ABA): focuses on identifying behaviors, understanding what triggers them, and using rewards or consequences to encourage positive changes
  • Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Combines cognitive and behavioral techniques. Focuses on the interconnection of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
    • Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): Helps regulate emotions, handle distress, and improve relationships.
    • Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT): Challenges irrational beliefs.
  • Humanistic Therapy: Emphasizes self-improvement and personal growth through active listening and unconditional positive regard.

Alternative Approaches to Therapy

  • Hypnosis: Helps reduce pain and manage stress, but doesn't accurately retrieve lost memories.
  • Psychiatric medications: Medications that help manage symptoms by altering brain chemistry, though medication does come with side effects.
  • Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT): small electrical shocks to cause a mild seizure in order to remap or rewire the brain
  • Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS): uses magnetic pulses to stimulate brain activity as non-invasive option for depression
  • Psychosurgery: removing or altering brain tissue
  • Overall Goal: Helps people manage symptoms and improving their overall quality of life.