Health Psychology and Psychological Disorders

Health Psychology

• Psychoneuroimmunology: Interconnection between psychological processes and the immune system.
• Coping Mechanisms:
  • Problem-focused Coping: Tackling stressors directly.
  • Emotion-focused Coping: Managing emotional responses to stress.
  • Tend-and-befriend Response: Seeking social support in stress.

Stress Responses

• General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS): Stages of stress response:
  • Alarm Phase: Initial reaction to stress.
  • Resistance Phase: Body attempts to adapt to stress.
  • Exhaustion Phase: Depletion of resources and energy.
• Fight-flight-freeze Response: Physiological reaction to perceived threats.
• Hypertension and Stress: High blood pressure linked to stress.

Stress Types

• Eustress: Positive stress, motivating and beneficial.
• Distress: Negative stress, harmful and debilitating.

Positive Psychology

• Key Concepts:
  • Resilience: Ability to bounce back from adversity.
  • Gratitude: Acknowledgment of positive aspects in life.
  • Signature Strengths: Individual strengths contributing to fulfillment.
  • Virtues: Includes Wisdom, Courage, Humanity, Temperance, Transcendence, Justice.
  • Positive Subjective Experiences: Personal feelings of well-being.
  • Posttraumatic Growth: Positive change following trauma.

Psychological Disorders

• Mindfulness Meditation: Practice of focusing on the present.
• Classification Approaches:
  • APA and DSM: Standards for diagnosing mental disorders.
  • ICM: International Classification of Mental Disorders.
• Perspectives on Disorders:
  • Cognitive, Biological, Behavioral, Psychodynamic, Humanistic, Evolutionary, Sociocultural.
• Diathesis-stress Model: Interaction of predisposition and stress leading to disorders.