Unit 5 Summary: Mental & Physical Health

Health Psychology

• Explores the connection between mind and body.
• Studies how biological, psychological, and social factors affect health and well-being.
• Psychology meets medicine (without medical school).
• Examines how thoughts, emotions, and behaviors impact physical health.
• Considers how physical health affects mental state.
• Focuses on preventing illness.
• Studies why some people stick to healthy habits while others don't.
• Examines how stress management can improve heart health.
• Overall, the way our behavior and mental processes shape our well-being.

Stress

• Definition: Your body's response to any demand or challenge.
• Eustress (positive stress):
  • Excitement before a big game.
  • Pressure to study.
• Distress (negative stress):
  • Feeling overwhelmed before a test.
  • Realizing you procrastinated on a project.
• Stressors:
  • Quick stressors: Running late.
  • Longer stressors: Financial problems, relationship drama.
  • Traumatic stress: Natural disasters, abuse, serious accidents.
• Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs):
  • Stressful or traumatic events in childhood.
  • Can impact health and behavior in adulthood.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) by Hans Selye

• Explains how body responds to stress in three stages:

  • Alarm: Sympathetic nervous system kicks in (fight or flight), e.g., heart rate up, pupils dilated.

  • Resistance: Body tries to keep up with stress, e.g., brain goes into overdrive.

  • Exhaustion: Body cannot sustain high alert; stress-related illnesses can develop, e.g., weakened immune system.

• Long-term stress effects:

  • Weakened immune systems.
  • Higher risk of heart disease.
  • Trouble sleeping.
  • Anxiety and depression.

Tend-and-Befriend Response

• Theory by Shelley Taylor: In times of stress, some people, (especially women), seek social support and care for others.
• Instead of fight or flight.
• Oxytocin (love hormone) plays a role.

Gender Differences in Stress Response

• Men: More likely to show fight-or-flight response.
• Women: More likely to tend and befriend.
• Hormonal differences and evolutionary factors contribute.

Coping Strategies

• Strategies to manage stress.
• Problem-focused coping: Dealing with stress by addressing the issue.
  • Example: Making a study schedule.
• Emotion-focused coping: Managing the feelings that come with stress.
  • Example: Taking deep breaths.
• Neither approach is universally better; depends on the situation.
• Most of the time, a mix of both techniques is suitable.

Positive Psychology

• Studies what makes life worth living.
• Focuses on human strengths, well-being, and happiness.
• Asks what makes people happy and how to increase well-being.
• Subjective well-being: A person's self-perceived happiness and life satisfaction.
• Positive subjective experiences:
  • Internal emotions and thoughts.
  • Example: Gratitude.
• Positive objective experiences:
  • External circumstances that influence well-being.
  • Example: Relationships, achievements.
• Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman identified six core virtues:
  • Wisdom: Using knowledge and perspective.
  • Courage: Facing challenges.
  • Humanity: Showing kindness.
  • Justice: Being fair.
  • Temperance: Practicing self-control.
  • Transcendence: Finding meaning through spirituality.
• Post-traumatic growth: Growing stronger after difficult life events.

Psychological Disorders

• Conditions that cause significant disturbances in thoughts, emotions, or behaviors.
• Determining a Disorder:
  • Level of dysfunction: Is the condition interfering with daily life?
  • Perception of distress: How much suffering is the person experiencing?
  • Deviation from social norms: Is the behavior drastically different from what is considered normal?
• Positive and Negative Consequences:
  • Positive: provides clarity, gives access to treatment, possible insurance coverage.
  • Negative: Stigma, labels, historical misdiagnosis due to racism, sexism, etc.
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM):
  • Used in the U.S.
  • Published by the American Psychiatric Association.
• International Classification of Diseases (ICD):
  • Used internationally.
  • Published by the World Health Organization.

Psychological Perspectives on Abnormal Behavior

• Behavioral: Learning and reinforcement.
• Cognitive: Thought patterns.
• Psychodynamic: Unconscious mind.
• Humanistic: Personal growth and self-actualizing.
• Biological: Brain and body chemistry.
• Evolutionary: Evolved traits.
• Sociocultural: Environmental factors.
• Eclectic approach: Combining ideas from multiple perspectives.
• Biopsychosocial model:
  • Interaction of biological, psychological, and environmental factors.
  • Biological factors: Genetics, brain chemistry.
  • Psychological factors: Thought patterns, emotional responses.
  • Environmental factors: Family life, culture.
• Diathesis-stress model:
  • Diathesis: Predisposition or vulnerability to a disorder.
  • Stress: External pressure that triggers or worsens a disorder.

Categories of Psychological Disorders

• Neurodevelopmental Disorders

  • Appear early in life; impact brain development, behavior, and social functioning.
  • Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
    • Inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
    • Affects communication, socialization, and processing.
    • Spectrum of support needs.
  • Causes: Genetic, physiological, and environmental factors.

• Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders

  • Schizophrenia: Affects thinking, emotions, and behavior.
    • Acute: Sudden onset, better prognosis.
    • Chronic: Gradual onset, persistent.
  • Symptoms:
    • Positive: Additions to normal experience.
      • Delusions: False beliefs.
      • Hallucinations: False sensory experiences.
      • Disorganized speech.
      • Disorganized motor behavior.
    • Negative: Absence of normal experience.
      • Flat affect: Lack of emotional expression.
      • Catatonic stupor: Frozen in place.
  • Causes:
    • Prenatal virus hypothesis.
    • Dopamine hypothesis: Excess dopamine activity.

• Depressive Disorders

  • Depressive Disorder: Affects mood, thoughts, and daily functioning.
    • Major depressive disorder.
      • Intense sadness, loss of interest, physical symptoms. (lasting at least 2 weeks).
    • Persistent depressive disorder (PDD).
      • Long-term, lower-level depression lasting for at least two years.
  • Causes: Biological, genetic, social, cultural, behavioral, and cognitive.

• Bipolar Disorders

  • Bipolar Disorders: Dramatic shifts between emotional highs and lows.
  • Manic Episodes. (Highs):
    • Unstoppable, full of energy.
  • Depressive Episodes. (Lows):
    • Hopeless, exhausted.
  • Types:
    • Bipolar I: Involves full manic episodes.
    • Bipolar II: Involves hypomanic episodes. (less extreme then manic episodes).
  • Causes: Biological, genetic, social, cultural, behavioral, and cognitive.

• Anxiety Disorders

  • Anxiety Disorders: Excessive fear, nervousness, or worry.
  • Specific phobias.
    • Arachnophobia: Fear of spiders.
    • Acrophobia: Fear of heights.
    • Agoraphobia: Fear of situations where escape might be difficult.
  • Panic disorder: Sudden and intense panic attacks.
  • Social anxiety disorder: Fear of being judged.
  • Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD): Excessive worry about everyday things.
  • Causes: Learned associations, maladaptive thought processes, biological and genetic roots.

• Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders

  • Obsessive-Compulsive: Persistent intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive actions (compulsions).
    • Compulsions: Repetitive behaviors meant to reduce anxiety
    • OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder): Obsessions and compulsions become overwhelming.
    • Hoarding disorder: Difficulty parting with possessions.
  • Causes: Learned associations, cognitive factors, biological factors.

• Dissociative Disorders

  • Dissociative Disorders: Disconnection from consciousness, memory, or identity.
    • Dissociative amnesia: Forgetting important personal information.
    • Fugue states: Sudden, unexpected travel with loss of identity.
    • Dissociative identity disorder (DID): Fragmentation of identity.
  • Causes: Trauma and stress.

• Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders

  • Trauma and Stressor-Related disorders: Develop in response to distressing life experiences.
    • Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
      • Hypervigilance: Constant state of being on high alert.
      • Severe anxiety.
      • Flashbacks: Reliving the traumatic event.
      • Insomnia
      • Detachment
      • Hostility
  • Causes: Severity and duration of the trauma, genetic and brain chemistry, lack of social support.

• Feeding and Eating Disorders

  • Feeding and Eating disorders: Severe disturbances in eating behavior.

    • Anorexia nervosa:: Fear of gaining weight; distorted body image.
    • Bulimia nervosa. (Binge-purging): followed by compensatory behaviors, like induced vomiting.

  • Causes: Genetic predisposition, brain chemistry, peer pressure, social media, body standards, restrictive dieting, distorted thinking.

• Personality Disorders

  • Personality disorders: Enduring patterns of behavior and inner experience that significantly differ from cultural expectations.
  • Cluster A: The odd and eccentric cluster.
    • Paranoid personality disorder: Distrust and suspicion of others.
    • Schizoid personality disorder: Detachment from social relationships.
    • Schizotypal personality disorder: Eccentric behavior and odd beliefs.
  • Cluster B: The dramatic, emotional, and erratic cluster.
    • Antisocial personality disorder: Disregard for the rights of others.
    • Borderline personality disorder: Intense mood swings and unstable relationships.
    • Histrionic personality disorder: Excessive emotionality and attention-seeking.
    • Narcissistic personality disorder: Grandiose sense of self-importance.
  • Cluster C: The anxious and fearful cluster.
    • Avoidant personality disorder: Extreme sensitivity to criticism.
    • Dependent personality disorder: Excessive need to be taken care of.
    • Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder: Preoccupation with order, perfectionism, and control.
  • Causes: Biological, psychological, and social influence on one another.

Treatment of Psychological Disorders

• Biological treatments: Medications or medical procedures.
• Psychotherapy. (Talk Therapy): Changing thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
• Psychiatric medications:
  • Can manage severe symptoms of disorders like schizophrenia and depression, but can have multiple side effects.
• Deinstitutionalization:.
  • Shift gave people more independence but also created challenges in making sure they had access to the support they needed, which was not always the case.
• Evidence-based interventions backed by research.
• Cultural humility: Recognizing and respecting cultural differences.
• Therapeutic alliance. (Trust): Is one of the biggest factors in successful treatment.
• Often combine both medication and psychotherapy.

Specific Types of Therapy

• Psychodynamic Therapy
  • Rooted in the ideas of Sigmund Freud.
  • Focuses on unconscious thoughts, feelings, and conflicts.
  • Techniques:
    • Free association.
    • Dream interpretation.
• Cognitive Therapy
  • Based on the idea that the way we think influences the way we feel.
  • Maladaptive thinking:
    *Irrational, unhelpful, or just plain wrong.
    *Cognitive restructuring:
    *The process of identifying negative thoughts, challenging them, and replacing them with more balanced, realistic ones.
  • Used to treat disorders like anxiety. Fear hierarchies.
  • Cognitive Triad (Aaron Beck):
    • Negative view of self, world, and the future
• Behavioral Therapy
  • Changing behaviors by using principles of learning.
  • Applied behavior analysis (ABA).
  • Exposure therapy. (for anxiety and phobias).
    *Systematic Desensitization
  • Aversion therapy. (Creating Negative Associations).
  • Token economy. (rewards system).
  • Biofeedback. (Regulate body functions).
• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
  • Combines cognitive and behavioral therapies to reshape thoughts and behaviors.
  • Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). (regulate emotions, handle distress, and improve relationships).
  • Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT). (Focuses on challenging irrational beliefs).
• Humanistic Therapy
  • Self-improvement and personal growth, emphasizing meaning, purpose, and self-acceptance.
    • Carl Roger's Client Centered Therapy
      • Active listening.
        *Unconditional Positive Regard.
• Alternative Approaches
  • Hypnosis

Biological Therapies

• Psychiatric Medications
  • Antidepressants. (SSRIs).
    *Improve mood by increasing serotonin levels.
  • Anti-anxiety medications
    *Calm the nervous system.
  • Mood stabilizers
    *Treat bipolar disorder.
  • Antipsychotics
    *Treat schizophrenia.
• Other Biological Therapies
  • Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). (electrical zaps).
    *For severe depression.
  • Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). (magnetic pulses).
    *Non-invasive, for depression.
  • Psychosurgery( removing/altering brain). (used in extreme cases).