chapter 14 health. copyright © houghton mifflin company. all rights reserved.14 | 2 health...

Chapter 14Health

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 14 | 2

Health Psychology

• The application of psychology to the promotion of physical health and the prevention and treatment of illness.

• But isn’t physical illness a purely biological event?


Stress and Health


Stress

• An unpleasant state of arousal that arises when we perceive that the demands of an event threaten our ability to cope effectively.

• Subjective appraisal of the situation determines:– How we will experience the stress– What coping strategies we will use


Figure 14.1: TheStress-and-Coping Process


What Causes Stress?


Scarring Effects of Natural Disasters

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Increase in

Suicide Rate

Floods Hurricances Earthquakes

Type of Natural Disaster


Crises and Catastrophes

• Stressors: Anything that causes stress.• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): A person

experiences enduring physical and psychological symptoms after an extremely stressful event.


Major Life Events

• Change itself may cause stress by forcing us to adapt to new circumstances.

• Is change, positive or negative, necessarily harmful?

– No support that positive “stressors” are as harmful as negative stressors.

– Impact of change depends on person and how change is interpreted.


The accumulation of daily hassles does more to make people sick than catastrophes or major life changes.

Answer: True… Let’s see why!

Putting Common Sense to the Test…


Microstressors: The Hasslesof Everyday Life

• Most common source of stress arises from the daily hassles that irritate us.

– e.g., environmental factors.

• “Microstressors” place a constant strain on us.

– The accumulation of daily hassles contributes more to illness than do major life events.


How Does Stress Affect the Body?


Like humans, zebras get ulcers.

Answer: False… Let’s see why!



Figure 14.3: The General Adaptation Syndrome


What Stress Does to the Heart

• Type A Behavior Pattern: Characterized by extremes of competitive striving for achievement, a sense of time urgency, hostility, and aggression.

– A risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD)?

• Hostility appears to be the main toxic ingredient in CHD.


Why Is Hostility and CHD Linked?

• Cardiovascular system becomes overworked.• Hostile people are less health conscious.• Hostile people are physiologically reactive.

– In tense social situations, they exhibit more intense cardiovascular reactions.


Stress can weaken the heart, but it cannot affect the immune system.




What Stress Does to the Immune System

• Stress compromises the body’s immune system.• Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI): A subfield of

psychology that examines the links among psychological factors, the brain and nervous system, and the immune system.


Figure 14.4: Pathways from Stress to Illness


Figure 14.5: Stress Duration and Illness

From A. Baum and S. Valins, Architecture and Social Behavior: Psychological Studies of Social Density.


Process of Appraisal


Attributional and Explanatory Styles

• Seligman (1975): Depression results from learned helplessness.

• Abramson et al. (1989): Depression is a state of hopelessness brought on by the negative self-attributions people make for failure.

– Depressive explanatory style


Figure 14.6: ExplanatoryStyles and Depression

PSYCHOLOGY 3/E by Kassin, Saul, (c) 1997. Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ.

From Psychology, 3rd Edition by Saul Kassin. Copyright (c) 1997. Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ.


Hardiness Personality Style

• Individuals exhibit three characteristics:– Commitment– Challenge– Control

• Hardiness serves as a buffer against stress.– Perception of control is most important factor.


Perception of Control

• The expectation that our behaviors can produce satisfying outcomes

• Self-efficacy: Feelings of competence– A state of mind that varies from one specific task and

situation to another


When it comes to physical health, research does not support popular beliefs about the power of positive thinking.




Optimism and Hope

• Optimism is a generalized tendency to expect positive outcomes.

– Characterized by a nondepressive explanatory style

• Health can spring from optimism, as evident by the placebo effect.


Figure 14.7: Hopelessnessand the Risk of Death

From S.A. Everson, et al., "Hopelessness and Risk of Mortality and Incidence of Myorcardial Infarction and Cancer, "Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol. 58, 121-133. Reprinted with permission of Lippincott,

Williams & Wilkins. See the Lippincott Williams & Wilkins home page at http://lww.com


Pollyanna’s Health

• Positive thinking cannot guarantee good health.– Victims of illness do not just have a “bad attitude.”

• Limits to positive thinking.– Especially if it leads us to see ourselves and events

in ways that are not realistic.


Ways of Coping with Stress


Table 14.2: Ways of Coping with Stress

Copyright © 1989 by the American Psychological Association. Reproduced with permission. From C.S. Carver, M.F. Scheier and J.K. Weintraub, "Assessing Coping Strategies: A Theoretically Based Approach," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 267-283, 1989. No further

reproduction or distribution is permitted without written permission from the American Psychological Association.


Coping Strategies

• Problem-focused coping• Emotion-focused coping• Proactive coping


Problem-Focused Coping

• In dealing with essential tasks, it is better to confront and control than to avoid.

• Why is it not always a beneficial approach?– Can be physiologically taxing– Can lead to development of an over-controlling,

stress-inducing Type A pattern of behavior


Emotion-Focused Coping: Shutting Down

• One way to react to stress is by shutting down and trying to deny or suppress the unpleasant thoughts and feelings.

• Distraction can be an adaptive form of avoidance coping.

• Concealing one’s innermost thoughts and feelings can be physiologically taxing.


Emotion-Focused Coping: Opening Up

• Two aspects to opening up as an emotional means for coping with stress:

– One must acknowledge and understand one’s emotional reactions to important events.

– One must express those inner feelings to themselves and others.

• Why might opening up be helpful?– Cathartic experience?– Helps to gain insight into the problem?


Self-Focus: Getting Trappedvs. Getting Out

• Self-awareness theory revisited.• A self-perpetuating feedback loop can occur:

– Being in a bad mood triggers self-focus.– Self-focus in people with low self-esteem further

worsens the mood.

• Gender differences: Women brood and menact out.


Figure 14.8: Aspinwall and Taylor’s Model of Proactive Coping

From Aspinwall and Taylor (1997) "A Stitch in Time: Self-Regulation and Proactive Coping,“ Psychological

Bulletin, 121, 417-436. Copyright (c) 1997 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted with

permission.


People who have lots of friends are healthier and live longer than those who live more isolated lives.




Proactive Coping

• The helpful coping resources provided by friends and other people.

– Has therapeutic effects on both our psychological and physical health.

• Social support and contact related to longevity.


Figure 14.9: Does Being Popular Always Promote Health?

From N. Hamrick, S. Cohen, and M.S. Rodriguez, "Being Popular Can Be Healthy or Unhealthy: Stress, Social Network Diversity, and Incidence of Upper Respiratory Infection," Health Psychology, 21, 294-298,

2002. Copyright © 2002 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission.


How Should SocialSupport Be Defined?

• Simple social contact model– How many social contacts does a person have?

• Intimacy model– Does the person have a close relationship with a

significant other?

• Perceived availability– Does the person believe that ample support is

available when needed?


Social Support:The Religious Connection

• Religion provides an important source of social and emotional support for many.

– Only 15-20% of world’s population have no religious affiliation.

• Is there a link between religiosity and health?


Treatment and Prevention


Treatment: The “Social” Ingredients

• All healers provide social support.• All therapies offer a ray of hope.

– All therapies communicate and instill positive expectations.

• Patients can make meaningful choices about the treatment.


Figure 14.10: The Spreadof AIDS Across the Globe


As role models, celebrities have great influence over public health-care decisions.




Figure 14.11: Aiming for Good Health


The Pursuit of Happiness


Subjective Well-Being

• One’s happiness, or life satisfaction, as measured by self-report.

• In self-reports, 75% of American adults describe themselves as happy.

• What predicts happiness?– Social relationships– Employment status– Physical health


Why Doesn’t Money ContributeMore to Subjective Well-Being?

• Perceptions of wealth are not absolute but relative to certain standards.

– Social comparison theory revisited.

• People use their own recent past as a basis of comparison.

– Adaptation-level theory revisited.


A Set Baseline Level of Happiness?

• Ratings of happiness are higher among identical twins than among fraternal twins.

• Fluctuations in mood that accompany positive and negative life events wear off over time.

• Happiness levels are relatively stable over time and place.

chapter 14 health. copyright © houghton mifflin company. all rights reserved.14 | 2 health...

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