Psychology

2.  The word health comes to us from an old German
word that is represented, in English, by the words hale
and whole, both of which refer to a state of “soundness
of body.
 Health involves physical as well as psychological
and social well-being.

3.  Health Psychology: The application of psychological
principles and research to the enhancement of health
and the prevention and treatment of illness.

4.  Its concerns include social conditions such as:
the availability of health care and support from family
and friends),
biological factors (such as family longevity and
inherited vulnerabilities to certain diseases),
and even personality traits (such as optimism).

5.  Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
(PPACA) : A new federal law was signed in March 23,
2010, by President Barack Obama that was aimed at
reducing the number of people in the United States
who do not have health insurance, as well as lowering
the costs of health care.

6. Health and Illness: Lessons from
the Past
 At one time, people thought that disease was caused
by demons.
 At another, they saw it as a form of punishment for
moral weakness.
 Today, we wrestle with very different questions, such
as, “Can disease be caused by an unhealthy
personality?”
 Case study of Mariana (from book)

7.  Ancient Views
Prehistoric Medicine
 When a person became sick, there was no obvious
physical reason for it. Rather, the stricken individual’s
condition was misattributed to weakness in the face of
a stronger force, bewitchment, or possession by an evil
spirit (Amundsen, 1996).

8.  Trephination: An ancient medical intervention in
which a hole was drilled into the human skull,
presumably to allow “evil spirits” to escape.

9.  Greek and Roman Medicine
 The most dramatic advances in public health and
sanitation were made in Greece and Rome during the
sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E.
 The first aqueduct brought pure water into Rome as
early as 312 B.C.E., and cleaning of public roads.

10.  Hippocrates, who is often called the “father of modern
medicine,” was the first to argue that disease is a
natural phenomenon and that the causes of disease
(and therefore their treatment and prevention) are
knowable and worthy of serious study.
 Hippocrates proposed the first rational explanation of
why people get sick.

11.  According to his humoral theory, a healthy body and
mind resulted from equilibrium among four bodily
fluids called humors: blood, yellow bile, black bile,
and phlegm.
 To maintain a proper balance, a person had to follow a
healthy lifestyle that included exercise, sufficient rest,
a good diet, and the avoidance of excesses.

12.  Non-Western Medicine
 Emerging, different traditions of healing were
developing in other cultures.
 Chinese developed an integrated system of healing,
which we know today as traditional Oriental medicine
(TOM).

13.  TOM is founded on the principle that internal
harmony is essential for good health.
 Fundamental to this harmony is the concept of qi
(sometimes spelled chi), a vital energy or life force that
flows with changes in each person’s mental, physical,
and emotional well-being.

14. Discoveries of the Nineteenth
Century
 Cellular theory: Formulated in the nineteenth
century, the theory that disease is the result of
abnormalities in body cells.
 Germ theory : The theory that disease is caused by
viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms that
invade body cells.

15.  Pasteur’s discoveries helped shape the germ theory of
disease—the idea that bacteria, viruses, and other
microorganisms that invade body cells cause them to
malfunction.
 The germ theory, which is basically a refinement of
the cellular theory, forms the theoretical foundation of
modern medicine.

16. Twentieth-Century Trends That
Shaped Health Psychology
 See Table 1.3.
 It looked more and more to physiology and anatomy,
rather than to the study of thoughts and emotions.
 Biomedical Model: The dominant view of twentieth-
century medicine that maintains that illness always
has a physical cause.

17.  The biomedical model has three distinguishing
features:
 First, it assumes that disease is the result of a
pathogen—A virus, bacterium, or some other
microorganism that causes a particular disease.
 Second, the biomedical model is based on the
Cartesian doctrine of mind–body dualism; the
philosophical viewpoint that mind and body are
separate entities that do not interact.
 Finally, according to the biomedical model, health is
nothing more than the absence of disease.

18.  Biological, psychological, and sociocultural forces act
together to determine an individual’s health and
vulnerability to disease.
 See Fig 1.2

19. The Biological Context
 Every thought, mood, and urge is a biological event
made possible because of the characteristic anatomical
structure and biological function of a person’s body.
 Genetic makeup and our nervous, immune, and
endocrine systems (see Chapter 3).
 Genes provide a guideline for our biology and
predispose our behaviors— healthy and unhealthy,
normal and abnormal.

20.  For example, the tendency to abuse alcohol has long
been known to run in some families (see Chapter 9).
 Some people may inherit a greater sensitivity to
alcohol’s physical effects; such people may be more
likely to drink, especially in certain psychological and
social contexts.
 Genomics The study of the structure, function, and
mapping of the genetic material of organisms.

21.  It is true that genes influence all traits, both
psychological and physical.
 But even identical twins, who share identical genes, do
not have identical traits.
 Biology and behavior constantly interact.
 For example, some individuals are more vulnerable to
stress-related illnesses because they angrily react to
daily hassles and other environmental “triggers” (see
Chapter 4).

22.  Epigenetic The effects of environmental forces on how
genes are expressed.
 For example DNA methylation,
 A biochemical process that occurs in cells and is essential
to the healthy functioning of nearly every body system.
 Occurring billions of time each second,
 Methylation helps regulate the expression of genes that
repair DNA and promote healthy blood vessels.
 A breakdown in methylation may promote the
development of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease,
and even accelerate aging.

23.  Life-course perspective Theoretical perspective that
focuses on age-related aspects of health and illness.
 For example, how a pregnant woman’s malnutrition,
smoking, or use of psychoactive drugs would affect her
child’s lifelong development.
 Her child might be born early and suffer from low
birth weight.
 Consequences include smaller brain volume; slowed
motor, social, and language development;; heart
disease and diabetes; long-term learning difficulties;
and even death .

24. The Psychological Context
 Health and illness are subject to psychological
influences.
 See Fig 1.3.
 A key factor in how well a person copes with a stressful
life experience is how the event is appraised or
interpreted i.e, overwhelming, pervasive, and beyond
our control.
 Whether a stressful event is actually experienced or
merely imagined?

25.  Subjective well-being The cognitive and emotional
evaluations of a person’s life.
 Our feelings of happiness and sense of satisfaction
with life (see Table 1.4).
 Psychological interventions can help patients learn to
manage their tension, thereby lessening negative
reactions to treatment.
 Patients who are more relaxed are usually better able,
and more motivated, to follow their doctors’
instructions.

26.  Psychological interventions can also assist patients in
managing the everyday stresses of life, which seem to
exert a cumulative effect on the immune system.
 Negative life events such as bereavement, divorce, job
loss, or relocation have been linked to decreased
immune functioning and increased susceptibility to
illness.
 By teaching patients more effective ways of managing
unavoidable stress, health psychologists may help
patients’ immune systems combat disease.

27. The Social Context
 Health behavior in its social context, health
psychologists consider the ways in which we think
about, influence, and relate to one another and to our
environments.
 Your gender, for example, entails a particular, socially
prescribed role that represents your sense of being a
woman or a man.
 In addition, you are a member of a particular family,
community, and nation; you also have a certain racial,
cultural, and ethnic identity, and you live within a
specific socioeconomic class.

28.  Social context in which a chronic disease such as
cancer occurs.
 A spouse, significant other, or close friend provides an
important source of social support for many cancer
patients.
 Women and men who feel socially connected to a
network of caring friends are less likely to die of all
types of cancer than their socially isolated
counterparts (see Chapter 11).

29.  Sociocultural Perspective considers how social and
cultural factors contribute to health and disease.
 Culture refers to the enduring behaviors, values, and
customs that a group of people have developed over
the years and transmitted from one generation to the
next.
 Minorities tend to receive lower-quality health care
than whites do, even when insurance status, income,
age, and severity of conditions are comparable.

30.  Sociocultural forces also play an important role in the
variation in health related beliefs and behaviors.
 For example, traditional Native American health care
practices are holistic and do not distinguish separate
models for mental and physical illnesses.
 As another example, Christian Scientists traditionally
reject the use of medicine in their belief that sick
people can be cured only through prayer.

31.  Gender Perspective in health psychology focuses on
the study of gender-specific health behaviors,
problems, and barriers to health care.
 With the exceptions of reproductive-system problems
and undernourishment, men are more vulnerable than
women to nearly every other health problem.
 The idea that masculinity is bad for men’s health is a
strong theme in health psychology.

32.  Compared to women, men are more likely to:
o make unhealthy food choices,
o be overweight,
o exceed guidelines for alcohol consumption and engage
in binge drinking,
o ignore illness symptoms and avoid seeing doctors,
o engage in risky competitive sports where there is a
higher rate of injury, and
o be at greater risk for nearly all the major diseases that
affect both sexes

33. Applying the Biopsychosocial
Model
 Consider the example of alcohol abuse, which is a
maladaptive drinking pattern. (Fig 1.6)
 Alcohol abuse is best understood as occurring in three
contexts:
o biological,
o psychological, and
o social

34.  Research studies of families, identical and fraternal
twins, and adopted children clearly demonstrate that
people (especially men) who have a biological relative
who was alcohol dependent are significantly more
likely to abuse alcohol themselves.
 In fact, for males, alcoholism in a first-degree relative
is the single best predictor of alcoholism.

35.  On the psychological side, specific personality traits
and behaviors that are linked with alcohol dependence
and abuse.
 One such trait is poor self-regulation, characterized by
an inability to exercise control over drinking.
 Another is negative emotionality, marked by
irritability and agitation.

36.  On the social side, alcohol abuse sometimes stems
from a history of drinking to cope with life events or
overwhelming social demands.
 Peer pressure, difficult home and work environments,
and tension reduction also may contribute to problem
drinking.
 In many college students know, certain social contexts
promote heavy drinking.