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Psychological Science, 3rd Edition: Michael Gazzaniga Todd Heatherton Diane Halpern
Psychological Science, 3rd Edition: Michael Gazzaniga Todd Heatherton Diane Halpern
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Questions to Consider:
Can Psychosocial Factors Affect Health? How Do People Cope with Stress? What Behaviors Affect Mental and Physical Health? Can a Positive Attitude Keep Us Healthy?
The Biopsychosocial Model of Health Incorporates Multiple Perspectives for Understanding and Improving Health Behavior Contributes to the Leading Causes of Death Critical Thinking Skill: Identifying Regression to the Mean Placebos Can Be Powerful Medicine Critical Thinking Skill: Recognizing Placebo Effects When Evaluating Treatment Claims
Learning Objectives
Describe the biopsychosocial model of health. Provide examples of the ways behavior contributes to the leading causes of death. Explain how placebos can affect health.
Health psychologists utilize the biopsychosocial model in their investigations into what leads to health and well-being
Biological factors
Behavioral factors
Social conditions
This model illustrates how health and illness result from a combination of factors.
Accidents another leading cause of death may be reduced by changing our behaviors, such as wearing seat belts
For any range of events, a more extreme event will tend to be followed by an event closer to the average (mean) If you are aware of this principle, you are less likely to believe an unrelated factor is responsible for the return to a normal state
Suppose you study as usual for an exam, but just by bad luck, the professor asks questions you cannot answer, so you get a very low grade. If you study as usual for the next exam, you are likely (but not guaranteed) to get a grade closer to your usual high grades. If you study as usual but also go to a hypnotist to help calm your anxiety for the next exam, what will most likely happen? You probably will score closer to the way you usually do. Other than the hypnosis (on the realities of which, see Chapter 4, The Mind and Consciousness), what factors would explain the improvement?
Believing that you will get better can lead to improved health even if the treatment is inert
Functional MRI results indicate that when patients have a positive expectation about a placebo, the neural processes involved are the same ones that are activated in response to a biologically active treatment
Placebo effects occur in many contexts People who fall for false treatments often avoid medical care It is difficult to know how much of what we feel is influenced by our beliefs
Learning Objectives
Describe differences and similarities between female and male responses to stress. Define and evaluate the general adaptation syndrome. Describe and evaluate different ways of coping.
Stress, defined as a pattern of behavioral and physiological responses that match or exceed a persons abilities to respond in a healthy way
Stress can occur as a result of happy events such as getting married (eustress) or negative events such as getting fired (distress)
Stress activates the hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal (HPA) axis, leading to the secretion of cortisol
Negatively impact internal organs Interfere with the neural processes needed to create long-lasting memories Cause damage to neurons in the hippocampus
Fight-or-flight response
Including increased heart rate, redistribution of the blood supply from skin and digestive organs to muscles and brain, deeper breathing, dilation of the pupils, inhibition of gastric secretions, and an increase in glucose released from the liver Most of the early research on the fight-or-flight response was conducted on males
For women, the tend-and-befriend response has been proposed as a response to stress
Women respond to stress by protecting and caring for their offspring, as well as by forming alliances with social groups to reduce individual risk
Oxytocin
Hans Selye identified the three stages of the general adaptation syndrome:
Overwhelming evidence indicates that chronic stress, especially psychosocial stress, is associated with the initiation and progression of a wide variety of diseases, from cancer to AIDS to cardiac disease Also, many people cope with stress by engaging in damaging behaviors
Immune system:
The field of psychoneuroimmunology investigates how stress impacts the immune system
In research, more desirable events experienced by subjects lead to more antibodies being produced
Heart disease:
Negative emotions especially hostility have been found to increase the risk of coronary heart disease Type A behavior pattern vs. Type B behavior pattern Allostatic load of illness
Coping Is a Process
People use:
Coping Is a Process
Types of coping:
Emotion-focused coping
Person tries to prevent an emotional response Avoidance, minimizing the problem, eating, drinking, and so on Involve taking direct steps to solve the problem Generating solutions, weighing costs and benefits Tend to be used more when the stressor is perceived as controllable
Problem-focused strategies
Coping Is a Process
Additional strategies such as positive reappraisal, downward comparisons, and creation of positive events have also been found to be effective coping strategies
Coping varies from person to person with those described as higher in hardiness (commitment, challenge and control) showing greater ability to adapt successfully to stress
Learning Objectives
Summarize the causes of obesity and reasons for smoking, and use this information to suggest methods for reducing obesity and smoking. List the physical, emotional, and cognitive benefits of exercise.
Discriminating against those who are obese is one of the last acceptable forms of discrimination
NAAFA Two common measures are being 20% over ideal body weight or having a body mass index (BMI) over a specified number
You can find your own BMI by finding the point at which your weight and height meet on the graph. Beyond or below the optimal normal range, you are at greater risk for health problems.
Genetic influence
Obesity tends to run in families with heritability estimates between 60 and 80 percent Identical twins raised apart do not significantly differ in weight from identical twins raised together Genetics appears to determine a persons sensitivity to becoming obese
Certain studies suggest that simply overeating will not lead to obesity
Stigma of obesity:
Being obese has been correlated with low selfesteem and many medical problems
Restrictive dieting:
Repeatedly shown to be ineffective due, in part, to our biological set-point The body responds to restrictive dieting by slowing the metabolism and using less energy Yo-yo dieting
Restrained eating:
Chronic dieters engage in overeating (or binges) under certain conditions causing them to give up on their diets due to their perception of having blown it (failed) It is suggested that eating has now become controlled by cognitive rather than internal cues of hunger
Disordered eating:
Anorexia
Is most likely to occur among adolescents Anorexia leads to death in 1520% of those diagnosed Pattern of binging and dieting, often accompanied by some type of purging Compulsive binge eating leads to more secretive behavior
Bulimia
One Quarter of Americans smoke, with most beginning to smoke between 11 and 17 One third of those who smoke will die from smoking-related causes Smoking has increased in low-income countries Smoking has been linked to cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and several forms of cancer
Starting smoking:
Social influences are the most powerful explanation for why people begin to smoke
The false consensus effect Smoking conveys a certain image of being cool or tough
Once smoking begins, the addictive properties of tobacco maintain the behavior Some individuals may be genetically susceptible to the addictive effects of nicotine
In order to lose weight, individuals must increase exercise and decrease consumption of food To quit smoking, the individual may need to deal with the withdrawal effects through a nicotine patch, avoid those who smoke and places where smoking is likely to occur, and substitute healthy behaviors for smoking
Promotes neurogenesis
These results stand in stark contrast to the fact that approximately 60 percent of Americans do not engage in any regular exercise
The improved health benefits of exercise occur regardless of how old the person is when or she begins exercising Exercise also improves mental health, stress, and improves mood
In the United States, white males and females live, on average, about 5 years longer than their nonwhite counterparts
Multiple reasons explain these differences, including access to affordable health care, genetics, and cultural factors
Assimilation
Can a Positive Attitude Keep Us Healthy? Being Positive Has Health Benefits Social Support and Social Integration Are Associated with Good Health Trust and Health Are Related across Cultures Spirituality Contributes to Well-Being Action Plan for Health and Well-Being
Learning Objectives
Discuss research showing that optimism, social support, trust, and spirituality are good for our health.
Positive emotion and pleasure, engagement in life, and having a meaningful life
Higher hope was associated with lower risk for disease Higher levels of curiosity were associated with lower levels of hypertension and diabetes More optimistic individuals have been found to have enhanced immune systems, lower levels of common diseases such as colds, and greater longevity
In several studies
Social Support and Social Integration Are Associated with Good Health
Social interaction predicts longevity even when other risk factors are held constant
The number of people in an individuals social network is not as important as the amount of social integration or quality of social relationships
Social Support and Social Integration Are Associated with Good Health
Reduces stress by providing assistance in carrying out difficult tasks Reduces stress by the emotional support provided (buffering hypothesis)
Social Support and Social Integration Are Associated with Good Health
Emotional disclosure has positive health effects Marriage can be good for your health:
Single women have a 50% greater mortality than married women and single men have a 250% greater mortality than married men But troubled relationships are associated with increased stress, decreased immune system functioning, and negative health outcomes
These data come from the National Health Interview Surveys in the United States from 1999 to 2002. The greatest benefit from marriage can be seen in the age range 4564 years.
When one person trusts another, oxytocin is released, suggesting that people who release more of this chemical may be more trusting
Alternatively, when men are in situations where they do not trust another person, they release larger amounts of the chemical testosterone
Women do not appear to release greater amounts of testosterone in similar situations of distrust
Correlational studies are already suggesting that trust is found to be associated with positive health outcomes
Numerous studies have found that religious individuals, regardless of their particular faith, report greater well-being than those who are not religious
This effect appears to be due to spiritualitys effect as a buffer against stressful events Faith may provide a sense of meaning in ones life, a supportive community, and restrictions on unhealthy lifestyle factors such as drinking alcohol
Eat natural foods Watch portion sizes Drink alcohol in moderation, if at all Keep active Do not smoke Practice safe sex
Learn to relax Learn to cope Build a strong support network Write about troubling events in your life Consider your spiritual life Try some of the happiness exercises
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