Health Psychology (9)

Christine L. Whitley

Phychophysiological disorders are those that link physical symptoms with psychological factors

Some psychophysiological disorders are brought about purely by psychological factors (e.g. anorexia nervosa)

Some psychophysiological disorders have a larger physical component, and are less closely related to psychological factors (e.g. cardiovascular disease) although psychological factors are still important

Nuclear Conflict Theory holds that each physiological disorder is associated with certain specific (unconscious) emotional conflicts.

Freud1856 - 1939

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

- Sigmund Freud

The Psychoanalytic Perspective

Psychoanalysis Freud’s theory of personality that attributes

our thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts

techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions

Free Association in psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the

unconscious person relaxes and says whatever comes to

mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

Stress and Illness Stress

the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging

What Is Stress?

Stress is the emotional and physiological process that occurs as one tries to adjust to or deal with environmental circumstances that disrupt, or threaten to disrupt, one’s daily functioning.

Stressors are the environmental circumstances that cause people to make adjustments.

Stress reactions are the physical, psychological, and behavioral responses displayed in the face of stressors.

Stress Appraisal

Stressful event(tough math test)

Threat(“Yikes! This isbeyond me!”)

Challenge(“I’ve got to apply

all I know”)

Panic, freeze up

Aroused, focused

Appraisal Response

The Process of Stress

Chronic stress and the effects on the body

Test your daily hassles

Found on: http://www.paniccure.com/Approaches/CBT/Intro_Understandg_P.htm

Stress and Illness

General Adaptation Syndrome Selye’s concept

of the body’s adaptive response to stress in three stages

Stressresistance

Phase 1Alarm

reaction(mobilize

resources)

Phase 2Resistance(cope with stressor)

Phase 3Exhaustion(reservesdepleted)

The body’s resistance to stress canlast only so long before exhaustion sets in

Stressoroccurs

PSYCHONEUROIMMUNOLOGY: the field that examine the relationship between psychosocial processes and nervous,

endocrine, and immune system functioning. The Immune system is a group of cells

and organs that work together to fight infections in our bodies. Some of these organs are the thymus, spleen and lymphocytes.

The Immune System protects our body from pathogens, disease-causing agents, such as bacteria.  

There are two parts of the Immune System called nonspecific defenses and specific defenses. 

Nonspecific defenses, also known as the innate immune system, guard infections.  These defenses can find foreign tissues, but do not recognize a particular invader. 

Specific defenses, also known as the adaptive immune system, can track down pathogens that passed through the nonspecific defenses. 

Resources:

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1996/illpres/introduction.html

Health information

Social Network: Family Friends …

Coronary Heart Diseases (CHD) is also linked to stress, with “stressed out”

individuals…

Type A Tendency to respond to environmental stressors in a particular way; of its components (hostility, competitiveness, aggressiveness, and mistrust

Hostility is most reliably linked to CDH

Type B Individuals are calm and relaxed - essentially they are the anti Type A

Not a risk factor for CHD

Type C Can’t express hostile emotions, are overly agreeable, and avoid conflict.

At risk for cancer but there is no clear empirical evidence

5 general strategies

1) Seeking information refers to evaluating possibilities and their likelihood for success

2) Taking direct actions refers to actually doing something to change the situation

3) Inhibiting action refers to suppressing the desire to act; it’s effective if there really is nothing that can be done.

4) Engaging intrapsychic efforts involves suppressing or ignoring upsetting thoughts or reframing them into more positive ones.

5) Calling on others involves asking other people for physical or emotional support or help.

5 major goals associated with coping efforts

A. Dealing realistically with the problem B. Tolerating or adjusting emotionally to

the negative realities C. Attempting to maintain a positive self-

image D. Attempting to maintain emotional

equilibrium E. Attempting to continue satisfying

relationships with other people

Social-Cognitive Perspective

Personal Control our sense of

controlling our environments rather than feeling helpless

External Locus of Control the perception that

chance or outside forces beyond one’s personal control determine one’s fate

Social-Cognitive Perspective

Learned Helplessness

Uncontrollablebad events

Perceivedlack of control

Generalizedhelpless behavior

Social-Cognitive Perspective

Personal Control our sense of controlling

our environments rather than feeling helpless

Internal Locus of Control the perception that one

controls one’s own fate

Optimistic Thinking

Pessimistic Thinking

Challenge: open to change. take risks.willingness to make the effort.

'I can do it''I will try my best' Control: take responsibility for their actions. proactive.

'I have choices and options''If I make a mistake I will do whatever it takes to correct it'Commitment: tendency to persist.

'I will keep trying until it works''I will make it happen'

Personalize: tendency to take the blame for everything.  freeze. 

'Its my fault'  'I am bad'  or 'I am wrong' Pervasive: tendency to over-generalize. feel overwhelmed.

'Everything I do is wrong'  'I can do nothing right'  'I always make a mess of things'Permanent: tendency to exaggerate. 

'It will always be this way''Nothing I do will make it change''It is always a mess'

Professor Aaron Antonovsky (1923–1994): the father of the salutogenesis

We are coming to understand health not as the absence of disease, but rather as the process by which individuals maintain their sense of coherence (i.e. sense that life is comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful) and ability to function in the face of changes in themselves and their relationships with their environment. -Aaron Antonovsky.

Emotion

Emotion a response of the

whole organism physiological

arousal expressive

behaviors conscious

experience

Wellness

Exercise properly Sleep

adequatelyMaintaining a healthy diet

Diathesis-Stress Approachto Psychopathology

James D. Laird and Nicholas S. Thompson, Psychology. Copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Reprinted by permission.

Promoting Health The religion factor is multidimensional

Religiousinvolvement

Healthybehaviors

(less smoking,drinking)

Social support(faith

communities,marriage)

Positiveemotions

(less stress,anxiety)

Better health(less immune systemsuppression, stress

hormones, and suicide)

Life events

Tendency toward

Health Illness

Personal appraisal

Challenge Threat

Personality type

Easy going, Nondepressed,Optimistic

Hostile, Depressed,Pessimistic

Personal habits

Nonsmoking, Regular exercise, Good nutrition

Smoking, Sedentary,Poor nutrition

Level of social support

Close, enduring Lacking

Promoting Health