13-Health, Stress and Coping
Health psychology – Applying psychological principles to help understand how people
stay healthy, why they become ill, and how they respond when they do get ill
Behavioral medicine – combines behavioral knowledge and medical knowledge to the
prevention and treatment of
Many of the leading causes of death are now attributable to ______________________.
Stress
Stress – our response to events that disrupt, or threaten to disrupt, our physical or
psychological functioning
3 characteristics:
1.
2.
3.
Hans Selye described our physiological reaction to stress as the “general adaptation
syndrome” which has 3 stages:
1. alarm
2. resistance
3. exhaustion
Why do different people respond to the same stressors in different ways?
2 types of cognitive appraisal:
1. Primary
2. Secondary
Daily hassles are small, but may be as harmful to our health as major stressors.
Examples of daily hassles:
13-Health, Stress and Coping
Stress and Health:
*There is a relation between our stress level and our immune system.
Antigen –
Lymphocyte –
There are things that we can do to help deal with stress, one of which is seeking social
support.
How would social support be related to better health?
*Ways people cope with stress:
1.
2.
Symptom Perception
Symptoms –
Factors that affect symptom perception
1.
2.
3.
Appropriate Illness Behavior versus Abnormal Illness Behavior
Abnormal Illness Behavior – 2 extremes
13-Health, Stress and Coping
1.
2.
*The first type of AIB:
The health belief model helps us understand why people don’t seek health care when they
are sick and why they don’t engage in behaviors that prevent illness. The health belief
model looks at 2 factors:
1.
2.
*The second type of AIB:
Factitious Illness Behavior –
Factitious Disorder –
The most extreme cases of Factitious Disorder are known as Munchausen Syndrome:
-
*Examples
So why do people do this?
13-Health, Stress and Coping
*Self-Enhancement Model –
Uniqueness/Feeling Special
Knowledgeable/Feeling Smart
Friendly with Doctor/Feeling Important
Self-handicapping/Excuse for Failure
***Additional Note – Factitious Illness by Proxy (Munchausen by Proxy) is a form of
this disorder in which the person exaggerates the symptoms of or induces illness in
another individual (usually a child or elderly person in their care).