M1

• Health

  • state of complete well-being
• health psychology (4 goals)

  1. promote & maintain health
  2. prevent & treat illness
  3. identify & cause diagnostic correlates of health, illness & related dysfunction
  4. analyze & improve health care systems & health policy
• role of health psychologist

  study differences among social & cultural groups in order to understand & overcome health disparities
• minority status

  any time a group of people is singled out to receive differential or unequal treatment
• biopsychosocial approach

  biological, psychological, & social perspectives
• role of psychological factors in BPS

  1. cognition
  2. learning, remembering, thinking, etc
  3. emotion
  4. feelings that affect thoughts, behavior, & physiology
  5. motivation:
  6. motivation to feel & look better – taking care of oneself
• role of social factors in BPS

  1. society
  2. promoting values of one's culture
  3. community
  4. environmental characteristics influence physical activity & diet
  5. family
  6. closest & most continuous social relationships
  7. parental behaviors influence children
• concept of systems

  whole-person = biological concept of "systems"

  • components that are continuously interrelated
  • body, family, community, society
  • constantly changing
• mind-body connection

  mind & body are separate; 2 parts of the same system
• life span perspective

  characteristics of a person is considered with their prior, current, and future development

  • younger = short-term illness
  • older = chronic illness
• epidemiology

  mortality, morbidity, prevalence, incidence, epidemic, pandemic, risk factors, health disparities
• mortality

  occurence of death
• morbidity

  illness, injury, or disability
• prevalence


  number of cases of disease, illness, or disability
• incidence


  number of NEW cases of a disease, illness, or disability
• sociology; relation to health psych.

  socio-economic factors of health care access
• anthropology; relation to health psych.

  differences in health & health care across cultures
• health economics; relation to health psych.

  examines supply & demand for health resources
• health policy; relation to health psych.

  examines decisions, plans, and actions taken by the government
• epidemic

  situation in which the incidence has rapidly increased
• pandemic

  epidemic that has increased to international/worldwide proportions
• history of BPS

  • medical renaissance
  • biomedical reductionism
  • changing patterns of illness
  • life expectancy in canada
  • need for a new model
• medical renaissance

  to break away from superstitions of past centuries

  • not considering psychological factors
• cartesian dualism; medical renaissance

  mind & body are made of distinct substances & exist independently
• biomedical reductionism

  every disease process could be explained in terms of an underlying deviation from normal function
• biomedical model; biomedical reduction

  FOCUS: biology & physical aspects of health
• changing patterns of illness

  development of antibiotics, vaccines, improved sanitation, nutrition, and personal hygiene
• life expectancy in canada

  increasing – 81 yrs old

  • infant mortality rate decrease
  • cancer = leading cause of death
  • USA - leading cause of death is still heart disease
• need for a new model

  common causes of death are mainly chronic conditions

  • lack of known cures
  • can live with them, but their quality of life is affected
  • require expensive health care
• emergence of BPS model

  more holistic approach

  • underscored importance of psychology & social factors in health
• conversion hysteria; psychoanalytic theory

  proposed symptoms were "converted" from unconscious emotional conflicts
• behavioral medicine

  grew from behaviorism

  1. classical conditioning
  2. operant conditioning

  biofeedback approach = link between mind & body is more direct & pervasive
• interdisciplinary integration

  1. psychosomatic medicine
  2. involving physicians & behavioral scientists
  3. behavioral medicine
  4. FOCUS: interventions that promote healthy lifestyles without drugs or surgery
  5. health psychology
  6. draws heavily on other psychology subfields
• three common criticisms of BPS

  1. unclear boundaries
  2. difficult to define the relationship between factors
  3. model is too inclusive
  4. pluralistic approach = "anything goes"
  5. adoption of model in health care is limited by physicians' knowledge and training
• interplay of "systems"; BPS


  permanent interaction with their environment

  • biological systems –> genes & biology
  • psychological systems –> experience & behavior
  • world system –> social
• important lessons from psychology

  1. person-situation interaction should always be considered
  2. casual density is high
  3. numerous causal variables at play
  4. human behavior is complex
  5. same finding does not apply to everyone equally
• risk factors

  characteristics/conditions associated with the development of disease or injury

  • behavior matters
• behavioral risk factors associated with 5 leading causes of death in Canada

  1. cancer
  2. smoking, high alcohol consumption, obesity
  3. heart disease
  4. smoking, high blood pressure, high dietary cholesterol, obesity, lack of exercise
  5. stroke
  6. smoking, high blood pressure, high dietary cholesterol, lack of exercise
  7. chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
  8. chronic lung disease, smoking
  9. accidents
  10. alcohol/drug use, no seatbelt
• why people partake in risk factors:

  • less healthy behaviors = immediate pleasure
  • may feel social pressures to engage in certain behaviors
  • people are not aware of the dangers involved or how to change their behavior
• stress as a stimulus


  stimulus or change in the environment (can be objectively measured)