Chapter 14

• Health psychology


  Concerned with how psychological factors influence the causes and treatments of physical illness and the maintenance of health
• Environmental psychology


  Scientific study of environmental effects on behaviour and health
• Stressors


  Specific events or chronic pressures that place demands on a person or threaten a person's well-being
• Stress


  Physical and psychological response to internal or external stressors
• Stressful events


  Cause illness
• Higher the stress rating


  Greater likelihood of future illness
• Stress can include both positive AND negative life events
• Chronic stressors


  Sources of stress that occur continuously or repeatedly
• Chronic stressors


  Psychological/physical impact is greater and effects are longer-lasting than major life events
• Chronic stressors


  Can be linked to social relationships and even environments (e.g., noise, crowding, pollution)
• Events are most stressful


  When there is nothing that can be done - i.e., reduced perceived control
• Participants were asked to solve puzzles/proofread in a quiet room vs. a loud room; some participants had ability to turn noise off, some did not - having the option to turn the noise off lowered stress levels
• Fight-or-flight response


  An emotional and physiological reaction to an emergency that increases readiness for action
• Fight-or-flight response


  1. Threat triggers brain activation in hypothalamus

  2. Stimulates pituitary gland to release ACTH

  3. ACTH stimulates adrenal glands to release hormones like catecholamines (EP and NEP) and cortisol (increases [ ] of glucose in blood)

  4. Leads to the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and deactivation of the parasympathetic nervous system
• General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)


  Three-stage physiological stress response that appears regardless of the stressor that is encountered (aka nonspecific stress response – occurs regardless of the repeated stressor encountered)

  
• General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)

  1. Alarm - Body mobilizes resources to respond to the threat; fight-or-flight response; pulls energy from stored fat/muscle

  2. Resistance - Body adapts to high arousal state and tries to cope with the stressor; continues to draw on body's resources; stops other processes (digestion, growth, menstruation etc.)

  3. Exhaustion - Damage occurs; body becomes susceptible to infection, tumour growth, premature aging, irreversible organ damage, death etc.; Reserves become depleted

  
• Chronic stress


  Leads to shorter telomere length and lower telomerase activity
• Cortisol


  Can reduce the activity of telomerase
• Exercise/meditation


  Prevent chronic stress from shortening telomere length helping to slow the aging process
• Immune system


  Complex response system that protects the body from bacteria, viruses, and other foreign substances
• Psychoneuroimmunology


  Study of how the immune system responds to psychological variables (i.e., the presence of stressors)
• Stressors


  Cause hormones (glucocorticoids, aka cortisol) to flood the brain wearing down the immune system and making it less able to fight foreign invaders
• Chronic stress exposure


  Leads to colds
• Brief stressful events


  Do not lead to colds
• Low social status


  Is related to stress and poor health
• Chronic stress


  Creates bodily changes that increase later vulnerability to heart disease
• Activation of the sympathetic nervous system

  Causes increased BP; prolonged increased BP damages blood vessels
• Damaged blood vessels


  Accumulate more plaque
• Plaques detaching and blocking narrow blood vessels


  Leads to heart attacks
• Type A behaviour pattern

  Tendency towards easily aroused hostility, impatience, time urgency, and competitive achievement strivings; opposite is Type B
• Students who respond to stress with anger/hostility

  Are 3x more likely to develop premature heart disease; 6x more likely to have an early heart attack
• Primary appraisal


  Interpretation of a stimulus as stressful or not
• Secondary appraisal


  Determining whether the stressor is something you can handle or not; aka your level of control; determine if stressor is a threat (something you may not be able to overcome) or a challenge (confident you can control)
• Instructing students to reframe their anxiety about an exam as arousal that would help them on the exam

  Boosted test performance
• Burnout


  Physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion resulting from long-term involvement in an emotionally demanding situation and accompanied by lower performance and motivation
• Helping professions are at greatest risk for burnout
• Symptoms of burnout


  • Overwhelming exhaustion
  • Deep cynicism
  • Detachment from the job
  • Sense of ineffectiveness
  • Lack of accomplishment
• Repressive coping


  Avoiding feelings, thoughts, or situations that are reminders of a stressor and maintaining an artificially positive viewpoint
• Rational coping


  Facing the stressor and working to overcome it; approaching rather than avoiding to minimize long-term impact
• Rational coping


  1. Acceptance: realize that the stressor exists and won't go away

  2. Exposure: attending to the stressor, thinking about it, seeking it out

  3. Understanding: working to find the meaning of the stressor in life