Psych 122 Chapter 4: Psychological Factors and Health

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)

A neurotransmitter that seems to help calm anxiety reactions.

Hypothalamus

A small, pea-sized structure in the brain involved in regulating many bodily processes, including hunger, sleep, emotions, and body temperature.

State anxiety

A temporary condition of anxiety that may be attributed to a specific situation.

Migraine headache

A throbbing headache caused by wavelike firing of neurons on the brain, which creates ripples of neural activity that reach pain centers in the brainstem.

Depression

Depression usually occurs in response to stressors such as the loss of a friend, lover, or relative; to failure; to inactivity or lack of stimulation; or to prolonged stress.

Emotions and Behavior

Emotions motivate certain kinds of behavior. Negative emotions such as anxiety, anger, and depression can motivate us to behave in maladaptive ways. For example, anxiety tends to motivate escape behavior; anger, aggressive behavior; and depression, withdrawal.

"Gotta Have Friends"

Evidence supports the view that having a wide range of social contacts helps us maintain our health during times of stress.

Smoking & link to most preventable deaths

In this module we consider sociocultural factors associated with physical health and illness. We then examine the role of psychological factors in some leading health problems, including headaches, heart disease, and cancer. In each case we consider the interplay of biological, psychological, social, technological, and environmental factors in their development. Other measures for preventing needless deaths include improved worker training and safety to prevent accidents in the workplace, wider screening for breast and cervical cancer, and control of high blood pressure and elevated blood cholesterol levels.

Inflammation

Increased blood flow to an injured area of the body, resulting in redness, warmth, and increased supply of white blood cells.

Gender and Health

One prominent risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD) is male gender. Men are more likely than women to develop CHD until about age 65, when the rates begin to even out. The estrogen circulating in a woman's body may have a protective effect on her heart and blood vessels. CHD in women is uncommon until menopause, but then risk rises sharply with increasing age as estrogen production falls off sharply

Positive versus negative life changes.

Other aspects of the research on the relationship between life changes and illness have also been challenged. For instance, we may need to distinguish the effects of hassles and negative life changes from positive changes.

Work and strain (demands/control)

Overtime work, assembly-line labor, and exposure to conflicting demands can all contribute to CHD. High-strain work, which makes heavy demands on workers but gives them little personal control, puts workers at the highest risk

Passive health care consumers

Passive consumers wait until they get sick to seek health care or learn about health care options.

Psychological Treatment of Cancer Patients

People with cancer must cope not only with the physical effects of the illness itself. They also need to cope with many other challenges, including feelings of anxiety and depression, troubling side effects of treatment, changes in body image after the removal of a breast or testicle, and family problems. Health professionals recognize that cancer patients may benefit from psychological interventions, such as group support programs that provide support, encouragement, and assistance in developing coping skills and resources.

Resistance stage

The second stage of the GAS, characterized by prolonged sympathetic activity in an effort to restore lost energy and repair damage. Also called the adaptation stage.

Muscle-Tension Headache

The single most frequent kind of headache is the muscle-tension headache. During the first two stages of the GAS, we are likely to contract muscles in the shoulders, neck, forehead, and scalp. Persistent stress can lead to constant contraction of these muscles, causing muscle-tension headaches.

Cognitive appraisal.

The stress impact of an event reflects the meaning of the event to the individual.

Immune system

The system of the body that recognizes and destroys foreign agents (antigens) that invade the body.

Exhaustion stage

The third stage of the GAS, characterized by weakened resistance and possible deterioration.

Multifactorial model

The view that health and illness are a function of multiple factors involving biological, psychological, and cultural domains—and their interactions.

The Job-Strain Model

This model highlights the psychological demands of various occupations and the amount of personal (decision) control they allow. Occupations characterized by both high demands and low control place workers at greater risk of heart-related problems.

Antibodies

Substances formed by white blood cells that recognize and destroy antigens.

Antigens

Substances that stimulate the body to mount an immune system response. (The contraction for "antibody generator.").

Autonomic nervous system (ANS)

The part of the nervous system that regulates glands and involuntary activities such as heartbeat, respiration, digestion, and dilation of the pupils of the eyes.

Leukocytes

White blood cells. (Derived from the Greek words leukos, meaning "white," and kytos, literally meaning "a hollow" but used to refer to cells.)

Prevention of, and Coping with, Cancer

1) Avoid smoking and heavy use of alcohol. 2) Modify diet by reducing intake of saturated fats and increasing intake of fruits and vegetables. 3) Exercise regularly. 4) Have regular medical checkups so that cancer will be detected early. 5) Minimize exposure to excess stress and learn to more effectively manage stress you can't avoid. 5) If you are living with cancer, maintain hope and a fighting spirit and take an active role in managing your health care.

Endocrine system

A body system involved in regulating many bodily processes and consisting of ductless glands that empty their secretions, called hormones, directly into the bloodstream.

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)

A cluster of physical and psychological symptoms that afflict some women prior to menstruation.

Carcinogenic

Relating to an agent that gives rise to cancerous changes in the body.

Cancer

Cancer is a disease in which abnormal or mutant cells take root anywhere in the body: in the blood, bones, digestive tract, lungs, genital organs, and so on.

Fight-or-flight reaction

Cannon's term for an innate adaptive response to the perception of danger.

DNA

Acronym for deoxyribonucleic acid, the molecule that comprises our genes and chromosomes and carries genetic information from generation to generation.

Coronary Heart Disease Risk factors

Age and family history Physiological conditions. Lifestyle factors. Type A behavior. Negative emotions Job strain

Ethnicity and Health

Although life expectancy has been steadily rising for all ethnic/racial groups in the United States, the life expectancy of African Americans still lags behind that of European Americans by about seven years on the average. An important contributor to these differences is socioeconomic status (SES): African Americans are disproportionately represented among the lower income levels in our society, and people on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder typically have lower life expectancies and poorer qualities of life

Anger

Anger usually occurs in response to stressors such as frustration and social provocation.

Trait anxiety

Anxiety represented as a persistent trait.

Anxiety

Anxiety tends to occur in response to threats posed by such stressors as physical danger, loss, and failure.

resistance to colds

As a consequence, we become more vulnerable to various illnesses, including the common cold. The immune system is also weakened by the regular use of synthetic steroids, which are a class of drugs that have legitimate medical uses but are often abused by some athletes seeking to build up muscle mass.

Headache Treatment

Aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and many prescription drugs are used to fight headache pain.

Adopting Healthier Habits to Reduce the Risk of CHD

Avoid or stop smoking, control weight, and follow a healthful diet. Reduce hypertension. Lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) serum cholesterol. Modify Type A behavior Exercise

Coronary Heart Disease

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of death of both men and women in the United States, accounting for about one in five deaths, or some 500,000 deaths annually

Coping with Menstrual Discomfort

First of all, don't blame yourself! Keep track of your menstrual symptoms to help you (and your doctor) identify patterns. Develop strategies for dealing with days when you experience the greatest distress—strategies that will help enhance your pleasure and minimize the stress affecting you on those days. Ask yourself whether you harbor any self-defeating attitudes toward menstruation that might be compounding distress. See a doctor about your concerns, especially if you have severe or persistent symptoms. Develop nutritious eating habits—and continue them throughout the entire cycle If you feel bloated, eat smaller meals (or nutritious snacks) throughout the day rather than a couple of highly filling meals. Some women find that vigorous exercise—jogging, swimming, bicycling, fast walking, dancing, skating, even jumping rope—helps relieve premenstrual and menstrual discomfort. Check with your doctor about vitamin and mineral supplements Ibuprofen (brand names: Medipren, Advil, Motrin, etc.) and other medicines available over the counter may be helpful for cramping. Remind yourself that menstrual problems are time limited.

Headaches

Headaches are among the most common stress-related physical ailments. Nearly 20% of people in the United States suffer from severe headaches. Two of the most common types of headaches are muscle-tension and migraine headaches.

Corticosteroids

Hormones produced by the adrenal cortex that increase resistance to stress in ways such as fighting inflammation and causing the liver to release stores of sugar. Also called steroidal hormones.

Prostaglandins

Hormones that initiate pain messages and also cause muscle fibers in the uterine wall to contract, as during labor.

Coronary Heart Disease : Type A behavior.

Hostility is a trait describing people who have "short fuses" and are prone to get angry easily and often. They also hold cynical and mistrustful attitudes toward others. Investigators find that chronic hostility and proneness to anger are the components of the Type A behavior pattern most strongly linked to the development of CHD.

Active health care consumer

It means taking an active role in managing your health care by educating yourself about your health care options, choosing your health care providers wisely, and weighing treatment alternatives carefully.

Correlational evidence.

Links between life changes and illness are based on correlational rather than experimental research.

Pathogens

Microscopic organisms (e.g., bacteria or a virus) that can cause disease.

Hans Selye

Selye (1976), who was playfully called "Dr. Stress," observed that the body's response to different stressors shows certain similarities, whether the stressor is a bacterial invasion, perceived danger, or a major life change. For this reason, he labeled this response the general adaptation syndrome (GAS).

General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

Selye's term for a hypothesized three-stage response to stress.

Sympathetic nervous system

The division of the ANS that is most active during activities and emotional responses—such as anxiety and fear—that spend the body's reserves of energy.

Parasympathetic nervous system (PNS)

The division of the ANS that is most active during processes that restore the body's reserves of energy, such as digestion.

Glands of the Endocrine System

The endocrine system consists of a network of glands located throughout the body that secrete hormones directly into the bloodstream. The endocrine system plays important roles in reproduction, growth, metabolism, and the body's response to stress.

Health psychology

The field of psychology that studies the relationships between psychological factors (e.g., attitudes, beliefs, situational influences, and overt behavior patterns) and the prevention and treatment of physical illness.

Psychoneuroimmunology

The field that studies the relationships between psychological factors (e.g., stress, attitudes and overt behavior patterns) and the functioning of the immune system.

Fight or flight

The fight-or-flight response (also called hyperarousal, or the acute stress response) is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival.

Alarm stage

The first stage of the GAS, which is "triggered" by the impact of a stressor and characterized by activity of the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system.

Stress and Cancer

The links between stress and cancer in humans continue to be actively investigated. Presently, we cannot yet reach any firm conclusions on what role, if any, stress plays in the development of cancer

Cognitive Effects of Stress

Under stress, we may have difficulty thinking clearly or remaining focused on the tasks at hand. The high levels of bodily arousal that characterize the alarm reaction can impair memory functioning and problem-solving ability.

Personality differences.

We may also need to account for personality differences. For example, people with different kinds of personalities may respond to life stresses in different ways.