Abnormal Psych Ch. 15

there are five stages of sleep with four differeing depths of sleep and a fifth stage known as

rapid eye movement

innate immune system

reacts quickly and nonspecifically to any microorganism or toxin that enters the body, releasing cells that kill and ingest the invaders

social factors that influence susceptibility to disease:

stress, culture

The personality factor traditionally linked to coronary heart disease is

the Type A behavior pattern

allostatic load

when a stressor is chronic and the individual can not fight or flee from it, then chronic physiological arousal that results can be severly damaging to the body

allostasis

when the stressor is immediate, the response is activated then subsides.

major depression occurs in what percent of hospitalized patients with CHD

15-20% with up to 50% with symptoms

resilient

able to bounce back from difficult times with renewed vigor

african americans score higher on a number of indicators such as

allostatic load, and persistent high blood pressure

married people and physical illness

are less likely to die from a variety of conditions. unless the marriage is conflictual then it can be a detriment to health.

psychological factors that influence susceptibility to disease:

behaviors affecting health, treatment seeking, compliance

in less developed countries, street children showed lower allostatic load than housed children but in the united states

being homeless resulted in more stress and poorer health

Studies find that asians derive more emotional and physiological benefit from this subtler, more implicit form of seeking social support. and European Americans

benefit more from explicit forms of seeking social support than from implicit forms.

what percent of all serious car crash injuries are due to driver sleepiness

20%

People who sleep fewer than 6 hours each night have what percent higher mortality rate than those who sleep at least 7 or 8 hours each night

70%

Sister-to-Sister: The Black Women's Health Project Intervention

In five short interventions, nurses gave women information about the cause, transmission, and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases

REM sleep

after an hour the EEG becomes very active and electrodes near the persons eyes detect pronounced rapid eye movements. dreaming occurs during this stage.

method of coping that is negative on health

avoidance coping

fight-or-flight response

bodily changes such as increased heart rate and elevated blood pressure prepare the body to either face the threat or flee.

a pessimistic outlook may affect health directly by

causing hyperarousal of the body's physiological response to stress or indirectly by reducing positive coping strategies and healthy behaviors.

avoidance coping also predicts the

chronic disease progression or mortality rate of people with cancer, hiv infection, congestive heart failure, and rheumatiod arthritis.

alpha waves

closing eyes to relax and showing a pattern of 8 to 12 hertz

avoidance coping

denying that you are ill or are facing other obvious stresses

people with psychological disorders are vastly more likely to

develop physical illness

health psychology aka behavioral medicine

explores how biological, psychological, and social/environmental factors interact to influence physical health.

biological factors that influence susceptibility to disease:

genetics, age, gender

avoidance coping has been linked to

greater after surgery pain, compromised recovery after surgery lower adherence to medical regiments, and poorer health in hiv positive individuals, increased physical symptoms among aids caregivers.

A combination of cognitive and behavioral techniques has been shown to improve cardiovascular health by reducing

hostility

people that live with chronic stress are more likely to develop

hypertension

psychological effects of sleep deprivation

impairments in learning, reasoning, arithmetic skills, complex verbal processing, decision making, and causes irritibility, emotional ups and downs, and perceptual distortions

one group that lives in chronically stressfull settings and has particularly high rates of hypertension is

low-income african americans

cultural difference in coping

people from asian cultures tend to be more reluctant than euro americans to reach out for social support

appraisals vs pessimism

pessimism results in negative health effects

people with hypertension and people with family or genetic histories of hypertension may have a heightened

physiological reactivity to stress

talking about negative emotions and important issues in ones life appears to have

positive effects on health

familism

prioritizing the respect and care of ones family over ones individual needs

immune system

protects us from disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumor cells

guided mastery techniques

provide people with explicit information about how to engage in positive health related behaviors and with opportunities to do so in increasingly challenging situations

Depression could contribute to CHD through several ways such as

reduced heart rate variability

person who found that young adults who grew up with supportive families showed less reactivity in certain areas off the brain to emotionally provocative photos

shelley taylor

stress may effect the immune system in several ways:

short term stress increases potency of immune responses, and chronic stress decreases immune functioning

delta waves

slow waves of 1 to 2 hertz in stages 3 and 4 of sleep

specific immune system

slower to respond, but its response is tailored to the particular type of pathogen present. it remembers the pathogen so that if it attacks again the system is able to kill it more quickly and efficiently.

describe the NREM stages of sleep

stage 1: less amplitude stage 2: spindles, 12-16 hertz, and occasional sharp rising or falling in amplitude of entire EGG stage 3 & 4: slow waves of 1 to 2 hertz

while coping is important to health in all cultures,

the specific forms of coping that are helpful may be influenced by cultural norms

People from Asian cultures instead may find ways to benefit from their social networks that don't involve revealing personal concerns or weaknesses or potentially burdening others. For example

they may remind themselves of their close relationships or simply enjoy the company of people they love.

gender differences in coping

women are more likely to seek social support

tend and befriend

women faced with threates engage in this pattern; instead of attemping to fight a threat or flee from it, women join social groups for protection and resources.

Norman Cousins

wrote the books Anatomy of an Illness about his use of comedy to raise his levels of positive emotions and effect the functioning of his adrenal and endocrine systems.