Chapter 14: Stress and Health

1. Chapter 14: Stress and Health

2. Behavioral Medicine • Interdisciplinary field that integrates behavioral and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease.

3. Health Psychology • Psychology’s contribution to behavioral medicine. • How do our emotions and personality influence our risk of disease? • What attitudes and behaviors help prevent illness and promote health?

5. Stress • The process by which we appraise and cope with environmental threats and challenges. • For example when alone in a house, one person may dismiss creaking sounds and experiences no stress while another person may suspect an intruder and become alarmed.

6. General Adaptation Syndrome • Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress in three stages - alarm, resistance, and exhaustion

7. Stressful Life Events • The three main types of stressors are catastrophes, significant life changes, and daily hassles.

8. Catastrophes • Unpredictable large-scale events, such as war and natural disasters that nearly everyone appraises as threatening. • Three weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, two-thirds of Americans surveyed reported having some trouble concentrating or sleeping.

9. Significant Life Changes • Leaving home, the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, a marriage or a divorce are some examples of life changes that can cause stress.

10. Daily Hassles • Everyday things such as rush-hour or long lines at a store that we may encounter frequently can build up and cause stress. Some people can deal with it well while others are driven up the wall.

11. Coronary Heart Disease • The closing of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle. • It is the leading cause of death in the United States. • The more stress a person has the more vulnerable they become to heart disease.

12. Coronary heart disease

13. Type A and B personality

14. What type are you? • Type A people are typically competitive, impatient, time-conscious, super motivated, verbally aggressive and easily angered. • Type B are easygoing, relaxed people. • In relaxed situations, the arousal of Type A and B are no different but when harassed or given a challenge, Type A individuals are more physiologically reactive.

15. Psychophysiological illness • “Mind-body” illness; any stress related physical illness, such as hypertension and some headaches.

16. Lymphocytes

17. Two types of lympocytes • Type B- White blood cells that release antibodies that fight bacterial infections • Type T- attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances. • Stress depresses the immune system of humans and disturb the lymphocytes.

18. Coping • Alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods.

19. Problem-focused coping • Attempting to alleviate stress directly-by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor. • Example: If you have a problem at work, go directly to whatever the problem is and try to address it.

20. Emotion-focused strategy • Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to one’s stress reaction. • Reaching out to friends to help address our own emotional needs.

21. Aerobic exercise • Sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness.

22. Biofeedback • A system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state, such as blood pressure or muscle tension.

23. Complementary and alternative medicine • Acupuncture, massage therapy, homeopathy, spiritual healing, herbal remedies, chiropractic, and aromatherapy.