Chapter 14 Health Psychology 11 07 2013 What is health psych A newer field in psych faster growing Investigates psych factors that play a roll in illness and physical ailments Doesn t look at the mind and body as separate things what happens to one effects the other Four main goals of health psych Promote and maintain health Prevent and treat illness relayed dysfunction Stress vs stressors Stress Identify the causes and diagnostic correlates of health illness and Analyze and improve healthcare systems and health policy o Response to an event that is threatening or challenging o Anxious about a test coming up o An individual thing not everyone is stressed by the same o If a task is threatening and challenging o If a person doesn t have the tools to do it o The individual thing that causes the stress Types of stressors explained in the text book Stressors Cataclysmic o A strong stressor that occurs suddenly and unexpectedly and effects many people simultaneously 9 11 natural disasters o job marriage anything having to do with your personal life o daily hassles minor irritations throughout the day o a lot of small ones together can be bad and make a lot of personal background stress Stress Response Costs of Stress Good explanation in the text book Video about the guy with the monkeys Robert something Rise in hormone secretions by adrenal glands Increased heart rate Rise in blood pressure Changes in how well the skin conducts electrical impulses GAS Alarm o Decreased resistance to stress Resistance o Increased resistance to stress o Hyper adrenal function Study of the relationship between psychological factors the brain Exhaustion o Decreased resistance to stress Psychoneuroimmunology and immune system Chart in the book Coping with stress Any effort to reduce or cope with stress Emotion focused o Changing how you see the stressor o Accepting sympathy looking at the bright side Problem focused Avoidant coping o Not useful o Using drugs or alcohol Defense mechanism o In chapter 13 Emotional insulation Other coping tools The hardy personality o Commitment o Challenge o Control o Resilience social support o A person stops feeling emotions basically Chapter 15 Psychological Disorders Part I 11 07 2013 Normal vs Abnormal Defining Abnormality o Various definitions of abnormality Infrequent Violates some kind of standard Harmful to oneself or others Inability to function ineffectively Inability to distinguish right from wrong legal definition o Psychology defines abnormal behavior as that which interferes with everyday functioning and causes distress Perspectives on Abnormality o the medical perspective says abnormality is attributable to a chemical imbalance or brain injury physicians physically examine individuals for medical problems o the psychoanalytical perspective says abnormality comes from unresolved childhood conflicts clients tell psychoanalysts about their early childhood o the behavioral perspective views abnormality as a response to environmental stimuli behavioral therapists use behavior modification techniques o the cognitive perspective says our thoughts and beliefs lead to abnormal behavior cognitive therapists seek to identify and change maladaptive thoughts o the humanistic perspective says we re responsible for our own behavior these therapists help us consider our choices and become self actualized o the sociocultural perspective says abnormality is shaped by society and culture therapists using this perspective might examine SES as contributing to psychological disorders Classifying Abnormal Behavior o The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders e DMS 5 is the most widely used reference for classifying mental disorders o The DSM 5 simply describes symptoms of mental disorders not their causes in an atheoretical way This lets professionals with different perspectives research those causes Difficulties Classifying Abnormal Behavior o Being Sane in Insane Places video o Rosenhan s study shows Labeling someone as mentally ill has a powerful Accurately diagnosing mental disorders isn t always influence easy o The DSM only considers an individual as disordered or not E g there s no mildly depressed diagnosis Major Psychological Disorders Anxiety Disorders o Anxiety is a feeling of apprehension or tension in response to a stressful situation o Anxiety disorders occur when anxiety arises without external justification and affects daily functioning o People with phobic disorders have phobias A phobia is an intense irrational fear of a specific object or situation Three categories Agoraphobia is a fear of places from which escape might be difficult and where help might not be available in an emergency Specific phobias are fear of specific objects places or situations Social phobia is a fear of being judges or embarrassed by others o People with panic disorder experience panic attacks A panic attack is a sudden sense of fear or doom with no identifiable trigger Panic attacks can include physical symptoms like Palpitations Shortness of breath Sweating Dizziness Gastric sensations People with panic disorder may learn to associate stimuli with panic attacks and avoid those stimuli o People with generalized anxiety disorder experience long term persistent anxiety and uncontrollable worrying This anxiety can be free floating o People with obsessive compulsive disorder OCD are plagued by unwanted thoughts called obsessions or feel they must perform certain actions called compulsions Obsessions are unwanted recurring thoughts Compulsions are irresistible urges to perform some behavior o What causes anxiety disorders Biological factors If one monozygotic twin has panic disorder there is a 30 chance the other twin will have it Anxiety has been tied to a gene that produces serotonin People with OCD have more gray matter in the thalamus and left frontal cortex Psychological factors Anxiety can be a learned response Maladaptive thoughts can produce anxiety Somatoform Disorders o Somatoform disorders are psychological difficulties that take on physical somatic form for which there s no medical cause If these individuals do have genuine medical problem they overreact to it o People with hypochondriasis have a constant fear of illness and preoccupation with their health They ll blow mundane symptoms out of proportion o People with conversion disorder experience physical symptoms with no medical cause Dissociative Disorders o Dissociative disorders are characterized by the