1. Chapter 14
Health

2. Health Psychology
The application of psychology to the promotion of physical health and the prevention and treatment of illness.
But isn’t physical illness a purely biological event?

3. Stress and Health

4. Stress
An unpleasant state of arousal that arises when we perceive that the demands of an event threaten our ability to cope effectively.
Subjective appraisal of the situation determines:
How we will experience the stress
What coping strategies we will use

5. Figure 14.1: The Stress-and-Coping Process

6. What Causes Stress?

7. Scarring Effects of Natural Disasters

8. Crises and Catastrophes
Stressors: Anything that causes stress.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): A person experiences enduring physical and psychological symptoms after an extremely stressful event.

9. Major Life Events
Change itself may cause stress by forcing us to adapt to new circumstances.
Is change, positive or negative, necessarily harmful?
No support that positive “stressors” are as harmful as negative stressors.
Impact of change depends on person and how change is interpreted.

10. Putting Common Sense to the Test…
True or False?
The accumulation of daily hassles does more to make people sick than catastrophes or major life changes.
Answer: True… Let’s see why!

11. Microstressors: The Hassles of Everyday Life
Most common source of stress arises from the daily hassles that irritate us.
e.g., environmental factors.
“Microstressors” place a constant strain on us.
The accumulation of daily hassles contributes more to illness than do major life events.

12. How Does Stress Affect the Body?

13. Putting Common Sense to the Test…
True or False?
Like humans, zebras get ulcers.
Answer: False… Let’s see why!

14. Figure 14.3: The General Adaptation Syndrome

15. What Stress Does to the Heart
Type A Behavior Pattern: Characterized by extremes of competitive striving for achievement, a sense of time urgency, hostility, and aggression.
A risk factor for coronary heart disease (CHD)?
Hostility appears to be the main toxic ingredient in CHD.

16. Why Is Hostility and CHD Linked?
Cardiovascular system becomes overworked.
Hostile people are less health conscious.
Hostile people are physiologically reactive.
In tense social situations, they exhibit more intense cardiovascular reactions.

17. Putting Common Sense to the Test…
True or False?
Stress can weaken the heart, but it cannot affect the immune system.
Answer: False… Let’s see why!

18. What Stress Does to the Immune System
Stress compromises the body’s immune system.
Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI): A subfield of psychology that examines the links among psychological factors, the brain and nervous system, and the immune system.

19. Figure 14.4: Pathways from Stress to Illness

20. Figure 14.5: Stress Duration and Illness
From A. Baum and S. Valins, Architecture and Social Behavior: Psychological Studies of Social Density.

21. Process of Appraisal

22. Attributional and Explanatory Styles
Seligman (1975): Depression results from learned helplessness.
Abramson et al. (1989): Depression is a state of hopelessness brought on by the negative self-attributions people make for failure.
Depressive explanatory style

23. Figure 14.6: Explanatory Styles and Depression
From Psychology, 3rd Edition by Saul Kassin. Copyright (c) Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ.
PSYCHOLOGY 3/E by Kassin, Saul, (c) Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ.

24. Hardiness Personality Style
Individuals exhibit three characteristics:
Commitment
Challenge
Control
Hardiness serves as a buffer against stress.
Perception of control is most important factor.

25. Perception of Control
The expectation that our behaviors can produce satisfying outcomes
Self-efficacy: Feelings of competence
A state of mind that varies from one specific task and situation to another

26. Putting Common Sense to the Test…
True or False?
When it comes to physical health, research does not support popular beliefs about the power of positive thinking.
Answer: False… Let’s see why!

27. Optimism and Hope
Optimism is a generalized tendency to expect positive outcomes.
Characterized by a nondepressive explanatory style
Health can spring from optimism, as evident by the placebo effect.

28. Figure 14.7: Hopelessness and the Risk of Death
From S.A. Everson, et al., "Hopelessness and Risk of Mortality and Incidence of Myorcardial Infarction and Cancer, "Psychosomatic Medicine, Vol. 58, Reprinted with permission of Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins. See the Lippincott Williams & Wilkins home page at

29. Pollyanna’s Health Positive thinking cannot guarantee good health.
Victims of illness do not just have a “bad attitude.”
Limits to positive thinking.
Especially if it leads us to see ourselves and events in ways that are not realistic.

30. Ways of Coping with Stress

31. Table 14.2: Ways of Coping with Stress
Copyright © 1989 by the American Psychological Association. Reproduced with permission. From C.S. Carver, M.F. Scheier and J.K. Weintraub, "Assessing Coping Strategies: A Theoretically Based Approach," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, , No further reproduction or distribution is permitted without written permission from the American Psychological Association.

32. Coping Strategies Problem-focused coping Emotion-focused coping
Proactive coping

33. Problem-Focused Coping
In dealing with essential tasks, it is better to confront and control than to avoid.
Why is it not always a beneficial approach?
Can be physiologically taxing
Can lead to development of an over-controlling, stress-inducing Type A pattern of behavior

34. Emotion-Focused Coping: Shutting Down
One way to react to stress is by shutting down and trying to deny or suppress the unpleasant thoughts and feelings.
Distraction can be an adaptive form of avoidance coping.
Concealing one’s innermost thoughts and feelings can be physiologically taxing.

35. Emotion-Focused Coping: Opening Up
Two aspects to opening up as an emotional means for coping with stress:
One must acknowledge and understand one’s emotional reactions to important events.
One must express those inner feelings to themselves and others.
Why might opening up be helpful?
Cathartic experience?
Helps to gain insight into the problem?

36. Self-Focus: Getting Trapped vs. Getting Out
Self-awareness theory revisited.
A self-perpetuating feedback loop can occur:
Being in a bad mood triggers self-focus.
Self-focus in people with low self-esteem further worsens the mood.
Gender differences: Women brood and men act out.

37. Figure 14.8: Aspinwall and Taylor’s Model of Proactive Coping
From Aspinwall and Taylor (1997) "A Stitch in Time: Self-Regulation and Proactive Coping,“ Psychological Bulletin, 121, Copyright (c) 1997 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission.

38. Putting Common Sense to the Test…
True or False?
People who have lots of friends are healthier and live longer than those who live more isolated lives.
Answer: True… Let’s see why!

39. Proactive Coping
The helpful coping resources provided by friends and other people.
Has therapeutic effects on both our psychological and physical health.
Social support and contact related to longevity.

40. Figure 14.9: Does Being Popular Always Promote Health?
From N. Hamrick, S. Cohen, and M.S. Rodriguez, "Being Popular Can Be Healthy or Unhealthy: Stress, Social Network Diversity, and Incidence of Upper Respiratory Infection," Health Psychology, 21, , Copyright © 2002 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission.

41. How Should Social Support Be Defined?
Simple social contact model
How many social contacts does a person have?
Intimacy model
Does the person have a close relationship with a significant other?
Perceived availability
Does the person believe that ample support is available when needed?

42. Social Support: The Religious Connection
Religion provides an important source of social and emotional support for many.
Only 15-20% of world’s population have no religious affiliation.
Is there a link between religiosity and health?

43. Treatment and Prevention

44. Treatment: The “Social” Ingredients
All healers provide social support.
All therapies offer a ray of hope.
All therapies communicate and instill positive expectations.
Patients can make meaningful choices about the treatment.

45. Figure 14.10: The Spread of AIDS Across the Globe

46. Putting Common Sense to the Test…
True or False?
As role models, celebrities have great influence over public health-care decisions.
Answer: True… Let’s see why!

47. Figure 14.11: Aiming for Good Health

48. The Pursuit of Happiness

49. Subjective Well-Being
One’s happiness, or life satisfaction, as measured by self-report.
In self-reports, 75% of American adults describe themselves as happy.
What predicts happiness?
Social relationships
Employment status
Physical health

50. Figure 14.12: Wealth and Subjective Well-Being
From Psychology, 3rd Edition by Saul Kassin. Copyright © Reprinted by permission of Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ.

51. Why Doesn’t Money Contribute More to Subjective Well-Being?
Perceptions of wealth are not absolute but relative to certain standards.
Social comparison theory revisited.
People use their own recent past as a basis of comparison.
Adaptation-level theory revisited.

52. A Set Baseline Level of Happiness?
Ratings of happiness are higher among identical twins than among fraternal twins.
Fluctuations in mood that accompany positive and negative life events wear off over time.
Happiness levels are relatively stable over time and place.