1. Essentials of Understanding Psychology
9th Edition
By Robert Feldman
PowerPoints by Kimberly Foreman
Revised for 9th Ed by Cathleen Hunt
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2. Chapter 11:Health Psychology: Stress, Coping, and Well-Being
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3. Health Psychology
Investigates the psychological factors related to wellness and illness, including the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of medical problems
Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)
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4. MODULE 34: Stress and Coping
How is health psychology a union between medicine and psychology?
What is stress, how does it affect us, and how can we best cope with it?
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5. Stress: Reacting to Threat and Challenge
People’s response to events that threaten or challenge them
Stressors
Circumstances and events in life
Stressors produce threats to our well-being
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6. The Nature of Stressors: My Stress Is Your Pleasure
Categorizing Stressors – 3 Categories
Cataclysmic events
Occur suddenly and typically affect many people simultaneously
Personal stressors
Major life events
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Background stressors (i.e., daily hassles)
Hassles vs. uplifts
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7. Hassles vs. Uplifts
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8. The Nature of Stressors: My Stress Is Your Pleasure
The High Cost of Stress
Both biological and psychological consequences
Psychophysiological disorders
Formerly known as “psychosomatic disorders”
Actual medical problems that are influenced by an interaction of psychological, emotional, and physical difficulties
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9. How Stressful Is Your Life?
Insert figure 34.3 here
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10. The Nature of Stressors: My Stress Is Your Pleasure
The General Adaptation Syndrome Model: The Course of Stress
Physiological response to stress follows the same set pattern regardless of the cause of stress
Three phases:
Alarm and mobilization
Resistance
Exhaustion
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11. The Nature of Stressors: My Stress Is Your Pleasure
Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)
PNI focuses on the outcomes of stress
3 main consequences of stress:
Physiological results
Harmful behaviors
Indirect health-related behaviors
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12. Coping with Stress
Efforts to control, reduce, or learn to tolerate the threats that lead to stress
Categories
Emotion-focused coping
Managing emotions in the face of stress, seeking to change the way one feels about or perceives a problem
Problem-focused coping
Attempting to modify the stressful problem or source of stress
Avoidant Coping
Least effective
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13. Coping with Stress Learned Helplessness
Occurs when people conclude that unpleasant or aversive stimuli cannot be controlled
Experience more physical symptoms and depression
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14. Coping with Stress Coping Styles: The Hardy Personality Hardiness
Characteristic associated with a lower rate of stress-related illness
Three components:
Commitment
Challenge
Control
Resilience
Ability to withstand, overcome, and thrive after profound diversity
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15. Coping with Stress Social Support: Turning to Others
Knowledge that we are part of a mutual network of caring, interested others
Enables us to experience lower levels of stress and be better able to cope with stress we do undergo
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16. Coping with Stress Effective Coping Strategies
Turn a threat into a challenge
Make a threatening situation less threatening
Change your goals
Take physical action
Biofeedback
Exercise
Prepare for stress before it happens
Proactive coping
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17. MODULE 35: Psychological Aspects of Illness and Well-Being
How do psychological factors affect health-related problems such as coronary heart disease, cancer, and smoking?
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18. MODULE 35: Psychological Aspects of Illness and Well-Being
Type A behavior pattern
Cluster of behaviors involving hostility, competitiveness, time urgency, and feeling driven
Type B behavior pattern
Characterized by a patient, cooperative, noncompetitive, and nonaggressive manner
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19. Psychological Aspects of Cancer
Emotional responses of cancer patients to their disease may affect its course
Some psychological therapies have the potential for improving quality of life and even extending the lives of cancer patients
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20. Smoking Why People Smoke Quitting Smoking Heredity Genetics
Environmental factors
Seen as “cool”
Media exposure
A “rite of passage”
Quitting Smoking
Nicotine replacement drugs
Behavioral strategies
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21. MODULE 36: Promoting Health and Wellness
How do our interactions with physicians affect our health and compliance with medical treatment?
How does a sense of well-being develop?
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22. Following Medical Advice
Noncompliance
Result of reactance
Negative emotional and cognitive reaction that results from the restriction of one’s freedom
Creative Nonadherence
Adjusting a treatment prescribed by a physician, relying on one’s own medical judgment and experience
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23. Communicating Effectively with Health-Care Providers
Make a list of health-related concerns before your visit
Before visit write down names and dosages of all medications
Determine whether your provider will communicate via
If you feel intimidated, bring along an advocate who can help you communicate
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24. Following Medical Advice
Increasing Compliance with Advice
Provide clear instructions to patients regarding drug regimens
Honesty about nature of medical problems and treatments
Positively framed messages
Change in behavior will lead to a gain
Negatively framed messages
Highlight what can be lost by not performing a behavior
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25. Well-Being and Happiness
Subjective Well-Being
People’s evaluations of their lives in terms of both their thoughts and their emotions
Characteristics of happy people
Have high self-esteem
Positive illusions
Have a firm sense of control
Are optimistic
Men and women are generally made happy by the same sorts of activities – but not always
Like to be around other people
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26. Well-Being and Happiness
Does Money Buy Happiness?
Set Points for happiness
Most people’s set point is relatively high
30% rate selves as “very happy”
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