Stress and Health
Objectives:
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Identify the major concerns of health psychology.
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Describe the biology of the "fight-or-flight" response to stress and the physical characteristics and phases of the general adaptation syndrome.
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Discuss the health consequences of catastrophes, significant life changes, and daily hassles.
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Describe the effects of personal lack of control, economic inequality, and a pessimistic outlook on health.
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Discuss the role of stress in causing coronary heart disease, and contrast Type A and Type B personalities.
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Describe how stress increases the risk of disease by inhibiting the activity of the body’s immune system.
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Describe the impact of learning on immune system functioning.
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Identify and discuss different strategies for coping with stress, and explain why people should be skeptical about the value of complementary and alternative medicine.
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Explain why people smoke, and discuss ways of preventing and reducing this health hazard.
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Discuss the relationship between nutrition and physical well-being, and describe the research findings on obesity and weight control.
Vocabulary:
Stress: the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging
General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS): Selye’s concept of the body’s adaptive response to stress in three stages- alarm, resistance, exhaustion
Health Psychology: a subfield of psychology that provides psychology’s contribution to behavioral medicine
Behavioral Medicine: an interdisciplinary field that integrates behavioral and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease
Burnout: physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion brought on by persistent job-related stress
Coronary Heart Disease: the clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in the United States
Type A: Friedman and Rosenman’s term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people
Type B: Friedman and Rosenman’s term for easygoing, relaxed people
Psychophysiological illness: literally, “mind-body” illness; any stress-related physical illness, such as hypertension and some headaches. Note: This is distinct from hypochondriasis – misinterpreting normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease
Lymphocytes: the two types of white blood cells that are part of the body’s immune system: B lymphocytes form in the bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacterial infections; T lymphocytes form in the thymus and among other duties, attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances
Biofeedback: a system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state, such as blood pressure or muscle tension