Presentation Topic: Health Psychology: Stress,

Coping, and Well-Being

Health Psychology

• Health psychology– Branch of psychology that investigates the

psychological factors related to wellness and illness, including the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of medical problems

• Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI)– Study of the relationship among psychological

factors, the immune system, and the brain

Stress and Coping

• StressThe response to events that threaten or challenge a person.

Events like: paper or exam deadline, a family problem or a terrorist attack etc

• Psychophysiological disordersMedical problems that are influenced by an interaction of psychological, emotional, and physical difficulties

“Stressors” word is derived from “stress” defines as “the cause of stress.”

There are three categories of stressors. Cataclysmic events Personal stressors Background stressors

Categorizing Stressors

Categorizing Stressors

Cataclysmic events– Strong stressors that occur suddenly, affecting

many people at oncei.e. plane crashes, terrorist attacks, earthquake etc

Produce potent, lingering stress Involving natural disasters may produce less

stress in long run.

• Personal stressors– major life events that have immediate

consequences that generally fade with time.i.e. death of a family member, loss of ones job, a

major personal failure etc.• Even something positive such as marriage.• Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is most

common in catastrophes of personal stressors.

Categorizing Stressors

Categorizing Stressors

• Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)– Phenomenon on which

victims of major catastrophes or strong personal stressors feel long-lasting effects that may include re-experiencing the event in vivid flashbacks or dreams• 9/11 terrorist attacks

Categorizing Stressors

• Background stressors “Daily hassles”– Everyday annoyances, that cause minor irritations and may

have long-term ill effects if they continue or are compounded by other stressful events.

i.e. being stuck in traffic, long line at bank etc.Another type of background stressors is a long term which is

“chronic problem”.i.e. dissatisfaction from school, being in a unhappy relationship,

etc.– “Uplifts”

• Minor positive events that make one feel good

More “uplifts”, less psychological problems later.

High Cost of Stress

Sometimes stress causes high cost emergency reactions like heart attack, fluctuation in blood pressure, or feeling electric shocks in skin etc.

• Psycho physiological disorders– Psychosomatic disorders• Medical problems influenced by an interaction of

psychological, emotional, and physical difficulties.Like high blood pressure ,head aches , common cold etc.Some how these problems are fake.

The General Adaptation Syndrome• Alarm and mobilization stage

Become aware of the presence of a stressor• Resistance stage

Preparation to fight the stressor• Exhaustion stage

Negative consequences of the stress appear

Psychoneuroimmunology and Stress

There are three types of consequences of stress:

• Direct physiological effects

• Harmful behaviors• Indirect health

related behaviors.

Coping With Stress

• Coping – Efforts to control, reduce, or learn to tolerate the threats that lead to

stress

Two strategies of stress with coping:• Emotion-focused coping

– Managing emotions in the face of stress

• Problem-focused coping– Attempts to modify the stressful problem or source of stress

Some how both are used but Emotion-focused coping used frequently.

Other ways to deal with coping with stress which are least effective are:• Avoidance• Defense mechanism.

Learned Helplessness

• State in which people conclude that unpleasant or aversive stimuli cannot be controlled– a view of the world that becomes so ingrained that they cease trying to remedy the aversive circumstances, even if they actually can exert some influence

Coping Styles: The Hardy Personality

• Hardiness– Personality characteristic associated with a lower

rate of stress-related illness, consisting of three components• Commitment • Challenge• Control

Social Support

• Mutual network of caring, interested others• Health and loneliness in college students– Can be psychologically painful– Negative effect on the immune system

The A’s and B’s of Coronary Heart Disease

• Type A behavior pattern– Competitive– Shows urgency about time– Aggressive– Driven quality at work– Hostile, verbally and nonverbally– Highly linked with coronary heart disease in men

• Type B behavior pattern– Cooperative– Noncompetitive– Nonaggressive– Not usually hostile

Cancer

• Evidence suggests the emotional responses of cancer patients to their disease may have a critical effect on its course

Smoking

• Heredity factors• Rite of passage• Habit forming• Quitting–Replacement therapies–Psychotherapy– Societal views

Promoting health

We are not very good in taking medical advice.• 85% patients do not fully comply with physician’s

recommendation• 14-21% don’t fill their drug prescriptions.• 10% adolescent pregnancies result from compliance with

birth control medicines.• 60% cannot even identify their own medicines.• 30-50% ignore instructions or make error in taking

medicines.In order to minimize the health or psychological issues, we

have to pay attention!

Failure to communicate.• Sometimes doctors and patient completely fail

to communicate with each other.• They may improve it by identify some tips.Increasing compliance with advice.• Positively framed message• Negatively framed message

Promoting health

Well-Being and Happiness• Subjective well-being

– Person’s evaluations of their life, in terms of both their thoughts and emotions

• Characteristics– High self-esteem– Sense of control– Optimism– Sociable

• Does money buy happiness?

Questions ?