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UCSC Psych 140C Health Psych
Midterm words chapters 1-3 and 6-8
143
Psychology
Undergraduate 4
02/07/2012

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Term
acute disorders
Definition
illnesses or other medical problems that occur over a short time, that are usually the result of an infectious process, and that are reversible.
Term
biomedical model
Definition
the viewpoint that illness can be explained on the basis of aberrant somatic processes and that psychological and social processes are largely independent of the disease process; the dominant model in medical practice until recently.
Term
biopsychosocial model
Definition
the view that biological, psychological, and social factors are all involved in any given state of health or illness.
Term
chronic illnesses
Definition
illnesses that are long lasting and usually irreversible
Term
conversion hysteria
Definition
the viewpoint, originally advanced by Freud, that specific unconscious conflicts can produce physical disturbances symbolic of the repressed conflictual no longer a dominant viewpoint in health psychology
Term
correlational research
Definition
measuring two variables and determining whether they are associated with each other. Studies relating smoking to lung cancer are correlational, for example.
Term
epidemiology
Definition
the study of the frequency, distribution, and causes of infectious and noninfectious disease in a population, based on an investigation of the physical and social environment. Thus, for example epidemiologists not only study who has what kind of cancer but also address questions such as why certain cancers are more prevalent in particular geographic areas then other cancers are.
Term
etiology
Definition
the origins and causes of illness
Term
experiment
Definition
a type of research in which a research randomly assigns people to two or more conditions, varies the treatments that people in each condition are given, and then measures the effect on some response.
Term
health
Definition
the absence of disease or infirmity, coupled with a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being; health psychologists recognize health to be a state that is actively achieved rather than the mere absence of illness.
Term
health psychology
Definition
the subarea within psychology devoted to understanding psychological influences on health, illness, an responses to those states, as well as the psychological origins and impacts of health policy and health interventions.
Term
longitudinal research
Definition
the repeated observation and measurement of the same individuals over a period of time.
Term
mind-body relationship
Definition
the philosophical position regarding whether the mind and body operate indistinguishably as a single system or whether they act as two separate systems; the view guiding health psychology is that the mind and body are indistinguishable.
Term
morbidity
Definition
The number of cases of a disease that exist a given point in time; it may be expressed as the number of new cases (incidence) or as the total number of existing cases (prevalence).
Term
mortality
Definition
the number of deaths due to particular causes.
Term
prospective research
Definition
a research strategy in which people are followed forward in time to examine the relationship between one set of variables and later occurrences. For example, prospective research can enable researches to identify risk factors for diseases that develop at a later time.
Term
psychosomatic medicine
Definition
a field within psychiatry, related to health psychology, that developed in the early 1900s to study and treat particular diseases believed to be caused by emotional conflicts such as ulcers, hypertension, and asthma, health related problems and diseases that examines psychological as well as somatic origins.
Term
retrospective research
Definition
a research strategy whereby people are studied for the relationship of past variables or conditions to current ones. Interviewing people with a particular disease and asking them about their childhood health behaviors or exposure to risks can identify conditions leading to an adult disease, for example.
Term
systems theory
Definition
the view that all levels of an organization in any entity are linked to each other hierarchically and that change in any level will bring about change in other levels.
Term
theory
Definition
a set of interrelated analytic statements that explain a set of phenomena, such as why people practice poor health behaviors.
Term
wellness
Definition
an optimum state of health achieved through balance among physical, mental and social well-being.
Term
adrenal glands
Definition
two small glands, located on top of the kidneys, that are part of the endocrine system and secrete several hormones, including cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine, that are involved in responses to stress.
Term
angina pectoris
Definition
chest pain that occurs because the muscle tissue of the heart is deprived of adequate oxygen or because removal of carbon dioxide and other wastes interferes with the flow of blood and oxygen to the heart.
Term
atherosclerosis
Definition
a major cause of heart disease; caused by the narrowing of the arterial walls due to the formation of plaques that reduce the flow of blood through the arteries and interfere with the passage of nutrients form the capillaries into the cells.
Term
autoimmunity
Definition
a condition in which the body produces an immune response against its own tissue constituents.
Term
blood pressure
Definition
the force that blood exerts against vessel walls.
Term
blood pressure
Definition
the force that blood exerts against vessel walls.
Term
cardiovascular systems
Definition
the transport system of the body responsible for carrying oxygen and nutrients to the body and carrying away carbon dioxide and other wastes to the kidneys for excretion; composed of the heart, blood vessels, and blood.
Term
catecholamines
Definition
the neurotransmitters, epinephrine and norepinephrine, that promote sympathetic nervous system activity; released in substantial quantities during stressful times.
Term
cell-mediated immunity
Definition
a slow-acting immunologic reaction involving T lymphocytes from the thymus gland; effective in defending against viral infections that have invaded the cells, and against fungi, parasites, foreign tissues, and cancer.
Term
cerebellum
Definition
the part of the hindbrain responsible for the coordination of voluntary muscle movement, the maintenance of balance and equilibrium and the maintenance of muscle tone and posture.
Term
cerebral cortex
Definition
the main portion of the brain responsible for intelligence, memory, and the detection and interpretation of sensation.
Term
endocrine system
Definition
a bodily system of ductless glands that secrete hormones into the blood to stimulate target organs; interacts with nervous system functioning.
Term
humoral immunity
Definition
a fast-acting immunologic reaction mediated by B lymphocytes that secrete antibodies into the bloodstream; effective in defending against bacterial infection and viral infections that have not yet invaded the cells.
Term
hypothalamus
Definition
the part of the forebrain responsible for regulating water balance and controlling hunger and sexual desire; assists in cardiac functioning, blood pressure regulation, and respiration regulation; plays a major role in regulation of the endocrine system, which controls the release of hormones, including those related to stress.
Term
immunity
Definition
the body's resistance to injury from invading organisms, acquire from the mother at birth, through disease, or through vaccinations and inoculations.
Term
kidney dialysis
Definition
a procedure in which blood is filtered to remove toxic substances and excess fluid from the blood of patients who kidneys do not function properly.
Term
lymphatic system
Definition
the drainage system if the body; believed to be involved in immune functioning.
Term
medulla
Definition
the part of the hindbrain that controls autonomic functions such as regulation of heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration.
Term
myocardial infarction (MI)
Definition
a heart attack produced when a clot has developed in a coronary vessel, blocking the flow of blood to the heart.
Term
nervous system
Definition
the system of the body responsible for the transmission of information from the brain to the rest of the body to the brain it is composed of the central nervous system (the brain and the spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system (which consists of the remainder of the nerves in the body).
Term
neurotransmitters
Definition
chemicals that regulate nervous system functioning
Term
nonspecific immune functions
Definition
a set of responses to infection or a disorder that is engaged by the presence of a biological invader
Term
parasympathetic nervous system
Definition
the part of the nervous system responsible for vegetative functions the conservation of energy, and the damping down of the effects of the sympathetic nervous system.
Term
phagocytosis
Definition
the process by which phagocytes ingest and attempt to eliminate a foreign invader.
Term
pituitary gland
Definition
a gland located at the base of and controlled by the brain that secretes the hormones responsible for growth and organ development.
Term
platelets
Definition
small disks found in vertebrate blood that contribute to blood coagulation.
Term
pons
Definition
the part of the hindbrain that links the hindbrain to the midbrain and helps control respiration.
Term
renal system
Definition
part of the metabolic system; responsible for the regulation of bodily fluids and the elimination of wastes; regulates bodily fluids by removing surplus water, surplus electrolytes, and waste products generated by the metabolism of food.
Term
respiratory system
Definition
the system of the body responsible for taking in oxygen, excreting carbon dioxide, and regulating the relative composition of the blood.
Term
specific immune mechanisms
Definition
responses designed to respond to specific invaders; includes cell-mediated and humoral immunity.
Term
sympathetic nervous system
Definition
the part of the nervous system that mobilizes the body for action.
Term
thalamus
Definition
the portion of the forebrain responsible for the recognition of sensory stimuli and the relay of sensory impulses to the cerebral cortex.
Term
abstinence violation effect
Definition
a feeling of loss of control that results when one has violated self-imposed rules, such as not to smoke or drink.
Term
assertiveness training
Definition
techniques that train people how to be appropriately assertive in social situations; often included as part of health behavior modification programs, on the assumption that some poor health habits, such as excessive alcohol consumption or smoking, develop in part to control difficulties in being appropriately assertive.
Term
at risk
Definition
a state of vulnerability to a particular health problem by virtue of heredity, health practices, or family environment.
Term
behavioral assignments
Definition
home practice activities that clients preform on their own as part of an integral therapeutic intervention for behavior modification.
Term
classical conditioning
Definition
the pairing of a stimulus with an unconditional reflex, such that over time the new stimulus acquires a conditioned response, evoking he same behavioral the process by which an automatic response is conditioned to a new stimulus.
Term
cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT)
Definition
the use of principles from learning theory to modify the cognitions and behaviors associated with a behavior to be modified; cognitive-behavioral approaches are used to modify poor health habits, such as smoking, poor diet, and alcoholism.
Term
cognitive restructuring
Definition
a method of modifying internal monologues in stress-producing situations; clients are trained to monitor what why say to themselves in stress-provoking situations and then to modify their cognitions in adaptive ways.
Term
contingency contracting
Definition
a procedure in which an individual forms a contract with another person, such as a therapist, detailing what rewards or punishments are contingent on the performance or nonperformance of a target behavior.
Term
discriminative stimulus
Definition
an environmental stimulus that is capable of eliciting a particular behavior; for example, the sight of food may act as a discriminative stimulus for eating.
Term
fear appeals
Definition
efforts to change attitudes by arousing fear to induce the motivation to change behavior; fear appeals are used to try to get people to change poor health habits.
Term
health behaviors
Definition
behaviors undertaken by people to enhance or maintain their health, such as exercise or the consumption of a healthy diet.
Term
health belief model
Definition
a theory of health behaviors; the model predicts that whether a person practices a particular health habit can be understood by knowing the degree to which the person perceives a personal health threat and the perception that a particular health practice will be effective in reducing that threat.
Term
health habit
Definition
a health-related behavior that is firmly established and often performed automatically, such as buckling a seat belt or brushing one's teeth.
Term
health locus of control
Definition
the perception that one's health is under personal control; is controlled by powerful others, such as physicians; or is determined by external factors, including chance.
Term
health promotion
Definition
a general philosophy maintaing that health is a personal and collective achievement; the process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their health. Health promotion may occur through individual efforts, through interaction with the medical system, and through a concerted health policy effort.
Term
lifestyle rebalancing
Definition
concerted lifestyle change in a healthy direction, usually including exercise, stress management, and a healthy diet; believed to contribute to relapse prevention after successful modification of a poor health habit, such as smoking or alcohol consumption.
Term
modeling
Definition
learning gained from observing another person performing a target behavior.
Term
operant conditioning
Definition
the pairing of a voluntary, nonautomatic behavior with a new stimulus through reinforcement or punishment.
Term
primary prevention
Definition
measures designed to combat risk factors for illness before an illness has a chance to develop.
Term
relapse prevention
Definition
a set of techniques designed to keep people from relapsing to prior poor health habits after initial successful behavior modification; includes training in coping skills for high-risk-for-relapse situations and lifestyle rebalancing.
Term
relaxation training
Definition
procedures that help people relax; include progressive muscle relaxation and deep breathing; may also include guided imagery and forms of meditation or hypnosis.
Term
self-affirmation
Definition
a process by which people focus on their personal values which bolsters the self-concept.
Term
self-control
Definition
a state in which an individual desiring to change behavior learns how to modify the antecedents and the consequences of that target behavior.
Term
self-determination theory (SDT)
Definition
the theory that autonomous motivation and perceived competence are fundamental to behavior change.
Term
self-efficacy
Definition
the perception that one is able to preform a particular action.
Term
self-monitoring
Definition
assessing the frequency, antecedents, and consequences of a target behavior to be modified; also known as self-observation.
Term
self-reinforcement
Definition
systematically rewarding or punishing oneself to increase or decrease the occurrence of a target behavior.
Term
self-talk
Definition
internal monologues; people tell themselves things that may undermine or help them implement appropriate health habits, such as "I can stop smoking"(positive self-talk) or "i'll never be able to do this" (negative self-talk)
Term
social engineering
Definition
social or lifestyle change through legislation; for example, water purification is done though social engineering rather than by individual efforts.
Term
socialization
Definition
the process by which people learn the norms, rules, and beliefs associated with their family and society; parents and social institutions are usually the major agents of socialization.
Term
social skills training
Definition
techniques that teach people how to relax and interact comfortably in social situations; often a part of health behavior modification programs, on the assumption that maladaptive health behaviors, such as alcohol consumption or smoking, may develop in part to control social anxiety.
Term
stimulus-control interventions
Definition
interventions designed to modify behavior that involve the removal of discriminative stimuli that evoke a behavior targeted for change and the substitution of new discriminative stimuli that will evoke a desired behavior.
Term
teachable moment
Definition
the idea that certain times are more effective for teaching particular health practices than others; pregnancy constitutes a teachable moment for getting women to stop smoking.
Term
theory of planned behavior
Definition
derived from the theory of reasoned action, a theoretical viewpoint maintaing that a person's behavioral intentions and behaviors can be understood by knowing the person's attitudes toward the behavior, subjective norms regarding the behavior, and perceived behavioral control over that action.
Term
transtheoretical model of behavior change
Definition
an analysis of the health behavior change process that draws on the stages and processes people go through in order to bring about successful long-term behavior change. the stages include precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. Successful attitude or behavior change at each stage depends on the appropriateness of the intervention. For example, attitude-change materials help move people from pre contemplation to contemplation, whereas relapse prevention techniques help move people from action to maintenance.
Term
window of vulnerability
Definition
the fact that, at certain times, people are more vulnerable to particular health problems. For example, early adolescence constitutes a window of vulnerability for beginning smoking, drug use, and alcohol abuse.
Term
acute stress paradigm
Definition
a laboratory procedure whereby an individual goes through moderately stressful procedures (such as counting backwards rapidly by 7s), so that stress-related changes in emotions and physiological and/or neuroendocrine processes may be assessed.
Term
aftereffects of stress
Definition
performance and attentional decrements that occur after a stressful event has subsided; believed to be produced by the residual physiological, emotion, and cognitive draining in response to stressful events.
Term
allostatic load
Definition
the accumulating adverse effects of stress, in conjunction with preexisting risks, on biological stress regulatory systems.
Term
chronic strain
Definition
a stressful experience that is a usual but continually stressful aspect of life.
Term
daily hassles
Definition
minor daily stressful events; believed to have a cumulative effect in increasing the likelihood of illness.
Term
fight or flight response
Definition
a response to a threat in which the body is rapidly aroused and motivated via the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine system to attack or flee a threatening stimulus; the response was first described by walter cannon in 1932.
Term
general adaptation syndrome
Definition
developed by Hans Selye, a profile of how organisms respond to stress; the general adaptation syndrome is characterized by three phases: a nonspecific mobilization phase, which promotes sympathetic nervous system activity; a resistance phase, during which the organism makes efforts to cope with the threat; and an exhaustion phase, which occurs if the organism fails to overcome the threat and depletes its physiological resources.
Term
perceived stress
Definition
the perception that an event is stressful independent of its objective characteristics.
Term
person-environment fit
Definition
the degree to which the needs and resources of a person and the needs and resources of an environment complement each other.
Term
post-traumatic stress disorder
Definition
a syndrome that results after exposure to a stressor of extreme magnitude, marked by emotional numbing the reliving of aspects of the trauma, intense responses to other stressful events, and other symptoms, such as hyperalertness, sleep disturbance, guilt, or impaired memory or concentration.
Term
primary appraisal
Definition
the perception of a new or changing environment as beneficial, neutral, or negative in its consequences; believed to be a first step in stress and coping.
Term
reactivity
Definition
the predisposition to react physiologically to stress; believed to be genetically based in part; high reactivity is believed to be a risk factor for a range of stress-related diseases.
Term
role conflict
Definition
conflict that occurs when two or more social or occupation roles that an individual occupies produce conflicting standards for behavior.
Term
secondary appraisal
Definition
the assessment of one's coping abilities and resources and the judgment as to whether they will be sufficient to meet the harm, threat, or challenge of a new or changing event.
Term
stress
Definition
appraising events as harmful, threatening, or challenging, and assessing one's capacity to respond to those events; events that are perceived to tax or exceed ones resources are seen as stressful.
Term
stressful life events
Definition
events that force an individual to make changes in his or her life.
Term
stressors
Definition
events perceived to be stressful
Term
tend-and-befriend
Definition
a theory of responses to stress maintaining that in addition to fight or flight, humans respond to stress with social affiliation and nurturant behavior toward offspring; thought to depend on the stress hormone oxytocin; these responses may be especially true of women.
Term
approach (confrontative, vigilant) coping style
Definition
the tendency to to cope with stressful events by tackling them directly and attempting to develop solutions; may ultimately be an especially effective method of coping, although it may produce accompanying distress.
Term
avoidant (minimizing) coping style
Definition
the tendency to cope with threatening events by withdrawing, minimizing, or avoiding them; believed to be an effective short-term, though not an effective long-term, response to stress.
Term
buffering hypothesis
Definition
the hypothesis that coping resources are useful primarily under conditions of high stress and not necessarily under conditions of low stress.
Term
control-enhancing interventions
Definition
interventions with patients who are awaiting treatment for the purpose of enhancing their perceptions of control over those treatments.
Term
coping
Definition
the process of trying to manage demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding one's resources.
Term
coping outcomes
Definition
the beneficial effects that are though to result from successful coping; these include reducing stress, adjusting more successfully to it, maintaing emotional equilibrium, having satisfying relationships with others, and maintaing a positive self image.
Term
coping style
Definition
an individuals preferred method of dealing with stressful situations.
Term
direct effect hypothesis
Definition
the theory that coping resources, such as social support, have beneficial psychological and health effects under conditions of both high stress and low stress
Term
emotion-focused coping
Definition
efforts to regulate emotions associated with a stressful encounters can be associated with distress.
Term
emotional-approach coping
Definition
the process of clarifying, focusing on, and working through the emotions experienced in conjunction with as tress or; generally has positive effects on psychological functioning and health.
Term
emotional support
Definition
indications from other people that one is loved, valued, and cared for; believed to be an important aspect of social support during times of stress.
Term
informational support
Definition
the provision of information to a person experiencing stress by friends, family, and other people in the individual's social network; believed to help reduce the distressing and health-compromising effects of stress.
Term
invisible support
Definition
support received from another person that is outside the recipient's awareness.
Term
matching hypothesis
Definition
the hypothesis that social support is helpful to an individual to the extent that the kind of support offered satisfied the individual's specific needs.
Term
negative affectivity
Definition
a personality variable marked by a pervasive negative mood, including anxiety, depression, and hostility; believed to be implicated in the experience of symptoms. the seeking of medical treatment, and possibly illness.
Term
problem-focused coping
Definition
attempts to do something constructive about the stressful situations that are harming, threatening or challenging and individual.
Term
psychological control
Definition
the perception that one has at one's disposal a response that will reduce, minimize, eliminate, or offset the adverse effects of an unpleasant event, such as a medical procedure.
Term
self esteem
Definition
a global evaluation of ones qualities and attributions
Term
social support
Definition
information form other people that one is loved and cared for, esteemed and valued, and part of a network of communication and mutual obligation.
Term
stress carriers
Definition
individuals who create stress for others without necessarily increasing their own level of stress.
Term
stress management
Definition
a program for dealing with stress in which people learn how they appraise stressful events, develop skills for coping with stress, and practice putting these skills into effect.
Term
stress moderators
Definition
internal and external resources and vulnerabilities that modify how stress is experienced and its effects.
Term
tangible assistance
Definition
the provision of material support by one person to another, such as services, financial assistance, or goods.
Term
time management
Definition
skills for learning how to uses ones time for effectively to accomplish ones goals.
Term
appraisal delay
Definition
the time between recognizing that a symptom exists and deciding that it is serious.
Term
behavioral delay
Definition
the time between deciding to seek treatment and actually do so.
Term
commonsense model of illness
Definition
a model maintaing that people hold implicit commonsense beliefs about their symptoms and illnesses that result in organized illness representations or schemas and that influence their treatment decision and adherence.
Term
delay behavior
Definition
the act of delaying seeking treatment for recognized symptoms
Term
illness delay
Definition
the time between recognizing that a symptom implies an illness and the decision to seek treatment
Term
illness representations
Definition
an organized set of beliefs about an illness or a type of illness, including its nature, cause, duration, and consequences.
Term
lay referral network
Definition
an informal network of family and friends who help an individual interpret and treat a disorder before the individual seeks formal medical treatment.
Term
medical delay
Definition
a delay in treating symptoms, which results from problems within the medical system, such as fault diagnoses or lost test results.
Term
medical students disease
Definition
the relabeling of symptoms of fatigue and exhaustion s particular illness resulting from learning about illness called medical students' disease because overworked medical students are vulnerable to this labeling effect.
Term
secondary gains
Definition
benefits of being treated for illness, including the ability to rest, to be freed from unpleasant tasks, and to be taken care of by others.
Term
somaticizers
Definition
people who express distress and conflict through bodily symptoms.
Term
worried well
Definition
individuals free from illness who are nonetheless concerned about their physical state and frequently and inappropriately use medical services.
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