Health Psychology
Spring 2020
Final Exam Study Guide
Introduction
1. What are the biomedical and biopsychosocial models?
Biomedical Model – all illness can be explained on the basis of abnormal somatic processes
Unable to fully account for health – only physical problem can be identified
Focus on physical factors that affect diseases
Characteristics:
Mechanistic – focus on specific parts of the body not the whole person (if someone comes in and is diagnosed
with strep throat and given antibiotics, the end. But this can lead to more problems)
Reductionistic – reduces illness to low-level processes it only considers the routes of disease as chemical
based problems like viruses and bacteria (it’s not holistic)
Dualistic – views psychological health as separate from physical health separates the mind from the body
Biopsychosocial model – adds psychological and social factors (health is more than just biological factors)
Focuses more on health and health promotion/prevention
Health is influenced by:
Biological factors
Psychological factors – stress, emotion, thoughts, behaviors
Social factors – relations with social factors like relations to family
2. About what proportion of deaths is attributable to health behaviors?
Tobacco – 15%
Poor diet/physical inactivity – 18%
Alcohol consumption – 3%
Microbial agents – 2%
Medical error – 3%
Toxic agents – 2.5%
Motor vehicle – 1%
Firearms – 1.5%
Sexual behavior – 1%
Illicit drug use – 1%
Other – 51.8%
Research Methods
3. What are correlational and experimental designs?
Correlation: measure of the strength of the association between two variables (ranges from -1.00 to +1.00)
Correlation coefficient r
Positive correlation: variables change in the same direction
Negative correlation: variables change in opposite directions
Experimental Design (randomized clinical trial)
Manipulation of the IV à how does this influence the DV?
Random assignment – the researcher assigns people to a control group or a experimental group. When you
determine who gets assigned to each it is random. manipulate the IV and then measure the DV
Experimental control – controlling for any other variable other than the IV that could affect the DV making
sure that the experience for the control group and experimental group are the same besides the IV
4. What are moderators?
Variable that changes the magnitude and/or direction of the relation between the IV and DV
it qualifies the relationship between the IV and the DV like with the creative writing experiment for stress the
IV and the DV there is a relationship, but the moderator is that that relationship is different for everyone.
(some people are ok with talking to people about their problems some people aren’t)
5. What are mediators?
Variable through which the IV affects the DV
it explains how the IV is related to the DV (Stress related to obesity and the mediator is that stress causes
eating which causes obesity)
, 6. What are confounds?
Confounding variable – threat to internal validity
Variable that is potentially responsible for the results but is not the IV
Experimental control and random assignment are good ways to not have a confounding variable
7. What are retrospective and prospective designs?
Retrospective – measuring predictor variables after outcome variables already known
Look back at records of people with ulcers and then look back at their stress levels
Problem: outcome already known & correlational
Prospective – predictor assessed in advance of outcome
Does stress predict ulcers you first measure stress and then see if they develop ulcers
Problem: correlational
8. What are cross-sectional and longitudinal designs?
Cross-sectional – collecting data at one point in time
Problems: cannot establish temporal precedence (if your measuring stress levels and whether or not they
have ulcers at the same time you don’t know what came first) & correlational
Longitudinal – collecting data at more than one point in time
Problems: correlational & time-consuming
9. What are internal and external validity?
Internal validity – likelihood that changes in DV were caused by IV
experiment on expressive writing and stress we would have high internal validity if we were certain expressive
writing decreased stress
External validity – likelihood that the same results would be obtained using the same study with other people in other
situations (generalizability)
Psychophysiology
10. What is allostatic load?
Allostasis – active process of adaptation and maintaining homeostasis (more holistic than homeostasis)
Homeostasis Allostasis
Single optimal set points Optimal operating ranges
Local System-wide
Adjustments made in response to changes Adjustments made in response to changes and in
anticipation of changes
Allostatic load – repeated allostasis associated with cumulative physiological cost
Repeated allostasis causes cumulative physiological toll (Example: decrease immunity)
McEwen & Stellar, 1993 when you do this too much. You’re a student and you get up in the morning and your stressed
about an exam and then you go to eat breakfast and relax a bit and then you take the exam and your blood pressure
increases again and then after the exam you relax again. It gets to become too much causing more problems for you
11. What is the autonomic nervous system? What are the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems?
Autonomic nervous system – controls self-regulated actions of internal organs and glands (involuntary movement)
Manages internal organs without conscious control
Sympathetic – arousing
Mobilizes body to react to stressor or activity (rapid heartbeat)
Parasympathetic – calming
Restores body to normal state after arousal (normal heartbeat)
Sympathetic Parasympathetic
Increases heart rate Slows heart rate
Inhibits digestion Stimulates digestion
Open lungs Constricts lung passages
Dilates pupils Constricts pupils
Inhibits salvation Promotes salvation
Increases blood glucose Lowers blood glucose
Stimulates adrenal gland to release catecholamines
(epinephrine and norepinephrine)
12. What is the endocrine system?
Endocrine system – regulatory system that secretes hormones
, Hypothalamus – controls pituitary gland
Pituitary gland (master gland) – secretes hormones that directly influence other endocrine glands like GH or oxytocin
Adrenal glands – secretes stress hormones (above kidneys)
Adrenal medulla and adrenal cortex
Stress → sympathetic nervous system arousal → hypothalamus → pituitary gland → sympathetic-adrenal-medullary
(SAM) system activated → adrenal medulla releases catecholamines – epinephrine and norepinephrine (adrenaline
and noradrenaline) → hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system activated → adrenal cortex secretes cortisol
(stress hormone that suppresses inflammation) (a prolonged increase in cortisol levels to suppression of immune
system)
13. Which hormones are released by the SAM and HPA systems?
Sympathetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) system: adrenal medulla releases catecholamines – epinephrine and
norepinephrine (adrenaline and noradrenaline)
Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system – adrenal cortex secretes cortisol (stress hormone that suppresses
inflammation) (a prolonged increase in cortisol levels to suppression of immune system)
Stress – Measurement and Models
14. What is Lazarus and Folkman’s cognitive appraisal model?
Their idea on what is stressful for us (they say it’s not the actual event that is stressful but the way we think about it
that causes us to be stressful) (could explain why everyone’s response to a stressful event is different)
Interpretation rather than objective circumstances
2 phases:
1. Primary appraisal: determination of whether an event has any potential negative effects like on the day of the
final exam you get a flat tire some people may freak out some may not. If you don’t then that’s the end there is
no stress, but if you do freak out then you go to secondary appraisal.
“Is this event potentially harmful?”
2. Secondary appraisal: determination of whether one has abilities and resources to overcome threat of harm if you
find a way to cope with this then small stress response but if you can’t then big stress response
“Am I able to deal with this event?”
15. What are the models of stress and illness?
a. Indirect effect (including information about eating sweet, starchy, fatty foods) – stress leads to unhealthy
behaviors in attempt to cope with stress
Stress → unhealthy behavior → physiological changes → disease
b. Direct effect model – direct link between stress and disease
Stress → physiological reactions → disease
16. What is Cannon’s flight-or-flight response?
Physiological stress response
Fight or flight is the same as a sympathetic system arousal. It focuses our energy onto important bodily functions to
deal with the danger. It is very appropriate for an immediate physical or psychological threat the difference is that the
immediate physical problem is going to end fast but the psychological stressor is chronic and prolonged meaning
chronic levels of decreased digestion etc.
What physical changes are involved?
Blood flow increases
Heart rate speeds up
Digestion slows
Muscles tense
How did he make his initial discovery of ties between psychological processes and digestive processes?
17. What is Selye’s general adaptation syndrome?
Body’s generalized attempt to defend itself against stressors
What are the 3 stages in the stress response?
Alarm – body mobilizes to respond to stress
Resistance – body adapts to stressor
Exhaustion – physical resources (including stress hormones) are depleted
In what ways was he incorrect?
General & nonspecific
18. What is cardiovascular reactivity?
, Reaction to stress
Effect of stress on our hearts (heart rate & BP)
19. What is Holmes and Rahe’s Social Readjustment Rating Scale? How is stress conceptualized by this scale?
20. What are daily hassles? How are they related to health?
Minor annoying events which require some degree of adjustment (DeLongis, Folkman, & Lazarus, 1988)
Daily hassles → negative cumulative effects on health
Stress Moderators (Social Support)
21. How do social network size, received support, perceived support, providing support, and relationship strain relate to
health?
Social networks – number of relationships that someone has contact with on a daily basis (just a number)
Mixed results
Association with decreased mortality risk (Berkman & Syme, 1979; House, Robbins, & Metzner, 1982)
Alameda County Study (Berkman & Syme, 1979)
9-year prospective study
Problem: existence of social ties does not mean they are supportive
Received social support – amount of support accessed by individual
Not particularly beneficial because receiving support is positively correlated with having stress, when your
stressed you’re getting more support
More support could also lead to more stress for various reasons like the more support you get the more
people know about your problems
Positively correlated with stress
Can lead to feelings of dependency and decreased self-respect
Perceived social support – amount of support appraised to be available; satisfaction with available support
More consistently beneficial because you know you can get it when you need it
Associated with better self-rated health
Associated with lower stress
Associated with lower mortality risk
Providing support (not including caregiver support which is like taking care of someone that is very sick can be very
stressful)
Related to decreased mortality risk
Related to reduce sympathetic arousal
Related to positive emotions
Giving emotional support to spouse (GESS) → decreases mortality risk
Relationship strain
Associated with poorer health (Newsom et al., 2008)
22. What is the size of the relation between social support and health (relative to other known predictors of health; Holt-
Lunstad & Smith, 2012)?
Relations between aspects of social support and mortality
Odd ratio: survival probability
Comparison of relations between different factors associated with mortality (meta-analyses; effect size; odds of
decreased mortality)
Spring 2020
Final Exam Study Guide
Introduction
1. What are the biomedical and biopsychosocial models?
Biomedical Model – all illness can be explained on the basis of abnormal somatic processes
Unable to fully account for health – only physical problem can be identified
Focus on physical factors that affect diseases
Characteristics:
Mechanistic – focus on specific parts of the body not the whole person (if someone comes in and is diagnosed
with strep throat and given antibiotics, the end. But this can lead to more problems)
Reductionistic – reduces illness to low-level processes it only considers the routes of disease as chemical
based problems like viruses and bacteria (it’s not holistic)
Dualistic – views psychological health as separate from physical health separates the mind from the body
Biopsychosocial model – adds psychological and social factors (health is more than just biological factors)
Focuses more on health and health promotion/prevention
Health is influenced by:
Biological factors
Psychological factors – stress, emotion, thoughts, behaviors
Social factors – relations with social factors like relations to family
2. About what proportion of deaths is attributable to health behaviors?
Tobacco – 15%
Poor diet/physical inactivity – 18%
Alcohol consumption – 3%
Microbial agents – 2%
Medical error – 3%
Toxic agents – 2.5%
Motor vehicle – 1%
Firearms – 1.5%
Sexual behavior – 1%
Illicit drug use – 1%
Other – 51.8%
Research Methods
3. What are correlational and experimental designs?
Correlation: measure of the strength of the association between two variables (ranges from -1.00 to +1.00)
Correlation coefficient r
Positive correlation: variables change in the same direction
Negative correlation: variables change in opposite directions
Experimental Design (randomized clinical trial)
Manipulation of the IV à how does this influence the DV?
Random assignment – the researcher assigns people to a control group or a experimental group. When you
determine who gets assigned to each it is random. manipulate the IV and then measure the DV
Experimental control – controlling for any other variable other than the IV that could affect the DV making
sure that the experience for the control group and experimental group are the same besides the IV
4. What are moderators?
Variable that changes the magnitude and/or direction of the relation between the IV and DV
it qualifies the relationship between the IV and the DV like with the creative writing experiment for stress the
IV and the DV there is a relationship, but the moderator is that that relationship is different for everyone.
(some people are ok with talking to people about their problems some people aren’t)
5. What are mediators?
Variable through which the IV affects the DV
it explains how the IV is related to the DV (Stress related to obesity and the mediator is that stress causes
eating which causes obesity)
, 6. What are confounds?
Confounding variable – threat to internal validity
Variable that is potentially responsible for the results but is not the IV
Experimental control and random assignment are good ways to not have a confounding variable
7. What are retrospective and prospective designs?
Retrospective – measuring predictor variables after outcome variables already known
Look back at records of people with ulcers and then look back at their stress levels
Problem: outcome already known & correlational
Prospective – predictor assessed in advance of outcome
Does stress predict ulcers you first measure stress and then see if they develop ulcers
Problem: correlational
8. What are cross-sectional and longitudinal designs?
Cross-sectional – collecting data at one point in time
Problems: cannot establish temporal precedence (if your measuring stress levels and whether or not they
have ulcers at the same time you don’t know what came first) & correlational
Longitudinal – collecting data at more than one point in time
Problems: correlational & time-consuming
9. What are internal and external validity?
Internal validity – likelihood that changes in DV were caused by IV
experiment on expressive writing and stress we would have high internal validity if we were certain expressive
writing decreased stress
External validity – likelihood that the same results would be obtained using the same study with other people in other
situations (generalizability)
Psychophysiology
10. What is allostatic load?
Allostasis – active process of adaptation and maintaining homeostasis (more holistic than homeostasis)
Homeostasis Allostasis
Single optimal set points Optimal operating ranges
Local System-wide
Adjustments made in response to changes Adjustments made in response to changes and in
anticipation of changes
Allostatic load – repeated allostasis associated with cumulative physiological cost
Repeated allostasis causes cumulative physiological toll (Example: decrease immunity)
McEwen & Stellar, 1993 when you do this too much. You’re a student and you get up in the morning and your stressed
about an exam and then you go to eat breakfast and relax a bit and then you take the exam and your blood pressure
increases again and then after the exam you relax again. It gets to become too much causing more problems for you
11. What is the autonomic nervous system? What are the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems?
Autonomic nervous system – controls self-regulated actions of internal organs and glands (involuntary movement)
Manages internal organs without conscious control
Sympathetic – arousing
Mobilizes body to react to stressor or activity (rapid heartbeat)
Parasympathetic – calming
Restores body to normal state after arousal (normal heartbeat)
Sympathetic Parasympathetic
Increases heart rate Slows heart rate
Inhibits digestion Stimulates digestion
Open lungs Constricts lung passages
Dilates pupils Constricts pupils
Inhibits salvation Promotes salvation
Increases blood glucose Lowers blood glucose
Stimulates adrenal gland to release catecholamines
(epinephrine and norepinephrine)
12. What is the endocrine system?
Endocrine system – regulatory system that secretes hormones
, Hypothalamus – controls pituitary gland
Pituitary gland (master gland) – secretes hormones that directly influence other endocrine glands like GH or oxytocin
Adrenal glands – secretes stress hormones (above kidneys)
Adrenal medulla and adrenal cortex
Stress → sympathetic nervous system arousal → hypothalamus → pituitary gland → sympathetic-adrenal-medullary
(SAM) system activated → adrenal medulla releases catecholamines – epinephrine and norepinephrine (adrenaline
and noradrenaline) → hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system activated → adrenal cortex secretes cortisol
(stress hormone that suppresses inflammation) (a prolonged increase in cortisol levels to suppression of immune
system)
13. Which hormones are released by the SAM and HPA systems?
Sympathetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) system: adrenal medulla releases catecholamines – epinephrine and
norepinephrine (adrenaline and noradrenaline)
Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system – adrenal cortex secretes cortisol (stress hormone that suppresses
inflammation) (a prolonged increase in cortisol levels to suppression of immune system)
Stress – Measurement and Models
14. What is Lazarus and Folkman’s cognitive appraisal model?
Their idea on what is stressful for us (they say it’s not the actual event that is stressful but the way we think about it
that causes us to be stressful) (could explain why everyone’s response to a stressful event is different)
Interpretation rather than objective circumstances
2 phases:
1. Primary appraisal: determination of whether an event has any potential negative effects like on the day of the
final exam you get a flat tire some people may freak out some may not. If you don’t then that’s the end there is
no stress, but if you do freak out then you go to secondary appraisal.
“Is this event potentially harmful?”
2. Secondary appraisal: determination of whether one has abilities and resources to overcome threat of harm if you
find a way to cope with this then small stress response but if you can’t then big stress response
“Am I able to deal with this event?”
15. What are the models of stress and illness?
a. Indirect effect (including information about eating sweet, starchy, fatty foods) – stress leads to unhealthy
behaviors in attempt to cope with stress
Stress → unhealthy behavior → physiological changes → disease
b. Direct effect model – direct link between stress and disease
Stress → physiological reactions → disease
16. What is Cannon’s flight-or-flight response?
Physiological stress response
Fight or flight is the same as a sympathetic system arousal. It focuses our energy onto important bodily functions to
deal with the danger. It is very appropriate for an immediate physical or psychological threat the difference is that the
immediate physical problem is going to end fast but the psychological stressor is chronic and prolonged meaning
chronic levels of decreased digestion etc.
What physical changes are involved?
Blood flow increases
Heart rate speeds up
Digestion slows
Muscles tense
How did he make his initial discovery of ties between psychological processes and digestive processes?
17. What is Selye’s general adaptation syndrome?
Body’s generalized attempt to defend itself against stressors
What are the 3 stages in the stress response?
Alarm – body mobilizes to respond to stress
Resistance – body adapts to stressor
Exhaustion – physical resources (including stress hormones) are depleted
In what ways was he incorrect?
General & nonspecific
18. What is cardiovascular reactivity?
, Reaction to stress
Effect of stress on our hearts (heart rate & BP)
19. What is Holmes and Rahe’s Social Readjustment Rating Scale? How is stress conceptualized by this scale?
20. What are daily hassles? How are they related to health?
Minor annoying events which require some degree of adjustment (DeLongis, Folkman, & Lazarus, 1988)
Daily hassles → negative cumulative effects on health
Stress Moderators (Social Support)
21. How do social network size, received support, perceived support, providing support, and relationship strain relate to
health?
Social networks – number of relationships that someone has contact with on a daily basis (just a number)
Mixed results
Association with decreased mortality risk (Berkman & Syme, 1979; House, Robbins, & Metzner, 1982)
Alameda County Study (Berkman & Syme, 1979)
9-year prospective study
Problem: existence of social ties does not mean they are supportive
Received social support – amount of support accessed by individual
Not particularly beneficial because receiving support is positively correlated with having stress, when your
stressed you’re getting more support
More support could also lead to more stress for various reasons like the more support you get the more
people know about your problems
Positively correlated with stress
Can lead to feelings of dependency and decreased self-respect
Perceived social support – amount of support appraised to be available; satisfaction with available support
More consistently beneficial because you know you can get it when you need it
Associated with better self-rated health
Associated with lower stress
Associated with lower mortality risk
Providing support (not including caregiver support which is like taking care of someone that is very sick can be very
stressful)
Related to decreased mortality risk
Related to reduce sympathetic arousal
Related to positive emotions
Giving emotional support to spouse (GESS) → decreases mortality risk
Relationship strain
Associated with poorer health (Newsom et al., 2008)
22. What is the size of the relation between social support and health (relative to other known predictors of health; Holt-
Lunstad & Smith, 2012)?
Relations between aspects of social support and mortality
Odd ratio: survival probability
Comparison of relations between different factors associated with mortality (meta-analyses; effect size; odds of
decreased mortality)
