Type:
Solution Manual and Test Bank
Resource:
Health Psychology Biopsychosocial Interactions
Edition:
8th Edition
Author(s):
Edward P. Sarafino Timothy W. Smith
CHAPTER 1 AN OVERVIEW OF PSYCHOLOGY AND HEALTH CHAPTER OUTLINE I. What is Health? A. Section Introduction 1. Common definitions of health focus on lack of: a. objective signs of illness - e.g., high blood pressure b. subjective symptoms of illness - e.g., pain or nausea B. An Illness/Wellness Continuum 1. The concepts of health and sickness overlap 2. Antonovsky proposes an illness/wellness continuum with polar ends of death/illness/disability v. optimal wellness a. need to change focus from what makes people sick to what keeps people well 3. Health = the positive state of physical, mental and social well-being that varies over time along a continuum C. Illness Today and in the Past 1. In industrialized nations, people live longer than in past and suffer from different patterns of illnesses 2. Until this century, people in North America died from mainly dietary and infectious diseases a. dietary illnesses: illnesses resulting from malnutrition such as beriberi (lack of vitamin B1) b. infectious diseases: acute illnesses caused by harmful matter or microorganisms (bacteria or viruses); main cause of death in most of world today 3. History of diseases in US a. 18th century: epidemics of smallpox, diphtheria, yellow fever, measles and influenza killed thousands, esp. children i. infectious diseases such as malaria and dysentery weakened victims and made them susceptible to other fatal diseases ii. such diseases were introduced to America by European settlers 1) Native Americans died at high rates due to lack of previous exposure and natural immunity; lack of immunity probably due to low degree of genetic variation
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b. 19th century: new infectious disease beginning to emerge (e.g., tuberculosis) i. decrease in deaths from infectious diseases by end of 19 th century ii. cause of decline 1) improved personal hygiene 2) better nutrition resulting in greater resistance to disease 3) public health innovation (e.g., water purification and sewage treatment facilities) 4) increased personal concern about health and following advice of health reformers c. 20th century: death rate due to infectious disease declined and average life expectancy increased i. increase in infant life expectancy from 48 years to 77 years ii. chronic disease leading cause of health problems and half of all deaths in developed countries 1) definition = degenerative illnesses that develop or persist over long period of time 2) examples = heart disease, cancer, stroke 3) reasons = increase in industrialization increases stress and exposure to harmful chemicals; longer life span places people at higher risk for chronic disease 4. Main causes of death across the life span a. children – accidental injury, cancer, & congenital abnormalities b. adolescents – accidental injury, homicide, suicide II. Viewpoints from History: Physiology, Disease Processes, and the Mind A. Early Cultures 1. Belief that physical and mental illness caused by mystical forces (e.g., evil spirits) a. speculative evidence - use of trephination to allow spirits to escape B. Ancient Greece and Rome 1. Hippocrates’ humoral theory a. health was due to harmony or balance of four humors whereas illness was the result of an imbalance of bodily fluids b. health recommendations included good diet, avoiding excesses to keeps humors in balance 2. Introduction of the mind/body problem a. Greek philosophers, including Plato, argued that the mind and body are separate entities (mind has little impact on the body and its state of health)
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3. Influence of Galen a. believed in humoral theory and mind-body split b. innovations attributed to Galen - animal dissections to discover how systems work, localization of illness, and belief that different disease have different effects C. The Middle Ages 1. With collapse of Roman Empire, advancement of knowledge and culture slowed dramatically 2. Impact of the Church on slowing development of medical knowledge a. prohibition on human and animal dissection b. belief that creatures with a soul were set apart from ordinary laws of the universe 3. Illness was believed to be a punishment for sin a. medical treatments involving use of torture to drive evil spirits out of body were done by clergy under this belief 4. Influence of St. Thomas Aquinas a. church scholar who saw the mind and body as interrelated unit that forms whole person D. The Renaissance and After 1. Period witnessed rebirth of inquiry, culture, politics, belief in “humancentered” focus; set stage for changes in philosophy once scientific revolution began 2. Influence of Descartes a. advanced notion of "body as machine" and described mechanics of body action and sensation b. believed the mind and body, although separate entities, communicated through pineal gland c. argued soul left humans at death; therefore dissection on humans acceptable 3. Changes in science & medicine a. knowledge increased due to technological improvements (e.g., microscope) and use of dissection b. rejection of humoral theory and development of new theories due to increased knowledge of body functions and discovery of microorganisms c. surgical practice improved by antiseptics & anesthesia d. status of hospital changed to "place of healing" along with more respect for ability of doctors to heal 4. Biomedical model a. new approach to conceptualizing health/illness that proposes physiological problems cause afflictions of the body b. health/illness of body separated from psychological/social experience of the mind c. dominant perspective in medicine since 19th century
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III. Seeing a Need: Psychology’s Role in Health A. Section Introduction 1. Biomedical model led to: a. development of vaccines and reduction in infectious disease b. development of antibiotics and cures to illnesses from bacterial infection 2. Despite advances, biomedical model needs improvement B. Problems in the Health Care System 1. Health care costs comprise an increasing percentage of the GDP 2. Chronic diseases are now the main health problems a. improvements in treatments have been modest 3. People have changed a. higher levels of knowledge, more motivation, better able to afford medical care b. “the person” still left out of biomedical model C. “The Person” in Health and Illness 1. Section introduction a. individual differences in tendency toward illness due to: i. biomedical sources such as physiological processes or exposure to microorganisms ii. psychological and social factors 2. Lifestyle and illness a. lifestyle modifications (changes in everyday patterns of behavior) may affect characteristics associated with health problems b. risk factors = biological or behavioral characteristics/conditions associated with development of a disease or injury i. biological risk factor example: inherited genes ii. behavioral risk factor examples: smoking, eating high saturated fat diet iii. having more risk factors are associated with (but don’t necessarily cause) higher likelihood of developing disease c. behavioral risk factors associated with five leading causes of death: i. heart disease = smoking, high dietary cholesterol, obesity, lack of exercise ii. cancer = smoking, high alcohol use, diet iii. stroke = smoking, high dietary cholesterol, lack of exercise iv. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) = smoking v. accidents = alcohol/drug use, not using seat belts d. lifestyle contributes to health problems and high medical costs i. society bears burden of medical costs through public and private insurance programs
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