Health Psychology - Week 1 and 2

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Health Beliefs and Behaviour + Personality and Illness
Ingeborg Monsen
Flashcards by Ingeborg Monsen, updated more than 1 year ago
Ingeborg Monsen
Created by Ingeborg Monsen about 7 years ago
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Question Answer
What are two problems with how patients responds to symptoms? May consult doctor about trivial symptoms, or fail to consult doctor about serious symptoms
What are three different factors that can alter how people perceive sensations? Situational, cultural and psychological factors
What can alter how you perceive different symptoms? Intensity/severity of symptom, familiarity with symptom and duration/frequency
What are Mechanic's 10 variables known to influence illness behavior? 1. Visibility and Recognisability of symptoms 2. Perceived seriousness of symptoms for present and future 3. The extent to which symptoms disrupt family, work, and social activities 4. The frequency of symptoms, their persistence and recurrence 5. The tolerance threshold of the person exposed to the symptoms 6. Available information, knowledge and cultural assumptions and understanding 7. Denial of symptoms 8. Needs that compete with illness responses 9. Competing possible interpretations assigned to symptoms once recognized 10. Availability to treatment recourses; proximity, access, cost, etc.
What are Zola's (1973) "Triggers to Consultation"? 1. The occurrence of interpersonal crisis 2. Perceived interference with social or personal relations 3. Perceived interference with vocational or physical activity 4. Temporalising - setting a personal deadline 5. Sanctioning - pressure from other people to consult
What does it mean to be healthy? (Lau, 1995) - Health as a state of physiological/physical condition - Health as a psychological condition - Health as behavioural function or functional capacity - Health as resistance to disease - Health in terms of future consequences - Health as not being ill
What does it mean to not be ill? (Lau, 1995) - Illness is not feeling normal - Illness is the presence of specific symptoms - Illness is the presence of specific illness - Illness is about the consequences of illness - Illness is a timeline - Illness is the absence of health
What are the different illness cognitions? (Leventhal et al, 1980; 2007) 1. Identity - label given to the illness and the symptoms experienced 2. The perceived cause of the symptoms, i.e. Stress, germ or infection etc. 3. Timeline - how long any illness will last 4. Consequences - perceptions of physical, emotional and social consequences Curability and controllability
What are the two social cognition models to predict health behavior? 1. Health Belief Model (Rosenstock, 1974) 2. Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1970)
What are the issues with the two social cognition models to predict behaviour? • Conceptual = many studies find associations but these frequently interpreted as inferring causality • Methodological = use of questionnaires may be problematic • Predictive = some behaviours better predicted than others, but a lot of variance unexplained, conscious vs. unconscious, models (esp. HBM) don’t take account of the influence of social influence and internal processes or interpretation.
How can psychological health models influence our actual health and what is an example of this? - Health Promotion Strategies i.e. Stop-tober, drink driving campaigns etc. - Doctors can save more lives through health promotion in the consultation that anything else they do.
What is the definition of personality? "Those characteristics of the individual that account for enduring, pervasive and distinctive patterns of behaviour"
What are Galec's 4 used areas of personality? Yellow Bile, Blood, Black Bile and Phlegm
What did Sigmund Freud contribute to the field of personality? Used the psychodynamic theory to explain personality; personality characteristics develop during childhood influenced by their parents and events. Stresses the unconscious mind.
What is a personality trait defined as? Dimensions of individual differences in tendencies to show consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings and actions
What are Eysenck's three supertraits? Extroversion, Neuroticism and Psychoticism
What is the biological basis for extroversion? - If you have low level of cortical arousal and uncomfortable comfort level, then you are under stimulated, bored and restless - If you have high level of cortical arousal and uncomfortable comfort level, then they are over-stimulated, agitated and anxious
What is the biological basis for neuroticism? - Down to functioning of autonomic nervous system - Emotionally unstable (neurotic) people have over-reactive autonomic nervous systems - experience anxiety easily - Emotionally stable people have under-reactive autonomic nervous systems - Do not experience anxiety easily
What are the five factors in the Five Factor Model? (Digman, 1990) - Conscientiousness - Extroversion - Openness to experience - Agreeableness - Neuroticism
What would a high score/low score in Conscientiousness mean for an individual? ○ High score Will tend to follow medical advice ○ Low score - Will often fail to adhere to medical advice and treatment - Difficult to motivate (costs the NHS millions as they stop taking treatments and attending appointments)
What would a high score/low score in Extroversion mean for an individual? ○ High score - May elicit too much information - May be less receptive to advice - Maybe more likely to engage in risky behaviors ○ Low score - Less likely to volunteer information - Extra effort to elicit information
What would a high score/low score in Openness to Experience mean for an individual? ○ High score - May be less compliant - Want information - May do own research - Will consider non-traditional alternative treatments ○ Low score - Prefer conventional treatments - Assume that doctors are the authority - Will tend to believe what they are told
What would a high score/low score in Agreeableness mean for an individual? ○ High score - May be too compliant ○ Low score - Difficult to deal with in clinical situations - Potential increased risk of coronary heart disease (Type A behaviour)
What would a high score/low score in Neuroticism mean for an individual? ○ High score - Increased risk of psychiatric disorder - More sensitive to aches and pains - Interpret sensations as signs of illness - May exaggerate medical problems ○ Low score - May minimise symptoms and fail to seek appropriate care
What are some behaviour patterns for a Type A personality? ○ Competitive achievement orientation - Type A individuals tend to very self-critical and strive towards goals without feeling a sense of joy in their efforts and accomplishments ○ Time urgency - In a constant struggle against the clock. Impatient, schedule commitments too tightly, and try to do more than one thing at a time ○ Anger/hostility - Tend to be easily aroused to anger or hostility, which may or may not express overtly
What are some problems of interpreting the links between personality and illness? ○ Direction of causality = studies are correlational so cause and effect conclusions not possible ○ Other variables may be involved = just because an association found between A and B does not preclude the influence of another variable not measured which may be more relevant ○ Self-reporting illness = self reported illness and associations not verified by objective tests, problems of interpretation of symptoms ○ Dimensions of personality = how many dimensions to measure reimains controversial, i.e. Are they self-conscious? Does that affect illness? ○ Physiological mechanisms vs. Health behaviour = are associations between personality and illness mediated by physiological differences or health behaviour, i.e. Do you smoke?
What are the three personality dimensions (locus of control)? - Internal locus of control = belief in control over successes and failures in life - External locus of control = belief that life is controlled by external forces such as chance (the belief that luck or fate controls health) or Powerful-Others - Health locus of control = the belief that one's health is under personal control; controlled by powerful others such as health professionals; or under control of external factors such as fate or luck
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