Chapter 15

HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY
 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND GENERAL HEALTH

-Appraisals and pessimism

Pessimism may contribute to poor health as it may cause chronic arousal of
the body’s fight or flight response resulting in long term psychological
damage.

A pessimistic outlook of a person may lead to engage in unhealthy

behaviors such as not maintaining proper diet and not getting enough sleep

Coping strategies
- There are ways to cope with illness and other life stressing moments
and can affect your life. An example of it is avoidance method of coping
where a person denies that he/she is mentally drained/stressed. Writing
can also help people understand and find meaning of their lives, this
also can become an outlet to express emotions that words cannot.

- Woman and men can appear to have different responses to stress,

woman is more likely to seek out support than men when struggling
mentally, Men on the other hand typically have a much smaller support
system of people they can turn to for mental support.
Psychological disorders and physical health
- People with psychological disorders have more physical problems than
people without mental disorders. Examples of this are severe allergies,
chronic respiratory disease and even cancer.
- Cultural differences in coping, different cultures from around the world
has different ways of coping, Asian cultures tend to be more reluctant
than European Americans to reach out to others for social support.
Psychosocial factors in specific diseases
- The immune system protects us from diseases by identifying and killing
viruses.
- Uncontrollable stress also impairs immune system functioning in
humans.
- Cancer
- HIV/AIDS
Coronary Heart Disease and Hypertension
- Occurs when the blood vessels that support the heart muscles are
narrowed or closed by the gradual buildup of a hard fatty substance
called plaque.
- Hypertension, also known as high blood is a condition in which blood
flows through vessels with excessive force, putting pressure on vessel
walls.
- Major depression in coronary heart disease occurs in 15 to 20 percent of
patients in the hospital.
Personality and CHD
-Type A behavior pattern, linked to coronary and heart disease.
Modifying Hostility to improve Cardiovascular Functioning
- This treatment also targeted the aspects of type A behavior, cognitive
techniques helped participants reevaluate certain beliefs that might lead
to urgent and hostile behavior.
Interventions to improve health-related behaviors
- Our behaviors have a large influence on our health.
Guided Mastery Techniques
- Provide with explicit information about how to engage in positive
health-related behaviors and with opportunities to do so in increasingly
challenging situation.
 Internet-based health interventions
- Millions of people has accessed to the internet for any health based
interventions, this will provide for people that doesn’t have accessed to
face to face consultations with their doctor.

Sleep and health

- Getting enough sleep is critical to have a healthy lifestyle, people with 6
hours each night of good night’s rest have a 70 percent higher mortality
rate than those who sleep 7 to 8 hours.

Sleep disorders
- Insomnia (chronic difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep or sleep that
doesn’t restore energy
- Substance induced sleep disorder (alcohol or illicit use of drugs)
- Hypersomnolence disorders (excessive sleepiness or low quality of
wakefulness)
- Narcolepsy (involves recurrent attacks of an irrepressible need to sleep)
- Sleep-related breathing disorders
- Central sleep apnea (experience complete cessation of respiratory
activity for brief periods of time)
- Sleep terror disorder (often occurs in children)
- Sleepwalking disorder (also common to children)
- -Nightmare Disorder (often happens to adults, they may have vivid
memory after they have experienced nightmares)