Health Psychology: An Introduction to

Behavior and Health 8th Edition, (Ebook

PDF)
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/health-psychology-an-introduction-to-behavior-and-he
alth-8th-edition-ebook-pdf/
Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.
 Contents

Preface xv WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? Prescribing

Placebos May Be Considered Ethical 22
About the Authors xxi
IN SUMMARY 23
Research Methods in Psychology 24
PART 1 Foundations of Health Correlational Studies 24
Psychology Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Studies 25

1 Introducing Health Psychology 1 Experimental Designs 25

Ex Post Facto Designs 26
Real-World Profile of Angela Bryan 2
CHAPTER

IN SUMMARY 27
The Changing Field of Health 3
Research Methods in Epidemiology 27
Patterns of Disease and Death 3
Observational Methods 28
WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? College Is Good
for Your Health 7 Randomized Controlled Trials 29
Escalating Cost of Medical Care 8 Natural Experiments 30
What Is Health? 9 Meta-Analysis 30
WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? It Takes More An Example of Epidemiological Research: The
Than a Virus to Give You a Cold 10 Alameda County Study 30

IN SUMMARY 11 IN SUMMARY 31

Psychology’s Relevance for Health 12 Becoming an Informed Reader of Health-Related

Research on the Internet 32
The Contribution of Psychosomatic Medicine 12
The Emergence of Behavioral Medicine 13
Determining Causation 33
The Emergence of Health Psychology 13 The Risk Factor Approach 33
Cigarettes and Disease: Is There a Causal
IN SUMMARY 14
Relationship? 33
The Profession of Health Psychology 14
IN SUMMARY 35
The Training of Health Psychologists 15
Research Tools 35
The Work of Health Psychologists 15
The Role of Theory in Research 35
IN SUMMARY 16
The Role of Psychometrics in Research 36
Answers 16
IN SUMMARY 37
Suggested Readings 17
Answers 37

2 Conducting Health Research 18 Suggested Readings 39

CHECK YOUR BELIEFS 19
3 Seeking and Receiving Health
CHAPTER

Real-World Profile of Sylvester Colligan 19

The Placebo in Treatment and Research 20
Care 40
CHAPTER

CHECK YOUR HEALTH RISKS 41

Treatment and the Placebo 20 Real-World Profile of Lance Armstrong 41
Research and the Placebo 22
Seeking Medical Attention 42

vii
Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.
viii CONTENTS

Illness Behavior 43 The Intention–Behavior Gap 80

The Sick Role 48 Behavioral Willingness 80
IN SUMMARY 48 Implementational Intentions 81
Seeking Medical Information From Nonmedical IN SUMMARY 81
Sources 49 WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? Text Messages
Lay Referral Network 49 Can Help Turn Intentions Into Action 82
The Internet 49 Improving Adherence 82
Receiving Medical Care 50 Becoming Healthier 84
Limited Access to Medical Care 50 IN SUMMARY 84
Choosing a Practitioner 51 Answers 85
Being in the Hospital 53 Suggested Readings 86
WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? Hospitals May Be
a Leading Cause of Death 54
IN SUMMARY 56
Answers 57
PART 2 Stress, Pain, and Coping
Suggested Readings 57 5 Defining, Measuring, and Managing
Stress 87
CHAPTER

4 Adhering to Healthy Behavior 58 CHECK YOUR HEALTH RISKS 88

CHECK YOUR HEALTH RISKS 59 Real-World Profile of Lindsay Lohan 88
CHAPTER

Real-World Profile of Nathan Rey 59 The Nervous System and the Physiology of
Stress 89
Issues in Adherence 60
The Peripheral Nervous System 89
What Is Adherence? 60
The Neuroendocrine System 90
How Is Adherence Measured? 60
Physiology of the Stress Response 94
How Frequent Is Nonadherence? 61
What Are the Barriers to Adherence? 62 IN SUMMARY 95

IN SUMMARY 63
Theories of Stress 95
Selye’s View 95
What Factors Predict Adherence? 63
Lazarus’s View 97
Severity of the Disease 64
Treatment Characteristics 64 IN SUMMARY 98

Personal Factors 65 Measurement of Stress 98

Environmental Factors 66 Methods of Measurement 99
Interaction of Factors 68 Reliability and Validity of Stress Measures 100
IN SUMMARY 68 IN SUMMARY 101
Why and How Do People Adhere to Healthy Sources of Stress 101
Behaviors? 68 Cataclysmic Events 101
Continuum Theories of Health Behavior 68 Life Events 102
IN SUMMARY 74 Daily Hassles 103
Stage Theories of Health Behavior 74 WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? Vacations Relieve
IN SUMMARY 80 Work Stress … But Not For Long 106

Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.
 CONTENTS ix

IN SUMMARY 107 Answers 142

Coping With Stress 107 Suggested Readings 142
Personal Resources That Influence Coping 107
WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? Pets May Be 7 Understanding and Managing
Better Support Providers Than People 110 Pain 143

CHAPTER
Personal Coping Strategies 110 CHECK YOUR EXPERIENCES 144
IN SUMMARY 112
Real-World Profile of Aron Ralston 145
Behavioral Interventions for Managing Pain and the Nervous System 145
Stress 112 The Somatosensory System 146
Relaxation Training 112 The Spinal Cord 146
Becoming Healthier 113 The Brain 147
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy 113 WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? Emotional and
Physical Pain Are Mainly the Same in the
Emotional Disclosure 115 Brain 148
IN SUMMARY 117 Neurotransmitters and Pain 149
Answers 118 The Modulation of Pain 149
Suggested Readings 119 IN SUMMARY 150
The Meaning of Pain 150
6 Understanding Stress, Immunity, Definition of Pain 151
and Disease 120 The Experience of Pain 151
CHAPTER

Real-World Profile of Lindsay Lohan— Theories of Pain 154

Continued 121
IN SUMMARY 157
Physiology of the Immune System 121
The Measurement of Pain 157
Organs of the Immune System 121
Self-Reports 157
Function of the Immune System 122
Behavioral Assessments 159
Immune System Disorders 124
Physiological Measures 159
IN SUMMARY 127
IN SUMMARY 160
Psychoneuroimmunology 127
Pain Syndromes 160
History of Psychoneuroimmunology 127
Headache Pain 161
Research in Psychoneuroimmunology 128
Low Back Pain 161
WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? Pictures of
Arthritis Pain 162
Disease Are Enough to Activate the Immune
System 128 Cancer Pain 162
Physical Mechanisms of Influence 130 Phantom Limb Pain 163
IN SUMMARY 131 IN SUMMARY 164
Does Stress Cause Disease? 131 Managing Pain 164
The Diathesis–Stress Model 131 Medical Approaches to Managing Pain 164
Stress and Disease 132 Behavioral Techniques for Managing Pain 166
WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? Being a Sports Fan IN SUMMARY 169
May Be a Danger to Your Health 135
Answers 170
Stress and Psychological Disorders 138
Suggested Readings 171
Becoming Healthier 141
IN SUMMARY 141

Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.
x CONTENTS

8 Considering Alternative
Approaches 172 PART 3 Behavior and Chronic
CHAPTER

CHECK YOUR BELIEFS 173 Disease

Real-World Profile of Norman Cousins 173
Alternative Medical Systems 174
9 Behavioral Factors in Cardiovascular
Disease 201

CHAPTER
Traditional Chinese Medicine 175 CHECK YOUR HEALTH RISKS 202
Ayurvedic Medicine 176 Real-World Profile of President Bill Clinton 203
IN SUMMARY 176 The Cardiovascular System 203
Alternative Practices and Products 177 The Coronary Arteries 205
Chiropractic Treatment 177 Coronary Artery Disease 205
Massage 177 Stroke 207
Diets, Supplements, and Natural Products 178 Blood Pressure 207

IN SUMMARY 179 IN SUMMARY 210

Mind–Body Medicine 179 The Changing Rates of Cardiovascular

Disease 210
Meditation and Yoga 180
Reasons for the Decline in Death Rates 210
Becoming Healthier 181
Heart Disease Throughout the World 211
Qi Gong and Tai Chi 181
IN SUMMARY 212
Energy Healing 182
WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? Religious Risk Factors in Cardiovascular Disease 212
Involvement May Improve Your Health 183 Inherent Risk Factors 213
Biofeedback 183 Physiological Conditions 215
Hypnotic Treatment 184 WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? A Floss a Day May
Keep Cardiovascular Disease Away? 217
IN SUMMARY 185
Behavioral Factors 217
Who Uses Complementary and Alternative
Medicine? 185 WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? Chocolate May
Help Prevent Heart Disease 219
Culture, Ethnicity, and Gender 185
Psychosocial Factors 219
Motivations for Seeking Alternative Treatment 187
IN SUMMARY 223
IN SUMMARY 187
Reducing Cardiovascular Risks 224
How Effective Are Alternative Treatments? 187
Before Diagnosis: Preventing First Heart
Alternative Treatments for Anxiety, Stress, and Attacks 224
Depression 188
Becoming Healthier 227
Alternative Treatments for Pain 189
After Diagnosis: Rehabilitating Cardiac Patients 227
Alternative Treatments for Other Conditions 192
Limitations of Alternative Therapies 195 IN SUMMARY 229

Integrative Medicine 197 Answers 229

IN SUMMARY 198 Suggested Readings 230
Answers 199
Suggested Readings 200
10 Behavioral Factors in Cancer 231
CHECK YOUR HEALTH RISKS 232
CHAPTER

Real-World Profile of Steve Jobs 232

What Is Cancer? 233
The Changing Rates of Cancer Deaths 233

Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.
 CONTENTS xi

Cancers With Decreasing Death Rates 234 IN SUMMARY 261

Cancers With Increasing Incidence and Mortality Adjusting to Diabetes 262
Rates 236 The Physiology of Diabetes 262
IN SUMMARY 236 The Impact of Diabetes 264
Cancer Risk Factors Beyond Personal Health Psychology’s Involvement With
Control 236 Diabetes 265
Inherent Risk Factors for Cancer 237 IN SUMMARY 266
Environmental Risk Factors for Cancer 238 The Impact of Asthma 266
IN SUMMARY 239 The Disease of Asthma 267
Behavioral Risk Factors for Cancer 239 Managing Asthma 268
Smoking 239 IN SUMMARY 269
Diet 242 Dealing With HIV and AIDS 269
Alcohol 243 Incidence and Mortality Rates for HIV/AIDS 270
Sedentary Lifestyle 245 Symptoms of HIV and AIDS 272
Ultraviolet Light Exposure 245 The Transmission of HIV 272
WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? Cancer Prevention Psychologists’ Role in the HIV Epidemic 274
Prevents More Than Cancer 245
Becoming Healthier 276
Sexual Behavior 246
IN SUMMARY 277
Psychosocial Risk Factors in Cancer 247
Facing Death 277
IN SUMMARY 247
Adjusting to Terminal Illness 277
Living With Cancer 247
Grieving 278
Problems With Medical Treatments for Cancer 248
IN SUMMARY 279
Adjusting to a Diagnosis of Cancer 248
Social Support for Cancer Patients 249
Answers 279
Psychological Interventions for Cancer Patients 250 Suggested Readings 280

IN SUMMARY 250
Answers 251
Suggested Readings 251 PART 4 Behavioral Health
12 Smoking Tobacco 282
11 Living With Chronic Illness 253 CHECK YOUR HEALTH RISKS 283
CHAPTER

Real-World Profile of President Ronald Real-World Profile of President Barack

CHAPTER

Reagan 254 Obama 283

The Impact of Chronic Disease 255 Smoking and the Respiratory System 284
Impact on the Patient 255 Functioning of the Respiratory System 284
Impact on the Family 256 What Components in Smoke Are Dangerous? 285

IN SUMMARY 257 IN SUMMARY 287

Living With Alzheimer’s Disease 257 A Brief History of Tobacco Use 287
WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? Using Your Mind Choosing to Smoke 288
May Help Prevent Losing Your Mind 259 Who Smokes and Who Does Not? 289
Helping the Patient 260 Why Do People Smoke? 291
Helping the Family 260

Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.
xii CONTENTS

IN SUMMARY 295 Change Without Therapy 328

Health Consequences of Tobacco Use 296 Treatments Oriented Toward Abstinence 328
Cigarette Smoking 296 Controlled Drinking 330
WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? Smoking Is The Problem of Relapse 330
Related to Mental Illness 298 IN SUMMARY 331
Cigar and Pipe Smoking 298
Other Drugs 331
Passive Smoking 299
Health Effects 331
Smokeless Tobacco 300
WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? Brain Damage Is
IN SUMMARY 300 Not a Common Risk of Drug Use 332
Interventions for Reducing Smoking Rates 300 Becoming Healthier 333
Deterring Smoking 300 Drug Misuse and Abuse 336
Quitting Smoking 301 Treatment for Drug Abuse 337
Who Quits and Who Does Not? 303 Preventing and Controlling Drug Use 338
Relapse Prevention 304 IN SUMMARY 339
IN SUMMARY 304 Answers 339
Effects of Quitting 305 Suggested Readings 340
Quitting and Weight Gain 305
Becoming Healthier 305 14 Eating and Weight 341
Health Benefits of Quitting 306 CHECK YOUR HEALTH RISKS 342
CHAPTER

IN SUMMARY 308
Real-World Profile of Kirstie Alley 342
Answers 308 The Digestive System 343
Suggested Readings 309 Factors in Weight Maintenance 344
Experimental Starvation 345
13 Using Alcohol and Other Drugs 310 Experimental Overeating 346
CHECK YOUR HEALTH RISKS 311 IN SUMMARY 347
CHAPTER

Real-World Profile of Charlie Sheen 311 Overeating and Obesity 347

Alcohol Consumption—Yesterday and What Is Obesity? 347
Today 312
Why Are Some People Obese? 350
A Brief History of Alcohol Consumption 312
WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? You May Need a
The Prevalence of Alcohol Consumption Today 314 Nap Rather Than a Diet 352
IN SUMMARY 316 How Unhealthy Is Obesity? 353
The Effects of Alcohol 316 IN SUMMARY 354
Hazards of Alcohol 317 Dieting 355
Benefits of Alcohol 320 Approaches to Losing Weight 356
IN SUMMARY 321 Is Dieting a Good Choice? 359
Why Do People Drink? 322 IN SUMMARY 359
The Disease Model 323 Eating Disorders 360
Cognitive-Physiological Theories 325 Anorexia Nervosa 361
The Social Learning Model 326 Bulimia 365
IN SUMMARY 327 Binge Eating Disorder 367
Changing Problem Drinking 328 Becoming Healthier 367

Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.
 CONTENTS xiii

IN SUMMARY 369 IN SUMMARY 394

Answers 369 Answers 395
Suggested Readings 370 Suggested Readings 395

15 Exercising 372
CHECK YOUR HEALTH RISKS 373
PART 5 Looking Toward the Future
CHAPTER

Real–World Profile of Tara Costa 373

Types of Physical Activity 374 16 Future Challenges 397
Reasons for Exercising 374 Real-World Profile of Dwayne and Robyn 398

CHAPTER
Physical Fitness 375 Challenges for Healthier People 399
Weight Control 375 Increasing the Span of Healthy Life 400
IN SUMMARY 376 Reducing Health Disparities 401
Physical Activity and Cardiovascular WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? Health Literacy
Health 377 Can Improve by “Thinking Outside the
Box” 403
Early Studies 377
Later Studies 378 IN SUMMARY 405

Do Women and Men Benefit Equally? 379 Outlook for Health Psychology 405
Physical Activity and Cholesterol Levels 379 Progress in Health Psychology 405
IN SUMMARY 380 Future Challenges for Health Care 405

Other Health Benefits of Physical Activity 380 Will Health Psychology Continue to Grow? 411

Protection Against Cancer 380 IN SUMMARY 411

Prevention of Bone Density Loss 381 Making Health Psychology Personal 412
Control of Diabetes 381 Understanding Your Risks 412
Psychological Benefits of Physical Activity 381 What Can You Do to Cultivate a Healthy
WOULD YOU BELIEVE . . . ? It’s Never Too Lifestyle? 414
Late—or Too Early 382 Increase Your Health Literacy 415
IN SUMMARY 385 IN SUMMARY 416
Hazards of Physical Activity 385 Answers 416
Exercise Addiction 387 Suggested Readings 417
Injuries From Physical Activity 388
Death During Exercise 389 Glossary 418
Reducing Exercise Injuries 390
References 424
IN SUMMARY 390
Name Index 481
How Much Is Enough but Not Too Much? 390
Subject Index 509
Improving Adherence to Physical Activity 391
Becoming Healthier 392

Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.
Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.
 Preface
H
ealth is a far different phenomenon today
than it was just a century ago. Most serious
diseases and disorders now result from peo-
ple’s behavior. People smoke, eat unhealthily,
do not exercise, or cope ineffectively with the
stresses of modern life. As you will learn in this book,
psychology—the science of behavior—is increasingly
relevant to understanding physical health. Health psy-
chology is the scientific study of behaviors that relate to
health enhancement, disease prevention, safety, and
rehabilitation.
The first edition of this book, published in the
1980s, was one of the first undergraduate texts to
cover the then-emerging field of health psychology.
Now in this eighth edition, Health Psychology: An
Introduction to Behavior and Health remains a preem-
inent undergraduate textbook in health psychology.
The Eighth Edition
This eighth edition retains the core aspects that have
kept this book a leader throughout the decades: (1) a
balance between the science and applications of the
field of health psychology and (2) a clear and engaging
review of classic and cutting-edge research on behavior
and health.
The eighth edition of Health Psychology: An
Introduction to Behavior and Health has five parts.
Part 1, which includes the first four chapters, lays a
solid foundation in research and theory for under-
standing subsequent chapters and approaches the
field by considering the overarching issues involved
in seeking medical care and adhering to health care
regimens. Part 2 deals with stress, pain, and the man-
agement of these conditions through conventional
and alternative medicine. Part 3 discusses heart dis-
ease, cancer, and other chronic diseases. Part 4
includes chapters on tobacco use, drinking alcohol,
eating and weight, and physical activity. Part 5 looks
toward future challenges in health psychology and
addresses how to apply health knowledge to one’s
life to become healthier.
Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.
What’s New?
In this edition, we bring a fresh new voice to the writing
team: John A. Updegraff. John earned his PhD from one
of the top health psychology programs in the United
States. He is an influential researcher in health psychol-
ogy, an acclaimed psychology instructor, and an expert
in the areas of health behavior and stress. John brings
his passion, knowledge, and (occasional) humor to this
revision, so the textbook remains current, accurate, and
a delightful read for instructors and students.
The present edition also reorganizes several chap-
ters to better emphasize the theoretical underpinnings
of health behavior. For example, Chapter 4 focuses on
adherence to healthy behavior and presents both classic
and contemporary theories of health behavior, includ-
ing recent research on the “intention–behavior gap.”
Readers of the eighth edition will benefit from the
most up-to-date review of health behavior theories—
and their applications—on the market.
The eighth edition also features new boxes on
important and timely topics such as
• How to evaluate the quality of research reported
on the Internet
• How the redesign of nutrition labels may improve
your health literacy
• How text messaging can help increase your physi-
cal activity
• Why your doctor might ethically prescribe ineffec-
tive medical treatments to you
• Why taking vacations can have unexpected effects
on your stress levels
• Why social rejection can feel physically painful
• Why pets may be the best social support providers
• Why you should floss your teeth more (hint: it has
nothing to do with cavities or bad breath)
• Why pictures of guns stimulate your immune system
Other new or reorganized topics within the chapters
include
• Several new Real-World Profiles, including Steve
Jobs, Barack Obama, Tara Costa, Charlie Sheen,
Kirstie Alley, and Lance Armstrong
xv
xvi PREFACE
• Expanded discussion of training and employment
opportunities for health psychologists in Chapter 1
• Discussion of publication bias and CONSORT
guidelines for reporting of clinical trials in
Chapter 2, to help students better evaluate health
psychology research
• New section on seeking medical information from
nonmedical sources such as the Internet in Chapter 3
• Technological advances in assessing adherence in
Chapter 4
• Contemporary models of health behavior, such as the
health action process approach and the “intention–
behavior gap,” are now presented in Chapter 4
• A streamlined presentation of life events scales,
focusing only on the most widely used measures
in Chapter 5
• New discussion of the role of stress in weakening
people’s responses to vaccination in Chapter 6
• New discussion of acceptance and commitment
therapy as a psychological intervention for pain
management in Chapter 7
• Reorganization of Chapter 8 to highlight the types
of complementary and alternative medicine
(CAM) that people use most often, and the latest
evidence on the effectiveness of CAM
• Up-to-date findings from the 52-nation INTER-
HEART study on heart attack risk factors in
Chapter 9
• New information on the role of human papilloma-
virus (HPV) in cancer in Chapter 10
• A streamlined presentation of the history of the
HIV epidemic in Chapter 11
• A streamlined presentation of the physiology of
the respiratory system in Chapter 12
• Greater emphasis on the similarities between alco-
hol and other drugs of abuse in Chapter 13,
including the common brain pathways that all
drugs may activate and the similarities among
treatment approaches
• Updated information in Chapter 14 on binge eat-
ing, which will appear as a disorder in DSM-V
• New section on the links between physical activity
and cognitive functioning in Chapter 15
• New organization of the section about physical activ-
ity interventions, to better distinguish the different
approaches to intervention and their effectiveness
• Chapter 16 includes a new discussion of how tech-
nological and medical advances create opportunity
for health psychologists
Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.
What Has Been Retained?
In this revision, we retained the most popular features
that made this text a leader over the past two decades.
These features include (1) “Real-World Profiles” for
each chapter, (2) chapter-opening questions, (3) a
“Check Your Health Risks” box in most chapters, (4)
one or more “Would You Believe …?” boxes in each
chapter, and (5) a “Becoming Healthier” feature in
many chapters. These features stimulate critical think-
ing, engage readers in the topic, and provide valuable
tips to enhance personal well-being.
Real-World Profiles Millions of people—including
celebrities—deal with the issues we describe in this
book. To highlight the human side of health psychol-
ogy, we open each chapter with a profile of a person in
the real world. Many of these profiles are of famous
people, whose health issues may not always be well-
known. Their cases provide intriguing examples, such
as Barack Obama’s attempt to quit smoking, Lance
Armstrong’s delays in seeking treatment for cancer,
Steve Jobs’ fight with cancer, Halle Berry’s diabetes,
Charlie Sheen’s substance abuse, Kirstie Alley’s battles
with her weight, and “Biggest Loser” Tara Costa’s
efforts to increase physical activity. In the eighth edi-
tion, we also introduce a profile of a celebrity in the
world of health psychology, Dr. Angela Bryan, to give
readers a better sense of the personal motivation and
activities of health psychologists.
Questions and Answers In this text, we adopt a pre-
view, read, and review method to facilitate student’s
learning and recall. Each chapter begins with a series
of Questions that organize the chapter, preview the
material, and enhance active learning. As each chapter
unfolds, we reveal the answers through a discussion of
relevant research findings. At the end of each major
topic, an In Summary statement recaps the topic.
Then, at the end of the chapter, Answers to the chap-
ter-opening questions appear. In this manner, students
benefit from many opportunities to engage with the
material throughout each chapter.
Check Your Health Risks At the beginning of most
chapters, a “Check Your Health Risks” box personalizes
material in that chapter. Each box consists of several
health-related behaviors or attitudes that readers
should check before looking at the rest of the chapter.
After checking the items that apply to them and then
becoming familiar with the chapter’s material, readers

will develop a more research-based understanding of
their health risks. A special “Check Your Health
Risks” appears inside the front cover of the book. Stu-
dents should complete this exercise before they read
the book and look for answers as they proceed through
the chapters (or check the website for the answers).
Would You Believe …? Boxes We keep the popular
“Would You Believe …?” boxes, adding nine new ones
and updating those we retained. Each box highlights a
particularly intriguing finding in health research. These
boxes explode preconceived notions, present unusual
findings, and challenge students to take an objective
look at issues that they may have not have evaluated
carefully.
Becoming Healthier Embedded in most chapters is
a “Becoming Healthier” box with advice on how to use
the information in the chapter to enact a healthier life-
style. Although some people may not agree with all of
these recommendations, each is based on the most cur-
rent research findings. We believe that if you follow
these guidelines, you will increase your chances of a
long and healthy life.
Other Changes and Additions
We have made a number of subtle changes in this edi-
tion that we believe make it an even stronger book than
its predecessors. More specifically, we
• Deleted several hundred old references and
exchanged them for more than 600 recent ones
• Reorganized many sections of chapters to improve
the flow of information
• Added several new tables and figures to aid stu-
dents’ understanding of difficult concepts
• Highlighted the biopsychosocial approach to health
psychology, examining issues and data from a bio-
logical, psychological, and social viewpoint
• Drew from the growing body of research from
around the world on health to give the book a
more international perspective
• Recognized and emphasized gender issues when-
ever appropriate
• Retained our emphasis on theories and models
that strive to explain and predict health-related
behaviors
Copyright 2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part.
PREFACE xvii
Writing Style
With each edition, we work to improve our connection
with readers. Although this book explores complex
issues and difficult topics, we use clear, concise, and
comprehensible language and an informal, lively writing
style. We write this book for an upper-division under-
graduate audience, and it should be easily understood by
students with a minimal background in psychology and
biology. Health psychology courses typically draw stu-
dents from a variety of college majors, so some elemen-
tary material in our book may be repetitive for some
students. For other students, this material will fill in
the background they need to comprehend the informa-
tion within the field of health psychology.
Technical terms appear in boldface type, and a
definition usually appears at that point in the text.
These terms also appear in an end-of-book glossary.
Instructional Aids
Besides the glossary at the end of the book, we supply
several other features to help both students and
instructors. These include stories of people whose
behavior typifies the topic, frequent summaries within
each chapter, and annotated suggested readings.
Within-Chapter Summaries
Rather than wait until the end of each chapter to pres-
ent a lengthy chapter summary, we place shorter sum-
maries at key points within each chapter. In general,
these summaries correspond to each major topic in a
chapter. We believe these shorter, frequent summaries
keep readers on track and promote a better under-
standing of the chapter’s content.
Annotated Suggested Readings
At the end of each chapter are three or four annotated
suggested readings that students may wish to examine.
We chose these readings for their capacity to shed
additional light on major topics in a chapter. Most of
these suggested readings are quite recent, but we also
selected several that have lasting interest. We include
only readings that are intelligible to the average college
student and that are accessible in most college and uni-
versity libraries.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
man like as we are, and that he worshiped a God whom he could not
see, but who was always near us. Let us learn to worship
Nickelseyn’s God.” So the tribe came down from their hills to the
Christian teachers at Peshawur, and there were baptized.
 XV
A. D. 1853
THE GREAT FILIBUSTER

WILLIAM WALKER, son of a Scotch banker, was born in

Tennessee, cantankerous from the time he was whelped. He never
swore or drank, or loved anybody, but was rigidly respectable and
pure, believed in negro slavery, bristled with points of etiquette and
formality, liked squabbling, had a nasty sharp tongue, and a taste for
dueling. The little dry man was by turns a doctor, editor and lawyer,
and when he wanted to do anything very outrageous, always began
by taking counsel’s opinion. He wore a black tail-coat, and a black
wisp of necktie even when in 1853 he landed an army of forty-five
men to conquer Mexico. His followers were California gold miners
dressed in blue shirts, duck trousers, long boots, bowie knives,
revolvers and rifles. After he had taken the city of La Paz by assault,
called an election and proclaimed himself president of Sonora, he
was joined by two or three hundred more of the same breed from
San Francisco. These did not think very much of a leader twenty-
eight years old, standing five feet six, and weighing only nine stone
four, so they merrily conspired to blow him up with gunpowder, and
disperse with what plunder they could grab. Mr. Walker shot two,
flogged a couple, disarmed the rest without showing any sign of
emotion. He could awe the most truculent desperado into abject
obedience with one glance of his cool gray eye, and never allowed
his men to drink, play cards, or swear. “Our government,” he wrote,
“has been formed upon a firm and sure basis.”
The Mexicans and Indians thought otherwise, for while the new
president of Sonora marched northward, they gathered in hosts and
hung like wolves in the rear of the column, cutting off stragglers, who
were slowly tortured to death. Twice they dared an actual attack, but
Walker’s grim strategies, and the awful rifles of despairing men, cut
them to pieces. So the march went on through hundreds of miles of
blazing hot desert, where the filibusters dropped with thirst, and blew
their own brains out rather than be captured. Only thirty-four men
were left when they reached the United States boundary, the
president of Sonora, in a boot and a shoe, his cabinet in rags, his
army and navy bloody, with dried wounds, gaunt, starving, but too
terrible for the Mexican forces to molest. The filibusters surrendered
to the United States garrison as prisoners of war.
Just a year later, with six of these veterans, and forty-eight other
Californians, Walker landed on the coast of Nicaragua. This happy
republic was blessed at the time with two rival presidents, and the
one who got Walker’s help very soon had possession of the country.
As hero of several brilliant engagements, Walker was made
commander-in-chief, and at the next election chosen by the people
themselves as president. He had now a thousand Americans in his
following, and when the native statesmen and generals proved
treacherous, they were promptly shot. Walker’s camp of wild
desperadoes was like a Sunday-school, his government the cleanest
ever known in Central America, and his dignity all prickles, hard to
approach. He depended for existence on the services of Vanderbilt’s
steamship lines, but seized their warehouse for cheating. He was
surrounded by four hostile republics, Costa Rica, San Salvador,
Honduras and Guatemala, and insulted them all. He suspended
diplomatic relations with the United States, demanded for his one
schooner-of-war salutes from the British navy, and had no sense of
humor whatsoever. Thousands of brave men died for this prim little
lawyer, and tens of thousands fell by pestilence and battle in his
wars, but with all his sweet unselfishness, his purity, and his valor,
poor Walker was a prig. So the malcontents of Nicaragua, and the
republics from Mexico to Peru, joined the steamship company, the
United States and Great Britain to wipe out his hapless government.
The armies of four republics were closing in on Walker’s capital,
the city of Granada. He marched out to storm the allies perched on
an impregnable volcano, and was carrying his last charge to a
victorious issue, when news reached him that Zavala with eight
hundred men had jumped on Granada. He forsook his victory and
rushed for the capital city.
There were only one hundred and fifty invalids and sick in the
Granada garrison to man the church, armory and hospital against
Zavala, but the women loaded rifles for the wounded and after
twenty-two hours of ghastly carnage, the enemy were thrown out of
the city. They fell back to lie in Walker’s path as he came to the
rescue. Walker saw the trap, carried it with a charge, drove Zavala
back into the city, broke him between two fires, then sent a
detachment to intercept his flight. In this double battle, fighting eight
times his own force, Walker killed half the allied army.
But the pressure of several invasions at once was making it
impossible for Walker to keep his communication open with the sea
while he held his capital. Granada, the most beautiful of all Central
American cities, must be abandoned, and, lest the enemy win the
place, it must be destroyed. So Walker withdrew his sick men to an
island in the big Lake Nicaragua; while Henningsen, an Englishman,
his second in command, burned and abandoned the capital.
But now, while the city burst into flames, and the smoke went up
as from a volcano, the American garrison broke loose, rifled the
liquor stores and lay drunk in the blazing streets, so the allied army
swooped down, cutting off the retreat to the lake. Henningsen,
veteran of the Carlist and Hungarian revolts, a knight errant of lost
causes, took three weeks to fight his way three miles, before Walker
could cover his embarkment on the lake. There had been four
hundred men in the garrison, but only one hundred and fifty
answered the roll-call in their refuge on the Isle of Omotepe. In the
plaza of the capital city they had planted a spear, and on the spear
hung a rawhide with this inscription:—
“Here was Granada!”
In taking that heap of blackened ruins four thousand out of six
thousand of the allies had perished; but even they were more
fortunate than a Costa Rican army of invasion, which killed fifty of
the filibusters, at a cost of ten thousand men slain by war and
pestilence. It always worked out that the killing of one filibuster cost
on the average eight of his adversaries.
Four months followed of confused fighting, in which the
Americans slowly lost ground, until at last they were besieged in the
town of Rivas, melting the church bells for cannon-balls, dying at
their posts of starvation. The neighboring town of San Jorge was
held by two thousand Costa Ricans, and these Walker attempted to
dislodge. His final charge was made with fifteen men into the heart of
the town. No valor could win against such odds, and the orderly
retreat began on Rivas. Two hundred men lay in ambush to take
Walker at a planter’s house by the wayside, and as he rode wearily
at the head of his men they opened fire from cover at a range of
fifteen yards. Walker reined in his horse, fired six revolver-shots into
the windows, then rode on quietly erect while the storm of lead raged
about him, and saddle after saddle was emptied. A week afterward
the allies assaulted Rivas, but left six hundred men dead in the field,
so terrific was the fire from the ramparts.
It was in these days that a British naval officer came under flag
of truce from the coast to treat for Walker’s surrender.
“I presume, sir,” was the filibuster’s greeting, “that you have
come to apologize for the outrage offered to my flag, and to the
commander of the Nicaraguan schooner-of-war Granada.”
“If they had another schooner,” said the Englishman afterward, “I
believe they would have declared war on Great Britain.”
Then the United States navy treated with this peppery little
lawyer, and on the first of May, 1857, he grudgingly consented to
being rescued.
During his four years’ fight for empire, Walker had enlisted three
thousand five hundred Americans—and the proportion of wounds
was one hundred and thirty-seven for every hundred men. A
thousand fell. The allied republics had twenty-one thousand soldiers
and ten thousand Indians—and lost fifteen thousand killed.
 Two years later, Walker set out again with a hundred men to
conquer Central America, in defiance of the British and United States
squadrons, sent to catch him, and in the teeth of five armed
republics. He was captured by the British, shot by Spanish
Americans upon a sea beach in Honduras, and so perished, fearless
to the end.
 XVI
A. D. 1857
BUFFALO BILL

THE Mormons are a sect of Christians with some queer ideas, for
they drink no liquor, hold all their property in common, stamp out any
member who dares to think or work for himself, and believe that the
more wives a man has the merrier he will be. The women, so far as I
met them are like fat cows, the men a slovenly lot, and not too
honest, but they are hard workers and first-rate pioneers.
Because they made themselves unpopular they were
persecuted, and fled from the United States into the desert beside
the Great Salt Lake. There they got water from the mountain streams
and made their land a garden. They only wanted to be left alone in
peace, but that was a poor excuse for slaughtering emigrants.
Murdering women and children is not in good taste.
The government sent an army to attend to these saints, but the
soldiers wanted food to eat, and the Mormons would not sell, so
provisions had to be sent a thousand miles across the wilderness to
save the starving troops. So we come to the herd of beef cattle
which in May, 1857, was drifting from the Missouri River, and to the
drovers’ camp beside the banks of the Platte.
A party of red Indians on the war-path found that herd and camp;
they scalped the herders on guard, stampeded the cattle and rushed
the camp, so that the white men were driven to cover under the river
bank. Keeping the Indians at bay with their rifles, the party marched
for the settlements wading, sometimes swimming, while they pushed
a raft that carried a wounded man. Always a rear guard kept the
Indians from coming too near. And so the night fell.
“I, being the youngest and smallest,” says one of them, “had
fallen behind the others.... When I happened to look up to the
moonlit sky, and saw the plumed head of an Indian peeping over the
bank.... I instantly aimed my gun at his head, and fired. The report
rang out sharp and loud in the night air, and was immediately
followed by an Indian whoop; and the next moment about six feet of
dead Indian came tumbling into the river. I was not only overcome
with astonishment, but was badly scared, as I could hardly realize
what I had done.”
Back came Frank McCarthy, the leader, with all his men. “Who
fired that shot?”
“I did.”
“Yes, and little Billy has killed an Indian stone-dead—too dead to
skin!”
At the age of nine Billy Cody had taken the war-path.
In those days the army had no luck. When the government sent
a herd of cattle the Indians got the beef, and the great big train of
seventy-five wagons might just as well have been addressed to the
Mormons, who burned the transport, stole the draft oxen and turned
the teamsters, including little Billy, loose in the mountains, where
they came nigh starving. The boy was too thin to cast a shadow
when in the spring he set out homeward across the plains with two
returning trains.
One day these trains were fifteen miles apart when Simpson, the
wagon boss, with George Woods, a teamster, and Billy Cody, set off
riding mules from the rear outfit to catch up the teams in front. They
were midway when a war party of Indians charged at full gallop,
surrounding them, but Simpson shot the three mules and used their
carcasses to make a triangular fort. The three whites, each with a
rifle and a brace of revolvers were more than a match for men with
bows and arrows, and the Indians lost so heavily that they retreated
out of range. That gave the fort time to reload, but the Indians
charged again, and this time Woods got an arrow in the shoulder.
Once more the Indians retired to consult, while Simpson drew the
arrow from Woods’ shoulder, plugging the hole with a quid of
chewing tobacco. A third time the Indians charged, trying to ride
down the stockade, but they lost a man and a horse. Four warriors
had fallen now in this battle with two men and a little boy, but the
Indians are a painstaking, persevering race, so they waited until
nightfall and set the grass on fire. But the whites had been busy with
knives scooping a hole from whence the loose earth made a
breastwork over the dead mules, so that the flames could not reach
them, and they had good cover to shoot from when the Indians
charged through the smoke. After that both sides had a sleep, and at
dawn they were fresh for a grand charge, handsomely repulsed. The
redskins sat down in a ring to starve the white men out, and great
was their disappointment when Simpson’s rear train of wagons
marched to the rescue. The red men did not stay to pick flowers.
It seems like lying to state that at the age of twelve Billy Cody
began to take rank among the world’s great horsemen, and yet he
rode on the pony express, which closed in 1861, his fourteenth year.
The trail from the Missouri over the plains, the deserts and the
mountains into California was about two thousand miles through a
country infested with gangs of professional robbers and hostile
Indian tribes. The gait of the riders averaged twelve miles an hour,
which means a gallop, to allow for the slow work in mountain passes.
There were one hundred ninety stations at which the riders changed
ponies without breaking their run, and each must be fit and able for
one hundred miles a day in time of need. Pony Bob afterward had
contracts by which he rode one hundred miles a day for a year.
Now, none of the famous riders of history, like Charles XII, of
Sweden; Dick, King of Natal, or Dick Turpin, of England, made
records to beat the men of the pony express, and in that service Billy
was counted a hero. He is outclassed by the Cossack Lieutenant
Peschkov, who rode one pony at twenty-eight miles a day the length
of the Russian empire, from Vladivostok to St. Petersburg, and by Kit
Carson who with one horse rode six hundred miles in six days.
There are branches of horsemanship, too, in which he would have
been proud to take lessons from Lord Lonsdale, or Evelyn French,
but Cody is, as far as I have seen, of all white men incomparable for
grace, for beauty of movement, among the horsemen of the modern
world.
But to turn back to the days of the boy rider.
“One day,” he writes, “when I galloped into my home station I
found that the rider who was expected to take the trip out on my
arrival had gotten into a drunken row the night before, and had been
killed.... I pushed on ... entering every relay station on time, and
accomplished the round trip of three hundred twenty-two miles back
to Red Buttes without a single mishap, and on time. This stands on
the record as being the longest pony express journey ever made.”
One of the station agents has a story to tell of this ride, made
without sleep, and with halts of only a few minutes for meals. News
had leaked out of a large sum of money to be shipped by the
express, and Cody, expecting robbers, rolled the treasure in his
saddle blanket, filling the official pouches with rubbish. At the best
place for an ambush two men stepped out on to the trail, halting him
with their muskets. As he explained, the pouches were full of
rubbish, but the road agents knew better. “Mark my words,” he said
as he unstrapped, “you’ll hang for this.”
“We’ll take chances on that, Bill.”
“If you will have them, take them!” With that he hurled the
pouches, and as robber number one turned to pick them up, robber
number two had his gun-arm shattered with the boy’s revolver-shot.
Then with a yell he rode down the stooping man, and spurring hard,
got out of range unhurt. He had saved the treasure, and afterward
both robbers were hanged by vigilantes.
Once far down a valley ahead Cody saw a dark object above a
boulder directly on his trail, and when it disappeared he knew he was
caught in an ambush. Just as he came into range he swerved wide
to the right, and at once a rifle smoked from behind the rock. Two
Indians afoot ran for their ponies while a dozen mounted warriors
broke from the timbered edge of the valley, racing to cut him off. One
of these had a war bonnet of eagle plumes, the badge of a chief, and
his horse, being the swiftest, drew ahead. All the Indians were firing,
but the chief raced Cody to head him off at a narrow pass of the
valley. The boy was slightly ahead, and when the chief saw that the
white rider would have about thirty yards to spare he fitted an arrow,
drawing for the shot. But Cody, swinging round in the saddle, lashed
out his revolver, and the chief, clutching at the air, fell, rolling over
like a ball as he struck the ground. At the chief’s death-cry a shower
of arrows from the rear whizzed round the boy, one slightly wounding
his pony who, spurred by the pain, galloped clear, leaving the
Indians astern in a ten mile race to the next relay.
After what seems to the reader a long life of adventure, Mr. Cody
had just reached the age of twenty-two when a series of wars broke
out with the Indian tribes, and he was attached to the troops as a
scout. A number of Pawnee Indians who thought nothing of this
white man, were also serving. They were better trackers, better
interpreters and thought themselves better hunters. One day a party
of twenty had been running buffalo, and made a bag of thirty-two
head when Cody got leave to attack a herd by himself. Mounted on
his famous pony Buckskin Joe he made a bag of thirty-six head on a
half-mile run, and his name was Buffalo Bill from that time onward.
That summer he led a squadron of cavalry that attacked six
hundred Sioux, and in that fight against overwhelming odds he
brought down a chief at a range of four hundred yards, in those days
a very long shot. His victim proved to be Tall Bull, one of the great
war leaders of the Sioux. The widow of Tall Bull was proud that her
husband had been killed by so famous a warrior as Prairie Chief, for
that was Cody’s name among the Indians.
There is one very nice story about the Pawnee scouts. A new
general had taken command who must have all sorts of etiquette
proper to soldiers. It was all very well for the white sentries to call at
intervals of the night from post to post: “Post Number One, nine
o’clock, all’s well!” “Post Number Two, etc.”
But when the Pawnee sentries called, “Go to hell, I don’t care!”
well, the practise had to be stopped.
 Of Buffalo Bill’s adventures in these wars the plain record would
only take one large volume, but he was scouting in company with
Texas Jack, John Nelson, Belden, the White Chief, and so many
other famous frontier heroes, each needing at least one book
volume, that I must give the story up as a bad job. At the end of the
Sioux campaign Buffalo Bill was chief of scouts with the rank of
colonel.

Colonel Cody
(“Buffalo Bill”)
 In 1876, General Custer, with a force of nearly four hundred
cavalry, perished in an attack on the Sioux, and the only survivor
was his pet boy scout, Billy Jackson, who got away at night
disguised as an Indian. Long afterward Billy, who was one of God’s
own gentlemen, told me that story while we sat on a grassy hillside
watching a great festival of the Blackfeet nation.
After the battle in which Custer—the Sun Child—fell, the big
Sioux army scattered, but a section of it was rounded up by a force
under the guidance of Buffalo Bill.
“One of the Indians,” he says, “who was handsomely decorated
with all the ornaments usually worn by a war chief ... sang out to me
‘I know you, Prairie Chief; if you want to fight come ahead and fight
me!’
“The chief was riding his horse back and forth in front of his men,
as if to banter me, and I accepted the challenge. I galloped toward
him for fifty yards and he advanced toward me about the same
distance, both of us riding at full speed, and then when we were only
about thirty yards apart I raised my rifle and fired. His horse fell to
the ground, having been killed by my bullet. Almost at the same
instant my horse went down, having stepped in a gopher-hole. The
fall did not hurt me much, and I instantly sprang to my feet. The
Indian had also recovered himself, and we were now both on foot,
and not more than twenty paces apart. We fired at each other
simultaneously. My usual luck did not desert me on this occasion, for
his bullet missed me, while mine struck him in the breast. He reeled
and fell, but before he had fairly touched the ground I was upon him,
knife in hand, and had driven the keen-edged weapon to its hilt in his
heart. Jerking his war-bonnet off, I scientifically scalped him in about
five seconds....
“The Indians came charging down upon me from a hill in hopes
of cutting me off. General Merritt ... ordered ... Company K to hurry
to my rescue. The order came none too soon.... As the soldiers
came up I swung the Indian chieftain’s topknot and bonnet in the air,
and shouted: ‘The first scalp for Custer!’”
 Far up to the northward, Sitting Bull, with the war chief Spotted
Tail and about three thousand warriors fled from the scene of the
Custer massacre. And as they traveled on the lonely plains they
came to a little fort with the gates closed. “Open your gates and hand
out your grub,” said the Indians.
“Come and get the grub,” answered the fort.
So the gates were thrown open and the three thousand warriors
stormed in to loot the fort. They found only two white men standing
outside a door, but all round the square the log buildings were
loopholed and from every hole stuck out the muzzle of a rifle. The
Indians were caught in such a deadly trap that they ran for their lives
back to camp.
Very soon news reached the Blackfeet that their enemies the
Sioux were camped by the new fort at Wood Mountain, so the whole
nation marched to wipe them out, and Sitting Bull appealed for help
to the white men. “Be good,” said the fort, “and nobody shall hurt
you.”
So the hostile armies camped on either side, and the thirty white
men kept the peace between them. One day the Sioux complained
that the Blackfeet had stolen fifty horses. So six of the white men
were sent to the Blackfoot herd to bring the horses back. They did
not know which horses to select so they drove off one hundred fifty
for good measure straight at a gallop through the Blackfoot camp,
closely pursued by that indignant nation. Barely in time they ran the
stock within the fort, and slammed the gates home in the face of the
raging Blackfeet. They were delighted with themselves until the
officer commanding fined them a month’s pay each for insulting the
Blackfoot nation.
The winter came, the spring and then the summer, when those
thirty white men arrived at the Canada-United States boundary
where they handed over three thousand Sioux prisoners to the
American troops. From that time the redcoats of the Royal Northwest
Mounted Police of Canada have been respected on the frontier.
 And now came a very wonderful adventure. Sitting Bull, the
leader of the Sioux nation who had defeated General Custer’s
division and surrendered his army to thirty Canadian soldiers, went
to Europe to take part in a circus personally conducted by the chief
of scouts of the United States Army, Buffalo Bill. Poor Sitting Bull
was afterward murdered by United States troops in the piteous
massacre of Wounded Knee. Buffalo Bill for twenty-six years
paraded Europe and America with his gorgeous Wild West show,
slowly earning the wealth which he lavished in the founding of Cody
City, Wyoming.
Toward the end of these tours I used to frequent the show camp
much like a stray dog expecting to be kicked, would spend hours
swapping lies with the cowboys in the old Deadwood Coach, or sit at
meat with the colonel and his six hundred followers. On the last tour
the old man was thrown by a bad horse at Bristol and afterward rode
with two broken bones in splints. Only the cowboys knew, who told
me, as day by day I watched him back his horse from the ring with all
the old incomparable grace.
He went back to build a million dollar irrigation ditch for his little
city on the frontier, and shortly afterward the newspapers reported
that my friends—the Buffalo Creek Gang of robbers—attacked his
bank, and shot the cashier. May civilization never shut out the free
air of the frontier while the old hero lives, in peace and honor, loved
to the end and worshiped by all real frontiersmen.
 XVII
A. D. 1860
THE AUSTRALIAN DESERT

WHEN the Eternal Father was making the earth, at one time He
filled the sea with swimming dragons, the air with flying dragons, and
the land with hopping dragons big as elephants; but they were not a
success, and so He swept them all away. After that he filled the
southern continents with a small improved hopping dragon, that laid
no eggs, but carried the baby in a pouch. There were queer half-
invented fish, shadeless trees, and furry running birds like the emu
and the moa. Then He swamped that southern world under the sea,
and moved the workshop to our northern continents. But He left New
Zealand and Australia just as they were, a scrap of the half-finished
world with furry running birds, the hopping kangaroo, the shadeless
trees, and half-invented fish.
So when the English went to Australia it was not an ordinary
voyage, but a journey backward through the ages, through goodness
only knows how many millions of years to the fifth day of creation. It
was like visiting the moon or Mars. To live and travel in such a
strange land a man must be native born, bush raised, and cunning at
that, on pain of death by famine.
The first British settlers, too, were convicts. The laws were so
bad in England that a fellow might be deported merely for giving
cheek to a judge; and the convicts on the whole were very decent
people, brutally treated in the penal settlements. They used to
escape to the bush, and runaway convicts explored Australia mainly
in search of food. One of them, in Tasmania, used, whenever he
escaped, to take a party with him and eat them one by one, until he
ran short of food and had to surrender.
Later on gold was discovered, and free settlers drifted in, filling
the country, but the miners and the farmers were too busy earning a
living to do much exploration. So the exploring fell to English
gentlemen, brave men, but hopeless tenderfeet, who knew nothing
of bushcraft and generally died of hunger or thirst in districts where
the native-born colonial grows rich to-day.
Edgar John Eyre, for instance, a Yorkshireman, landed in
Sydney at the age of sixteen, and at twenty-five was a rich sheep-
farmer, appointed by government protector of the black fellows. In
1840 the colonists of South Australia wanted a trail for drifting sheep
into Western Australia, and young Eyre, from what he had learned
among the savages, said the scheme was all bosh, in which he was
perfectly right. He thought that the best line for exploring was
northward, and set out to prove his words, but got tangled up in the
salt bogs surrounding Torrens, and very nearly lost his whole party in
an attempt to wade across. After that failure he felt that he had
wasted the money subscribed in a wildcat project, so to make good
set out again to find a route for sheep along the waterless south
coast of the continent. He knew the route was impossible, but it is a
poor sort of courage that has to feed on hope, and the men worth
having are those who leave their hopes behind to march light while
they do their duty.
Eyre’s party consisted of himself and his ranch foreman Baxter, a
favorite black boy Wylie, who was his servant, and two other natives
who had been on the northward trip. They had nine horses, a pony,
six sheep, and nine weeks’ rations on the pack animals.
The first really dry stage was one hundred twenty-eight miles
without a drop of water, and it was not the black fellows, but Eyre,
the tenderfoot, who went ahead and found the well that saved them.
The animals died off one by one, so that the stores had to be left
behind, and there was no food but rotten horse-flesh which caused
dysentery, no water save dew collected with a sponge from the
bushes after the cold nights. The two black fellows deserted, but
after three days came back penitent and starving, thankful to be
reinstated.
These black fellows did not believe the trip was possible, they
wanted to go home, they thought the expedition well worth
plundering, and so one morning while Eyre was rounding up the
horses they shot Baxter, plundered the camp and bolted. Only Eyre
and his boy Wylie were left, but if they lived the deserters might be
punished. So the two black fellows, armed with Baxter’s gun, tried to
hunt down Eyre and his boy with a view to murder. They came so
near at night that Eyre once heard them shout to Wylie to desert.
Eyre and the boy stole off, marching so rapidly that the murderers
were left behind and perished.
A week later, still following the coast of the Great Bight, Wylie
discovered a French ship lying at anchor, and the English skipper fed
the explorers for a fortnight until they were well enough to go on.
Twenty-three more days of terrible suffering brought Eyre and his
boy, looking like a brace of scarecrows, to a hilltop overlooking the
town of Albany. They had reached Western Australia, the first
travelers to cross from the eastern to the western colonies.
In after years Eyre was governor of Jamaica.

II
Australia, being the harshest country on earth, breeds the
hardiest pioneers, horsemen, bushmen, trackers, hunters, scouts,
who find the worst African or American travel a sort of picnic. The
bushie is disappointing to town Australians because he has no
swank, and nothing of the brilliant picturesqueness of the American
frontiersman. He is only a tall, gaunt man, lithe as a whip, with a
tongue like a whip-lash; and it is on bad trips or in battle that one
finds what he is like inside, a most knightly gentleman with a vein of
poetry.
Anyway the Melbourne people were cracked in 1860 when they
wanted an expedition to cross Australia northward, and instead of
appointing bushmen for the job selected tenderfeet. Burke was an
Irishman, late of the Hungarian cavalry, and the Royal Irish
Constabulary, serving as an officer in the Victorian police. Wills was
a Devon man, with some frontier training on the sheep runs, but had
taken to astronomy and surveying. There were several other white
men, and three Afghans with a train of camels.
They left Melbourne with pomp and circumstance, crossed
Victoria through civilized country, and made a base camp on the
Darling River at Menindie. There Burke sacked two mutinous
followers and his doctor scuttled in a funk, so he took on Wright, an
old settler who knew the way to Cooper’s Creek four hundred miles
farther on. Two hundred miles out Wright was sent back to bring up
stores from Menindie, while the expedition went on to make an
advanced base at Cooper’s Creek. Everything was to depend on the
storage of food at that base.
While they were waiting for Wright to come up with their stores,
Wills and another man prospected ninety miles north from Cooper’s
Creek to the Stony Desert, a land of white quartz pebbles and
polished red sandstone chips. The explorer Sturt had been there,
and come back blind. No man had been beyond.
Wills, having mislaid his three camels, came back ninety miles
afoot without water, to find the whole expedition stuck at Cooper’s
Creek, waiting for stores. Mr. Wright at Menindie burned time,
wasting six weeks before he attempted to start with the stores, and
Burke at last could bear the delay no longer. There were thunder-
storms giving promise of abundant water for once in the northern
desert, so Burke marched with Wills, King and Gray, taking a horse
and six camels.
William Brahe was left in charge at the camp at Cooper’s Creek,
to remain with ample provisions until Wright turned up, but not to
leave except in dire extremity.
 Burke’s party crossed the glittering Stony Desert, and watching
the birds who always know the way to water, they came to a fine
lake, where they spent Christmas day. Beyond that they came to the
Diamantina and again there was water. The country improved, there
were northward flowing streams to cheer them on their way, and at
last they came to salt water at the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria.
They had crossed the continent from south to north.
With blithe hearts they set out on their return, and if they had to
kill the camels for food, then to eat snakes, which disagreed with
them, still there would be plenty when they reached Cooper’s Creek.
Gray complained of being ill, but pilfering stores is not a proper
symptom of any disease, so Burke gave him a thrashing by way of
medicine. When he died, they delayed one day for his burial; one
day too much, for when they reached Cooper’s Creek they were just
nine hours late. Thirty-one miles they made in the last march and
reeled exhausted into an empty camp ground. Cut in the bark of a
tree were the words “Dig, 21 April 1861.” They dug a few inches into
the earth where they found a box of provisions, and a bottle
containing a letter.
“The depot party of the V. E. E. leave this camp to-day to return
to the Darling. I intend to go S. E. from camp sixty miles to get into
our old track near Bulloo. Two of my companions and myself are
quite well; the third, Patten, has been unable to walk for the last
eighteen days, as his leg has been severely hurt when thrown from
one of the horses. No person has been up here from Darling. We
have six camels and twelve horses in good working condition.
William Brahe.”
It would be hopeless with two exhausted camels to try and catch
up with that march. Down Cooper’s Creek one hundred fifty miles the
South Australian Mounted Police had an outpost, and the box of
provisions would last out that short journey.
They were too heart-sick to make an inscription on the tree, but
left a letter in the bottle, buried. A few days later Brahe returned with
the industrious Mr. Wright and his supply train. Here is the note in
Wright’s diary:—