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Health Psychology
The field of psychological science concerned with the events that affect physical well being
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Well-Being
a positive state that includes striving for optimal health
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biopsychsocial factor
a model of health that integrates the effects of biological, behavior, and social factors on health and illness
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Placebo Effect
a drug or treatment, unrelated to the particular problem of the person who receives it, may make the recipient feel better because the person believes the drug or treatment is effective
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Stress
a pattern of behavioral and physiological responses to events that match or exceed an organism's abilities to respond
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Stressor
an environmental event or stimulus that threatens an organism
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Coping Response
any response an organism makes to avoid, escape from, or minimize an aversive stimulus
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hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis
the biological response system responsible for the stress response
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fight or flight response
- physiological response to deal with danger:
- 1. heart rate increase/breathing heavy/sweat
- 2. blood from the skin goes towards the brain and other organs
- 3. autonomic processes such as food disgestion are stopped temporarily
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tend and befriend response
females' tendency to protect and care for their offspring and form social alliances rather than flee or fight in response to threat
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oxytocin
a hormone that is important for mothers in bonding to newborns
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lymphocytes
specialized white blood cells known as B and T cells and natural killer cells that make up the immune system
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immune system
the body's mechanism for dealing with invading microorganisms, such as allergens, bacteria, and viruses
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General Adaptation Syndrome
- (Seyle) Three stages of physiological response to stress
- 1. Alarm:fight or flight
- 2. Resistance:body maximizes defenses, increase in immune system
- 3. Exhaust: systems fail
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Type A Behavior
competitive, achievement, agression, impatience, etc
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Type B
relaxed, noncompetitive, easygoing, accomodating
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allostatic load theory of illness
When people are continually stressed, they are unable to return to bodily states that characterize normal stress levels
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Primary Appraisal
part of the coping process that involves making decisions about whether a stimulus is stressful, benign, or irrelevant
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Secondary Appraisal
Part of the coping process during which people evaluate their options and choose coping behaviors
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Emotion-Focused coping
people try to prevent having an emotional repsonse to a stressor
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Problem-Focused Coping
peple take direct steps to confront or minimize a stressor
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BMI
ratio of body weight to height, used to measure obesity
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Anorexia
eating disorder characterized by an excessive fear of becoming fat and thus refusal to eat
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Bulimia
eating disorder characterized by dieting, binge eating, and purging
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Social Integration
the qualitiy of a person's social relationships
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Buffering Hypothesis
the idea that other people can provide direct support in helping individuals cope with stressful events
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