Wellness, Health Psychology and Positive Coping

1. Wellness, Health Psychology and Positive Coping CiciliaEviGradDiplSc., M. Psi

2. Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity WHO (1948)

3. Wellness • Refer to states of optimal physical, mental, and emotional health • Halbert L. Dunn (1961)  wellness is a state in which a person had: • A zest for life • A way of living that maximized potential • A sense of meaning and purpose • A sense of social responsibility • Skills for adapting to the challenges of a changing environment

4. Wellness perspectives encompasses the benefits of exercise, nutrition, stress management, emotional self-regulation, social support and personal growth – and also health promotion

5. Health Psychology • Focus on all the behavioral factors that might affect a person’s health  use psychological knowledge to help prevent risk factors for disease, increasing compliance with health directives, and creating public policy for a better health care system

6. Psychoneuroimmunology • PNI  the relationships between psychological processes (especially emotion), the functioning of the nervous system, and the body immune system • Stress – Cold connection hypothesis: • Greater social support  less cold • Lower social support  4x more to become ill

7. Psychological Factors Important to Health • Human being is a holistic organism  all the elements are able to communicate with each other and must have some influence on each other • So, what are the important psychological factors that influence health?

8. Social Support • Include emotional support (caring, empathy), getting positive feedback about our behavior, receiving helpful information, willingness of others to give us their time or other forms of assistance • Our perception that we are loved! • Greater resistance to disease, lower rates of coronary heart disease, faster recovery from heart disease and heart surgery and lower mortality; increase compliance with medical treatments, reduce level of medication, speed up recovery

9. Support of family and friends  less arterial blockages in patient with Type A personalities • Perceived racial or ethnic discrimination can have a negative impact health • For women  correlated with lower complications during pregnancy and delivery • Cancer  18 months longer than women with only conventional treatment

10. Marriage men have fewer infectious diseases and even live longer, lower chest pain due to poor blood supply to the heart  men who believed their wives showed them love • As a child  less risk for heart disease, ulcers, hypertension and alcoholism • Social support  health  social support

11. Loneliness  negative effects on immune functioning, health and psychological well-being • Pets  enhance health  lowering blood pressure, reducing rates of angina and increasing longevity • Fish tank  stress free environment  lower blood pressure

12. Compassion and Health • Simply by watching someone be kind and sympathetic to others  changes in immune system responses • By watching certain movies  effect affiliation and power motives • High affiliation  engage more in social interactions and to have more positive social relationships • High power motives  competition, achievements and individualism

13. Humor and Health • Hippocrates prescribed laughter to his patients on 4th century BC! • Defense mechanism of humor and able to laugh at oneself of the situation  greater adjustments and well-being • High sense of humor  high on optimism, extroversion, and capacity for intimacy, and scored low on neuroticism, less negative self-esteem, better coping strategies, recover from illness, cope with life stress and anxiety about death/mortality, enhance immune system, reduce psychological experience of pain

14. Music and Health • Coping with trauma  through non-verbal expressions in music or art • Relaxing sounds  lower stress hormones and blood pressure, increase immune system and endorphin level (positive moods) • Tibetan singing bowls, Gregorian chants, singing of Jewish prayers and drumming • Healthy heartbeats sounded musically pleasing, while unhealthy hearts sounded a bit off key or out of rhythm

15. Emotional Expression and Health • Writing  a way to deal with trauma and difficulties • Sharing experiences can be therapeutic  decline visit to professional mental health, better immune system, lower blood pressure, less distress  helpful to resolution focus • After writing difficult memories and experiences  feeling worse!  the positive effects come a few days later

16. Good Cry? • Crying is not always a good stress reliever  due to crying styles and reasons of crying • Coping mechanism, to manipulate others, or response to a very happy events • Only extroverted and emotionally stable person can find relief and increase positive emotions after crying • Neurotic  cry often and weeping  no positive emotions • Transformative weeping  response to profound spiritual experiences  weeping for joy

17. Positive Coping • “A response aimed at diminishing the physical, emotional and psychological burden that is linked to stressful events and daily hassles” (Snyder & Dinoff, 1995) • Effective coping should reduce the burden of immediate stress and also contribute to longer-term stress relief  by build resources that will inhibit or buffer future stress challenges

18. Resources can be physiological (better health status), psychological (greater subjective WB), or social (helping to foster more intimate soc support network)  multidimensional approach • Positive coping  thriving  both enhanced psychological and physical functioning after successful adaptations

19. Importance of Daily Hassles • Smaller daily hassles can be more problematic for us effect a person’s current mood and persistent negative mood will effect well-being in long term • Big events  birth, death of loved ones, funeral, wedding  stressful impact lasts for 3 months  infrequently happen and have social rituals which help to move on

20. Dimensions • Coping Styles • Coping Resources • Personality Styles • Coping Strategies

21. Coping Styles • Emotion-focused coping  attempts to change negative emotions • Problem-focused coping  attempts to change the situation that caused the stress • Avoidance  seek to avoid the problems

22. Coping Resources • Positive emotionality  impact health status and longevity • Cognitive Interpretation of events  the meaning we give to the events • Optimism  learned optimism (Seligman, 1990)  focus on the positive and the possible to respond to stressors with an attitude of hope and optimism

23. Perceived control • People with internal locus of control  engage in more adaptive coping styles and more health-related behaviors  tentative • Placebo effects  remembered wellness • Self-efficacy  the belief that we have the ability to perform, or capacity to learn, the behaviors necessary for us to reach the desired goals  change our way of working

24. Personality Styles • Hardiness  not a victim, but active determinants of their life  3 cognitive factors: • A sense of control over their lives  confident that they will be able to cope, not knowing how • A sense that stress they’re facing as a challenge rather than a crisis  opportunities to grow • A sense of commitment to the various areas of their lives

25. Sense of coherence  a unique set of personality traits that combine to create an orientation to life that allows people to interpret life stressors in a positive and adaptive way  3 major factors: • Meaningfulness  how life makes sense on emotional level  suffering as life lessons • Comprehensible  find ways to derive meaning from future stimuli • Manageability  not feel victimized by life events or unfair life treatment

26. Coping Strategies • Maintaining positive social contacts and keeping a sense of humor and optimism • Healthy lifestyle, frequent exercise, regular meditation, having a good massage • Regular and consistent use of various techniques for maintaining positive relationships with one’s emotional and social well-being