Chapter 13 : Psychology & Health

1. Chapter 13 : Psychology & Health Michael L. Farris Psychology 101

2. Behavioral Medicine (Coon, p. 417) • The study of behavioral factors in medicine, physical illness, and medical treatment. • Psychologists working in the allied field of behavioral medicine apply psychology to manage medical problems, such as diabetes or asthma. • Their interests include pain control, helping people cope with chronic illness, stress-related diseases, self-screening for diseases (such as breast cancer), and similar topics.

3. Disease-Prone Personality (Coon, p. 418) • A personality type associated with poor health; marked by persistent negative emotions, including anxiety, depression, and hostility. • Such people tend to be chronically depressed, anxious, hostile, and frequently ill. In contrast, people who are intellectually resourceful, compassionate, optimistic, and non-hostile tend to enjoy good health.

4. Burnout (Nevid, p. 476) • A job related condition of mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion. • The problem has three aspects: • emotional exhaustion (affected persons are fatigued, tense, apathetic, and suffer from physical ailments; they feel used up, and have an “I don’t care anymore” attitude toward work). • Depersonalization (or detachment from others), in which burned out workers no longer care about their clients and coldly treat them like objects. And… • Reduced personal accomplishment (burned out workers do poor work and feel helpless, hopeless, or angry. Their self-esteem slumps and they yearn to change jobs or careers.

5. Burnout (Coon, p. 424, Nevid, p.476) • Burnout may occur in any job, but it is a marked problem in emotionally demanding helping professions, such as nursing, teaching, social work, child care, counseling, caring for AIDS patients, or police work. • It is ironic that the same work that produces burnout can also be highly rewarding. • People are more likely to burn out if they feel they have little control over their work.

6. Frustration • A negative emotional state that occurs when one is prevented from reaching a goal. Frustration is a common source of stress. • A common response to frustration is aggression.(Nevid, p.502; Coon, p. 426)

7. Scapegoating • (A scapegoat is a person who has become a habitual target of displaced aggression.) • Scapegoating is blaming a person or group of people for conditions not of their making. • Psychologists attribute much hostility and violence to displaced aggression. • An example of scapegoating is the disturbing finding that when unemployment increases, so does child abuse. • (Coon, p. 427)

8. Defense Mechanism • A habitual and often unconscious psychological process used to reduce anxiety. Specifically, defense mechanisms are used to avoid, deny, or distort sources of threat or anxiety. They also help protect an idealized self-image so that we can comfortably live with ourselves. Many of the defenses were first identified by Sigmund Freud, who assumed they operate unconsciously. Everyone at one time or another has used defense mechanisms. • Defense mechanisms prevent us from being overwhelmed by immediate threats. • Please refer to Nevid, p. 348; or Coon, p. 431.

9. Denial • A basic defense mechanism in which one refuses to accept an unpleasant reality. • Denial is closely linked with death, illness, and similar painful and threatening events. If you were told you have three months to live, your first reaction may be “the doctor must be mistaken” or “it can’t be true!”. • Similar denial and disbelief are common reactions to the unexpected death of a friend or relative: “It’s just not real. I don’t believe it. I just don’t believe it!” (Nevid, page 347)

10. Repression • Unconsciouslypreventing painful or dangerous thoughts from entering awareness (forgetting). • Freud noticed that his patients had tremendous difficulty recalling shocking or traumatic events from childhood. • Feelings of hostility toward a family member, the names of people we dislike, and past failures are common targets of repression. (Nevid, p. 348; Coon, p. 431)

11. Reaction Formation • Preventing dangerous impulses from being expressed in behavior by exaggerating opposite behavior. In Freudian theory, a defense mechanism involving behavior that stands in opposition to one’s true motives and desires to prevent consciousness awareness of them. • For example, a mother who unconsciously resents her children may, through reaction formation, become absurdly overprotective and overindulgent. Her real thoughts of “I hate them” and “I wish they were gone” are replaced by “I love them” and “I don’t know what I’d do without them”. The mother’s hostile impulses are traded for “smother” love, so that she won’t have to admit she hates her children. • Thus, the basic idea in reaction formation is that the individual acts out an opposite behavior to block threatening impulses or feelings. (Nevid, p. 348; Coon, p. 431)

12. Regression • Retreating to an earlier stage of development or to earlier, less demanding habits or situations. • If you’ve ever seen a child get homesick at summer camp or on vacation, you’ve observed regression. • An adult who throws a temper tantrum or a married adult who “goes home to mother” is also regressing. (Coon, p. 432-433)

13. Projection • Attributing one’s own feelings, shortcomings, or unacceptable impulses to others. • Projection is an unconscious process that protects us from the anxiety we would feel if we were to discern our faults. • A person who is projecting tends to see his or her own feelings, shortcomings, or unacceptable impulses in others. • Projection lowers anxiety by exaggerating negative traits in others. This justifies one’s own actions and directs attention away from personal failings. (Nevid, pgs. 347-348; Coon, p. 432)

14. Rationalization • Justifying personal behavior by giving reasonable and “rational” but false reasons for it. • The making of excuses comes from a natural tendency to explain our behavior. When the explanation you give for your behavior is reasonable and convincing, but not the real reason, you are rationalizing. (Nevid, pgs. 347-348; Coon, p. 432)

15. Rationalization • For example, Taylor failed to turn in an assignment made at the beginning of the semester in one of his classes. Here’s the explanation he gave his professor: My car broke down 2 days ago, and I couldn’t get to the library until yesterday. Then I couldn’t get all the books I needed because some were checked out, but I wrote what I could. Then last night, as the last straw, the cartridge in my printer ran out, and since all the stores were closed, I couldn’t finish the paper on time. When asked why he left the assignment until the last minute (the real reason it was late), Taylor offered another set of rationalizations. Like many people, Taylor had difficulty seeing himself without the protection of his rationalizations.

16. Compensation (Coon, p. 433) • Counteracting a real or imagined weakness by emphasizing desirable traits or seeking to excel in the area of weakness or in other areas. • Compensatory reactions are defenses against feelings of inferiority. A person who has a defect or weakness (real or imagined) may go to unusual lengths to overcome the weakness or to compensatefor it by excelling in other areas. • Examples of compensation include Franklin D. Roosevelt whose achievements in politics came after he was stricken with polio, and Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles, both blind, yet very successful musicians.

17. Sublimation • Working off frustrated desires or unacceptable impulses in substitute activities that are constructive or accepted by society. • For example, a very aggressive person may find social acceptance as a professional soldier, boxer, or football player. Greed may be refined into a successful business career. Lying could be sublimated into storytelling, creative writing, or politics. (Nevid, pgs. 347-348; Coon, p.433)

18. Learned Helplessness • A learned inability to overcome obstacles or to avoid punishment; learned passivity and inaction to aversive stimuli. (See dog example on Coon page 433). • A psychologist named Martin Seligman has described this reaction in Vietnam prisoner of war camps (Coon p. 433) in which a young marine POW was promised release on a certain date if he cooperated, then was never released. He became depressed, refused to eat or drink, and died shortly thereafter. (Nevid, pgs. 401-402; Coon, p. 433)

19. Depression A state of despondency marked by feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness. Many psychologists (including Seligman) have argued that there is a close connection between depression and learned helplessness. Nevid, pgs. 400-404; Coon, pgs. 434-435

20. Psychosomatic Disorders • Illnesses in which psychological factors contribute to bodily damage or to damaging changes in bodily functioning. (Coon, p. 440) • In psychosomatic disorders, physiological damage is caused by psychological stress. • Hypochondria: Complaining about illnesses that appear to be imaginary. • The difference between psychosomatic problems and hypochondria is that psychosomatic illnesses are real (asthma, a migraine headache, or high blood pressure can be psychosomatically caused), whereas a hypochondriac imagines problems that aren’t really there. • Severe psychosomatic disorders can be fatal. The person who says “Oh, it’s just psychosomatic” misunderstands the seriousness of stress-related diseases.

21. Biofeedback • Information given to a person about his or her ongoing bodily activities; aids voluntary regulation of bodily states. • Biofeedback is often recommended to an individual who would like to learn to control his or her high blood pressure. • This “Electronic yoga” is described on Coon, page 441.

22. General Adaptation Syndrome (G.A.S.) • a consistent series of bodily reactions to prolonged stress, occurring in three stages (alarm, resistance, and exhaustion). • In the alarm stage, the body mobilizes its resources to cope with added stress. The pituitary gland signals the adrenal gland to produce more adrenaline and noradrenaline. In the first phases of the alarm reaction, people have such symptoms as headache, fever, fatigue, sore muscles, shortness of breath, diarrhea, upset stomach, loss of appetite, and a lack of energy. • In the resistance stage, bodily adjustments to stress stabilize. Outwardly, everything seems normal. • In the exhaustion stage, the body’s resources are drained and stress hormones are depleted. Unless a way of relieving stress is found, the result will be a psychosomaticdisease, a serious loss of health, or complete collapse. (Nevid, pgs. 459-461; Coon, p. 443)

23. Stress Management • The application of behavioral strategies to reduce stress and improve coping skills. • Exercise, meditation, and relaxation are important factors in stress management because they relieve the physical tension of stress. (Nevid, pgs. 475-478; Coon, p. 448)

24. Type A Personalities vs. Type B Personalities • Type A is a personality type with an elevated risk of heart disease; characterized by time urgency, anger, competitiveness, and hostility. • Type B personality includes all types other than type A. A low cardiac risk personality. Nevid, pgs. 455-456; Coon, pgs. 441-442