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Health Psychology

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the branch of psychology that investigates the physiological factors related to wellness and illness, including the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of mental problems

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Psychoneuroimmunology

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the study if the relationship among psychological factors, the immune system and the brain

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Stress

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a person's response to events that are threatening or challenging

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Stressors

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events that produce threats to our well being

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Cataclysmic Events

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strong stessors that occur suddenly, affecting many people at once

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Personal Stressors

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major life events, such as the death of a family member, that have immediate negative consequences that generally fade with time

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Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

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a phenomenon in which victims of major catastrophes or strong personal stressors feel long-lasting effects that may include re-experiencing the event in vivid flashbacks or dreams

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Background Stressors

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everyday annoyances, such as being stuck in traffic, that cause minor irritations and may have long term ill effects if they continue or are compounded by other stressful events

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Uplifts

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minor positive events that make us feel good- even if only temporarily

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Stress generates:

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a rise in hormone secretions by the adrenal glands, an increase in heart and blood pressure, and changes in how well the skin conducts electrical impulses

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Psychophysiological Disorders

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medical problems influenced by an interaction of psychological, emotional, and physical difficulties

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Ex. Psychophysiological Disorders:

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high blood pressure, headaches, backaches, skin rashes, indigestion, fatigue, constipation, and common cold.

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General Adaptation Syndrome

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theory developed by Selye that suggests that a person's response to a stressor consists of 3 stages: alarm and mobilization, resistances, and exhaustion

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Alarm and Mobilization

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first stage of G.A.S.; people become aware of the presence of a stressor

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Resistance

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second stage of G.A.S.; the body prepares to fight the stressor

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Exhaustion

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third stage of G.A.S.; a persons ability to adapt to the stressor declines to the point where negative consequences of stress appear

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Negative Consequences of Stress

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physical illness, inability to concentrate, heightened irritability, disorientation, or a loss of touch with reality

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Major Consequences from Stress:

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-Direct Physiological Effects -Harmful Behaviors -Indirect Health-Related Behaviors

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Direct Physiological Effects:

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increased blood pressure, increase in hormonal activity, overall decline in the functioning of the immune system.

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Harmful Behaviors:

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increased nicotine, drug and alcohol use; poor eating habits; decreased sleep

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Indirect Health-Related Behaviors:

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reduction in likelihood if obtaining health care and decreased compliance with medical advice.

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Coping

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efforts to control, reduce, or learn to tolerate the threats that lead to stress

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Emotion-Focused Coping

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people try to manage their emotions un face of stress, seeking to change the way they feel about or perceive a problem

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Problem-Focused Coping

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attempts to modify the stressful problems or source of stress

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Avoidant Coping

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a person may use wishful thinking to reduce stress or use a more direct escape route, such as drug use, alcohol use, or overreacting

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Defense Mechanisms

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unconscious strategies that people use to reduce anxiety by concealing the source from themselves and others

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Emotional Insulation

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defense mechanism in which a person stops experiencing any emotions at all

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Learned Helplessness

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a state in which people conclude that unpleasant or aversive stimuli cannot be controlled- a view of the world that becomes so ingrained that they cease trying to remedy the aversive circumstances, even if they actually can exert some influence

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Hardiness

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a personality characteristic associated with a lower rate of stress-related illness, consisting of the components: commitment, challenge, and control

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Resilience

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the ability to withstand, overcome, and actually thrive after profound adversity

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Social Support

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a mutual network of caring, mutually interested others

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Reactance

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a disagreeable emotional and cognitive reaction that results from the restriction of one's freedom

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Subjective Well-Being

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people's own evaluation of their lives in terms of both their thoughts and their emotions

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Memory

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the process by which we encode, store, and retrieve information

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Sensory Memory

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the initial, momentary storage of information, lasting only an instant

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Short-term Memory

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memory that holds information for 15 to 25 seconds

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Long-term Memory

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memory that stores information on a relatively permanent basis, although it may be difficult to retrieve

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Chunk

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a meaningful grouping of stimuli that can be stored as a unit in short-term memory

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Rehearsal

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the repetition of information that has entered short-term memory

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Working Memory

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a set of active, temporary memory stores that actively manipulate and rehearse information

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Declarative Memory

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memory for factual information: names, faces, dates, and the like

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Procedural Memory

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memory for skills and habits, such as riding a bike or hitting a baseball, sometimes referred to as non-declarative memory

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Semantic Memory

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memory for general knowledge and facts about the world, as well as memory for the rules of logic that as used to deduce other facts

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Episodic Memory

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memory for events that occur in a particular time, place, or context

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Semantic Networks

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mental representations of clusters of interconnected information

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Recall

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memory task in which specific information must be retrieved

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Recognition

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memory task in which individuals are presented with a stimulus and asked whether they have been exposed to it in the past or to identify it from a list of alternatives

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Levels-of-processing Theory

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the theory of memory that emphasizes the degree to which new material is mentally analyzed

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Explicit Memory

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intentional on conscious recollection of information

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Implicit Memory

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memories of which people are not consciously aware, but which can affect subsequent performance and behavior

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Priming

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a phenomenon in which exposure to a word or concept later makes it easier to recall related information, even when there is no conscious memory of the word or concept

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Flashbulb Memories

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memories centered on a specific, important, or surprising event that are so vivid it is as if they a represented as a snapshot of the event

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Constructive Proceses

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processes in which memories are influenced by the meaning we give to events

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Schemas

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organized bodies of information stored in memory that bias the way new information is interpreted, stored, and recalled

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Autobiographical memories

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our recollections of circumstances and episodes for our own lives

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Decay

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the loss of information in memory through its nonuse

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Interference

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the phenomenon by which information in memory disrupts the recall of other information

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Cue-dependent memory

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forgetting that occurs when there are insufficient retrieval cues to rekindle information that is in memory

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Proactive interference

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interference in which information learned earlier disrupts the recall of newer material

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Retroactive interference

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interference in which there is difficulty in the recall of information learned earlier because of later exposure to different material

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Alzheimer's Disease

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an illness characterized in part by severe memory problems

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Amnesia

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memory loss that occurs without other mental difficulties

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Retrograde amnesia

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amnesia in which memory is lost for occurrences prior to a certain event

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Anterograde Amnesia

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amnesia in which memory is lost for events thats follow an injury

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Korsakoff's syndrome

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a disease that afflicts long-term alcoholics, leaving some abilities intact but including hallucinations and a tendency to repeat the same story

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Approach/Approach Conflict

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conflict in which the individual must choose between two attractive stimuli or circumstances

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Avoidance/Avoidance Conflict

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conflict in which the individual must choose between two unattractive stimuli or circumstances

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Approach/Avoidance Conflict

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conflict involving a single stimulus or circumstances that has both positive and negative characteristics

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Type A personality

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excessively competitive, hard driven, impatient, hostile (increased heart attack)

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Type B personality

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relaxed and easy going personality

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Type C personality

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keep emotions inside, higher increase of cancer

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Behavioral Medicine

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try to treat illness

Chapter 14- Stress, Coping, and Well Being – Flashcards

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