| Term | Definition |
|---|
| behavioral medicine | an interdisciplinary field that integrates behavioral and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 549) |
| health psychology | a subfield of psychology that provides psychology's contribution to behavioral medicine. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 549) |
| stress | the process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 550) |
| general adaptation syndrome (GAS) | Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in three stages—alarm, resistance, exhaustion. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 552) |
| coronary heart disease | the clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in many developed countries. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 555) |
| Type A | Friedman and Rosenman's term for competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 555) |
| Type B | Friedman and Rosenman's term for easygoing, relaxed people. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 555) |
| psychophysiological illness | literally, "mind-body" illness; any stress-related physical illness, such as hypertension and some headaches. Note: This is distinct from hypochondriasis—misinterpreting normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 556) |
| lymphocytes | the two types of white blood cells that are part of the body's immune system: B lymphocytes form in the bone marrow and release antibodies that fight bacterial infections; T lymphocytes form in the thymus and other lymphatic tissue and attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 557) |
| coping | alleviating stress using emotional, cognitive, or behavioral methods. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 562) |
| emotion-focused coping | attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to one's stress reaction. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 562) |
| problem-focused coping | attempting to alleviate stress directly—by changing the stressor or the way we interact with that stressor. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 562) |
| aerobic exercise | sustained exercise that increases heart and lung fitness; may also alleviate depression and anxiety. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 567) |
| biofeedback | a system for electronically recording, amplifying, and feeding back information regarding a subtle physiological state, such as blood pressure or muscle tension. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 569) |
| complementary and alternative medicine | unproven health care treatments not taught widely in medical schools, not used in hospitals, and not usually reimbursed by insurance companies. (Myers Psychology 8e p. 570) |
Combine with other sets
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