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Health Psychology

Terms in this set (154)

Health is defined as...

A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being

Which of the following is the field of health psychology NOT directly concerned with?

Lowering health care costs

Health disparities are:

Preventable differences in the health of socially disadvantaged groups

Which of the following is true regarding healthcare in the United States?

The US spends more on healthcare than most other developed nations, while many countries spend less on healthcare than the US but rank higher in terms of overall performance

During the prehistoric period, our ancestors believed that disease was caused by:

Demons or evil spirits

Traditional Oriental medicine is founded on the principle that:

Internal harmony is essential for good health

The oldest known medical system in the world is:

A disease that spreads rapidly among many individuals in a community at the same time over a limited geographic area is called:

Because he doesn't feel sick, Johnny believes that he is healthy. Johnny evidently has an implicit belief in the ______ model of health.

The field of psychosomatic medicine emerged because the biomedical model was unable to explain:

Disorders that had no observable physical cause

According to Sigmund Freud, loss of speech, deafness, and other conversion disorders were caused by:

Unconscious emotional conflict

Although Sigmund Freud's theories and psychosomatic medicine were flawed, they started the trend toward viewing illness and health as caused by:

The interaction of several factors

The scientific study of the causes or origins of specific diseases is called:

Health psychologists view health:

From a biopsychosocial viewpoint

Genomics is the study of the:

Structure, function, and mapping of the genetic material of organisms

What is the leading cause of death in young people (age 1 - 44)?

Unintentional injuries

A birth cohort is a group of people who:

Were born within a few years of each other

Which is one reason that middle-aged women have higher rates of illness than men in the same age group?

Women have been underrepresented as participants in medical research trials

Massification is the idea that:

Higher education benefits everyone

A person whose identical twin had Alzheimer's disease had a ____ percent chance of also developing the disease.

A study comparing representative groups of people of various ages on a particular dependent variable is called a:

Cross-sectional study

Chris answers a survey question in a way he thinks will confirm the researchers' beliefs. If the outcome of the study is influenced by Chris and other participants' expectations, a(n)_____ will have occurred.

Expectancy effect

Differences between two or more groups due to the impact of members having been born and raised at different moments in history are called ____ differences.

Dr. Hausenblas is conducting research on the etiology of bird flu. This means that she seeks to understand the:

Origins of the disease

If health psychologists discovered that tall people have higher blood pressure than shorter people, this would demonstrate that:

Blood pressure and height are positively correlated

In the early 20th century, many experts incorrectly attributed the disease pellagra to unsanitary sewage removal instead of a dietary deficiency. Their failure to consider alternative explanations for the disease, and to leap to an untested conclusion, is an example of:

Maria believes that caffeine speeds up a person's reaction time. To test her hunch, she has five friends each drink three 8-ounce cups of coffee and then measure how quickly they are able to push a button when a tone is sounded. What is wrong with Maria's research strategy?

There is no control condition

Mortality is to death as morbidity is to:

Professor House believes that regular exercise boosts academic achievement. To find out, over the course of 6 months she compares the academic achievement of a group of students who by their own admission get little or no exercise, with that of a second group of students who exercise regularly. This is an example of a(n)?

Quasi-experimental study

The actual amount that a disease can be attributed to exposure to a particular risk factor is called the:

Attributable risk

The field of medicine that investigates the causes, spread, and control of diseases within the population is:

The group exposed to a newly synthesized drug that is being tested in an experiment is the:

Experimental group

The number of deaths of infants under one year old, per 1,000 live births in a given year, is referred to as the infant_____rate.

The procedure used to help ensure that the experimental and control groups do not differ in any way that might affect the results of an experiment is called:

Random assignment

When neither the subjects nor the experimenters know which group has received a treatment and which has not, the design is called:

Which type of epidemiological study played an important role in initially identifying the risk factors that lead to AIDS?

Retrospective study

A dramatic illustration of the interaction of daily hassles with chronic stress is the decrease in ___ that occurred in Russian men just after the breakup of the former Soviet Union.

Life Expectancy

A year after her combat duty in the war in Iraq, Sheila began having nightmares and unwanted flashbacks about her traumatic experience. Sheila would probably be diagnosed as suffering from:

According to the text, stress is best defined as:

The process by which we perceive and respond to events that are perceived as harmful, threatening, or challenging.

Between ages 18 and 27, the average worker in the US holds____job(s).

Calhoun's research studies with rats living under highly crowded conditions found that crowding eventually led to all of the following EXCEPT:

Decreased infant mortality

During the last half century, the average household income of Americans has ___ and their self-reported personal happiness has ___.

Increased; remained almost unchanged

Glass and Singer found that college students appraised a loud, distracting noise as less stressful when it was:

In terms of predicting a person's overall psychological well-being, research studies have shown that:

Everyday hassles are a better predictor of health problems than major life events.

Josh is a participant in a study in which prompts from his smart phone requires him to report on his mood, social interactions, and other variables throughout the day. Evidently, Josh's study is making use of the procedure called:

Ecological momentary assessment

PTSD has been associated with:

Biomedical and hormonal alternatives that last over a long period.

Psychoneuroimmunology is a field that focuses on:

How psychological factors affect immunity through the neuroendocrine system.

Regarding the question of whether having a job as well as a home and family enhances or threatens a woman's health, researchers have generally found that:

Both women and men who balance vocational, marital, and parental roles generally are healthier and happier than adults who function in only one or two of these roles.

Scarcity and enhancement are two completing hypotheses regarding women and:

Demanding events or situations that trigger coping adjustments in a person.

The effects of stress are most deleterious when the stressor is:

Which of the following is not necessarily true regarding population density, crowding, and behavior?

Density always produces crowding

After getting a bad grade on an exam, Brandon can't stop thinking repetitively about his failure as a student, Brandon's thought process is an example of:

Coping is best defined as:

The cognitive, behavioral, and emotional ways in which people manage stressful situations.

Coping strategies that are ____ more often are linked with better health outcomes, particularly for chronic stressors.

Problem-focused

Depression is more common in:

Western, individualistic cultures

Increased risk of hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes is associated with:

Chronic inflammation

Karen, who is working through her emotional reactions to losing her job by seeking out others who have been through the same experience, is using:

Emotional-approach coping

One possible explanation for the longer life expectancy of religiously active people is that:

They receive more social supoort

People who are optimistic:

May recover more quickly from heart surgery.

People who engage in fantasizing, antisocial behaviors, and passive behaviors to cope with stress are using which type of approach?

People who have been diagnosed with ___ have difficulty in identifying and expressing their own emotions.

People who use ___ coping methods confront a stressor head-on by taking direct action.

Psychologically distancing oneself from a stressor is an example of which type of coping?

Emotion-focused

The consideration of coping as a dynamic process implies that:

Coping involves an ongoing set of responses by which the person and the environment are involved in a reciprocal interaction.

The three key traits of hardy people are:

Control, challenge, and commitment

Health behaviors are

Health-enhancing behaviors or habits

The major finding of the Alameda Health Study was that...

Men who regularly practice seven health habits had lower mortality rates than those who practiced few or none of these health habits.

Living in the fraternity house, Carl finds it hard to eat a low-fat diet because his housemates think such a diet is unmanly. According to the theory of planned behavior, Carl's interpretation of his fraternity brothers' view and his failure to eat what he knows is a healthier diet is being influenced by:

Subjective norm

Which theory contends that ppl pass through stages of precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance in altering health-related behaviors?

Transtheoretical model

Primary prevention refers to measures designed to:

Prevent illness from developing.

Wearing a seatbelt is to ____ prevention as taking chemotherapy to treat a cancerous tumor is to _____ prevention.

Primary; tertiary

Because he has high blood pressure, Jake watches his diet and takes anti-hypertension medication. These behaviors are examples of ____ prevention.

The adult offspring of problem drinkers are:

Themselves at increased risk of abusing alcohol.

Which of the following variables had NOT been linked with risky health-related behaviors among adolescents?

Excessive exercise

Most ppl in the US who don't have health insurance:

Come from working families with income above the federal poverty level.

Binge drinking is associated with several social risk factors, including:

Being a college student

A key factor in why adolescents and young adults are prone to unintentional injury is:

Poor decision making

A persistent problem is falling or staying asleep is called:

After flying from CA to ME, John experienced a restless, sleepless night. His problem was probably caused by a disruption of his normal:

Basal metabolic rate

Cutting, self-administered tattoos, and inserting objects under the skin are examples of

Nonsuicidal self-injury

Fast and jerky movements of the eyes are associated with:

Most deaths caused by falling are classified as _____ because ______

Unintentional injuries; the injured person didn't intend for it to happen.

Most unintentional deaths from poisoning are caused by _____, especially _______

Drugs; prescription painkillers

Neurogenesis refers to:

The formation of new nerve cells during sleep.

Poor sleep promotes increased body weight by triggering:

An increase in the hormone ghrelin and a decrease in the hormone leptin.

The dozing, half-awake stage of sleep is:

NonREM Stage 1 sleep

The human sleep cycle repeats itself about every:

The leading cause of death among ppl between ages 1 and 44 is:

Unintentional injuries

The most prevalent type of injury resulting in death among adolescents and young adults is:

Motor vehicle accidents

The phenomenon called social jet lag refers to the fact that ppl today:

Sleep less than their counterparts did 100 years ago

Although Chris has been obese all his life, he is determined to lose weight by following a low-calorie diet. He is likely to have difficulty losing weight while dieting because:

Fat tissue had a low metabolic rate and can be maintained by fewer calories.

Anorexia patients are most likely to have parents who:

Are high achieving and protective

Grunberg and Straub found that stress was especially likely to increase appetites for sweets in:

Women who were dieting

Jennifer is slightly overweight and loves to eat, particularly junk food and high-calorie desserts. Fearful of gaining weight, she often takes a laxative following an episode of binge eating. She seems to suffer from:

Bulimia nervosa

More ppl are treated for __ in the US than for all other health conditions combined.

Particularly among ____ in developed countries, there is a(n) _____ relationship between obesity and socioeconomic status.

Research on obesity and weight regulation indicates that:

Fat tissue requires fewer calories to maintain that lean tissue

The Glycemic Index ranks ____ based on how quickly your body converts them to _____.

Carbohydrates; glucose

The best way to lose weight and keep it off is to ____ and to _____.

Develop sound eating habits; engage in regular physical activity.

The diagnostic criteria for anorexia Nervosa include all of the following EXCEPT:

Lack of control over eating

The inexpensive sweetener found in many foods that may contribute to diabetes and other chronic conditions is:

High-fructose corn syrup

The most vulnerable to eating disorders are those who ____value thinness and have the ____ body image satisfaction.

Unit bias refers to the finding that:

Ppl eat more when given larger portions

Which of the following has NOT been offered as an explanation for the relationship between obesity and socioeconomic status?

Less educated ppl may lack knowledge about the hazards of obesity.

According to the hypersensitivity theory, addiction is the result of efforts by the body to:

Counteract the effects of a drug in order to maintain an optimal internal state

Alcohol makes it difficult for drinkers to interpret complex or ambiguous stimuli because drinkers tend to:

Focus on only the most salient cues

Cocaine produces its stimulating effects by:

Blocking the reuptake of norepinephrine and dopamine in the synapse

It is estimated that ____ of Americans aged 12 or older can be classified as currents regular drinkers.

Korsakoff's syndrome is sometimes suffered by chronic, heavy users of alcohol and is characterized by:

The inability to store new memories

Max has been smoking cigarettes for so long that his body requires nicotine to function normally. A health psychologist would say that Max has developed:

One study reported that adolescents' beliefs regarding their peers' alcohol use and attitudes predicted their own drinking behavior. This finding highlights the importance of ____ in predicting an individual's use of alcohol.

Alcohol expectancies

Ppl who successfully quit smoking typically:

Change their beliefs to see less psychological benefit and more health threat from smoking.

Research on smoking habits of Americans shows that over the past few decades:

The smoking has decreased more rapidly among men than among women.

The concordance rate for a certain trait refers to the:

Rate of agreement between a pair of twins for that trait.

The discomfort and distress that follow the discontinued use of certain drugs is called:

Heart disease runs in Jack's family, so he's naturally worried. The most accurate way to determine the degree to which Jack's coronary arteries are blocked would be:

The leading cause of death in the US is:

Cardiovascular disease

The disorder in which deposits of cholesterol and other fats narrow coronary arteries is:

Atherosclerosis

A disorder characterized by a reduction of oxygen to the heart, crushing chest pain, and difficulty breathing, but no loss of consciousness or damage to the myocardium.

Angina pectoris

Jerry's cardiologist suspects that he may have a cardiac arrhythmia when his heart is stressed. To be sure, he prescribes:

Coronary angiography

Family history strongly predicts CVD, especially for those who have:

Either a close male relative who suffered a heart attack before age 55 or a female relative who suffered a heart attack before age 65.

Men have roughly the same rate of CVD as women who are:

Gender differences in CVD mortality may be due to the fact that:

Testosterone has been linked with aggression and other behaviors that contribute to heart disease.

Which of the following was NOT suggested as a reason women are twice as likely as men to die following a heart attack?

Women are treated more aggressively than men are

When disparities in education, home, and disease risk factors for CVD are controlled for, ethnic and racial differences in CVD:

Most cases of high blood pressure are classified as ____ , meaning that the cause of the disease is ____.

Primary; unknown

Friedman and Rosenman's term for competitive, hurried, hostile people who may be at increased risk for developing CVD is:

Which of the following is NOT part of the Type A behavior pattern?

A high pressure job

Recent research investigates the Type A behavior pattern has found that ____ may be the most crucial factor in predicting coronary disease.

James Pennebaker found that cardiac patients who suppress their anger or frustration:

Are almost five times as likely as other cardiac patients to die within 5 yrs

Job strain is greatest for jobs that have:

High job demands and low decision latitude

Compared to others, hostile men and women are most likely to react to stress in which of the following ways?

Psychological hyperreactivity and physiological hyperreactivity (both B and C)

Research has linked Type A anger in women to a cluster of traits combining:

Depression with high levels of anxiety

John's psychologist has designed an intervention to reduce the illness intrusiveness of his lifelong battle with diabetes. This type of intervention focuses on:

Minimizing the disruptive effect of the disease on a patient's life

Because of pain's nature, researchers have had to rely on each of the following EXCEPT:

Objective measures

Brad's psychologist believes that he is not progressing in his treatment because adhering to the role of a pain patient brings him a lot of attention from others. Because she wants to reshape Brad's pain behavior, the therapist is advocating:

An intervention based on a conditioning model

Chronic pain is experienced by about ____ of the population in the US.

Clinical pain is pain that:

Requires some form of medical treatment

In one study, dental patients who were given a placebo reported increased pain when they were also injected with:

Jerry has a nagging lower backache that is always present and is moderate in intensity. Jerry's pain would probably be classified as:

One research study of catastrophizing among rheumatoid arthritis patients found that ____ was associated with elevated levels of _____.

Helplessness; C-reactive protein

The dominant model for treating chronic pain is:

Cognitive behavioral therapy

What are nociceptors?

Sensory receptors in the skin that respond to painful stimuli

Which approach to pain control works best?

It depends on the patient and the nature of the pain.

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