Exam ReviewHealth Psychology

Response Cost

• Behavior decreases due to something being removed from the situation.

Primary prevention

• consists of immunizations and lifestyle changes to prevent illness in healthy people.

Stimulus

• a property of the environment that you can detect with your senses.

Correlation Coefficient

• One number that tells us about the strength and direction of the relationship between X and Y.

Classical Conditioning

• What does the organism learn?• Pairing• What goes with what

Operant Conditioning

• What does the organism learn?• Consequences of behavior.• What to do to get what you want.

Nomothetic

• Of or relating to the study or discovery of general scientific laws.

• Most social research is concerned with the nomothetic -- the general case -- rather than the individual. We often study individuals, but usually we are interested in generalizing to more than just the individual.

Cognitive Dissonance

• Aversive State occurs when actions are not consistent with beliefs

EXPERIMENT• Experimenter

manipulation– Independent variable– Dependent variable

• Two or more groups– experimental group– control group

• Random assignment

empirical:

• a. Relying on or derived from observation or experiment: empirical results that supported the hypothesis.

• b. Verifiable or provable by means of observation or experiment: empirical laws

Dependent Variable

• Presumed to be caused or affected by the independent variable. The outcome measure.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

• Promotes relaxation and functions under normal conditions.

Adherence

• Adherence and compliance refer to the patient’s ability and willingness to follow recommended health practices.

• In general nonadherence remains at about 50%

Locus of control

• Internal locus of control– The belief that people can control their own

outcomes of fate

Risk factor

• A risk factor is any characteristic or condition that occurs with greater frequency in people with a disease than it does in people free from the disease.

Reliability

• Does the test measure consistently?• Do you get the same results each time?

Health Belief Model

Assumes that people hold certain beliefs which lead the person to a greater or lesser degree to seek help or modify high-risk behaviors.

• personal vulnerability• the severity of the disease • the costs of taking action• benefits of taking action

The Immune System

• Tissues, organs and processes that protect the body from invasion by foreign material.

Validity

• Does the test measure what it is supposed to measure?

Dose Response Relationship

• A direct, consistent association between an independent variable, such as a behavior, and a dependent variable, such as a disease

Hardiness

• The ability to withstand stress

Theory of reasoned action

• Behavior is directed toward a goal or outcome and people freely choose actions that will move them toward that goal.

• The individual's intention to perform a behavior is a combination of – attitude toward performing the behavior – subjective norm.– perceived behavioral control.

Self-efficacy

• The belief that one is capable of performing the behaviors that will produce desired outcomes in any particular situation.

Transtheoretical Model

• People progress through five stages in changing behavior:– precontemplation– contemplation– preparation– action– maintenance

Reactance

• an aversive state that occurs when choices are limited

Lazrus Model of Stress

• It is not the life event but one’s view of it that determines the level of stress.

Immunity

• A specific, rapid response to foreign microorganisms based on previous exposure.