Health Psychology- a field that integrates research on health and on psychology
● Involves the application of psychological principles in promoting health and well-being
● Well-Being- a positive state that includes striving for optimal health and life satisfaction
● Why do we engage in unhealthy lifestyle behaviors?
● Why do some people engage in health-promoting behaviors?
● Why are some societies healthier?
-They examine the behaviors and social systems that affect health
● Biopsychosocial Model:
-a model of health that integrates the effects of biological, behavioral, and social factors on health and illness
Exercise- exercise improves your physical health, benefits your emotions and moods
● Helps your thinking abilities
● Improves memory, especially in older adults
● Research has shown that aerobic training increases brain volume
11.8- Personality and Emotional States Influence the Impact of Stress on Heart Disease
Stress- a group of behavioral, mental, and physical processes occurring when events match or exceed the organism's ability to respon
in a healthy way
● The biological effects of stress result directly from the ways we think about events in our lives and the way social factors
influence us
● Stressor- an environmental event or stimulus that threatens an organism
● Stress Response- physical, behavioral, and psychological responses to stressors
● Mediating Factors- factors such as personality and environment that can increase or decrease the likelihood that a stressor w
elicit a stress response
● Major Life Stressors- large disruptions, uncontrollable, very drastic
● Daily Hassles- everyday irritations that cause small disruptions
3 Stages of Physical Response:
1. Alarm
2. Resistance
● Alarm and resistance together = flight or fight response
3. Exhaustion
● Immune Response- short term stress boosts the immune system making the body ready to fight off infection
● Chronic stress weakens it, leaving the body less able to deal with it
Heart Disease- heart disease is the main stress-related cause of death worldwide
● Genetics
● Stress