PB0522 INTRODUCTION TO HEALTH
PSYCHOLOGY – COMPREHENSIVE EXAM
STUDY GUIDE WITH VERIFIED ANSWERS &
DETAILED RATIONALES
SECTION 1: FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY OF HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY
(QUESTIONS 1 TO 10)
1. Which definition of health psychology, attributed to Matarazzo (1980), best captures the
discipline as it is taught in this course?
A. The study of mental disorders that arise from physical disease processes
B. The aggregate of the specific educational, scientific, and professional contributions of
psychology to the promotion and maintenance of health, the prevention and treatment of
illness, and the analysis and improvement of the healthcare system
C. The application of medical knowledge to treat psychological symptoms in psychiatric
populations
D. The experimental investigation of neural mechanisms underlying emotional behavior
Answer: [✓] B.
Rationale: Matarazzo's classic definition emphasizes four pillars: health promotion and
maintenance, illness prevention and treatment, identification of etiological correlates of
health and illness, and improvement of the healthcare system and health policy. Option A
describes liaison psychiatry, option C describes clinical medicine, and option D describes
behavioral neuroscience. The breadth of Matarazzo's definition distinguishes health
,psychology from neighboring disciplines such as clinical psychology and behavioral
medicine.
2. The biopsychosocial model, proposed by Engel (1977), primarily challenged which
assumption of the biomedical model?
A. The belief that infectious agents cause most diseases
B. The assumption of mind-body dualism and reductionism, in which illness is explained
solely by biological deviations
C. The use of randomized controlled trials in evaluating medical treatments
D. The classification of diseases according to observable symptoms
Answer: [✓] B.
Rationale: The biomedical model rests on mind-body dualism (the separation of mental
and bodily processes) and reductionism (reducing illness to disordered biological
mechanisms). Engel argued that biological, psychological, and social factors interact
dynamically in health and illness. The biopsychosocial model does not reject biological
processes but situates them within a hierarchy of systems, from molecules to society, each
influencing the others.
3. Which historical development most directly enabled the emergence of health
psychology as a distinct discipline in the late 1970s?
A. The discovery of antibiotics and vaccines
B. The epidemiological transition from infectious to chronic diseases as leading causes of
death
C. The invention of the electroencephalogram
D. The rise of institutionalized psychoanalysis in Europe
Answer: [✓] B.
,Rationale: During the twentieth century, chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease,
cancer, and diabetes replaced infectious diseases as the primary causes of mortality in
industrialized nations. Because chronic diseases are strongly influenced by behavior and
lifestyle (smoking, diet, physical activity, stress), psychological expertise became
essential. The American Psychological Association formally established Division 38 (Health
Psychology) in 1978 in response to this shift.
4. Behavioral medicine is best distinguished from health psychology by which
characteristic?
A. Its exclusive focus on pharmacological interventions
B. Its interdisciplinary nature, integrating behavioral and biomedical science for prevention,
diagnosis, and treatment
C. Its restriction to inpatient psychiatric settings
D. Its rejection of laboratory research methods
Answer: [✓] B.
Rationale: Behavioral medicine is the broader interdisciplinary field that integrates
behavioral, psychosocial, and biomedical science knowledge and techniques. Health
psychology is one discipline contributing to this field, alongside medicine, epidemiology,
sociology, and others. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but the course
distinguishes them by disciplinary breadth: behavioral medicine is an umbrella, health
psychology is a specific disciplinary contributor.
5. Which research design is considered the gold standard for establishing causality in
health psychology intervention research?
A. Cross-sectional survey
B. Case-control study
C. Randomized controlled trial
D. Qualitative interview study
, Answer: [✓] C.
Rationale: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) randomly assign participants to
intervention and control conditions, distributing known and unknown confounders equally
across groups. Combined with blinding and pre-registered outcome measures,
randomization provides the strongest evidence for causal inference. Cross-sectional
surveys cannot establish temporal order, case-control studies are retrospective and prone
to recall bias, and qualitative studies generate hypotheses rather than test causal claims.
6. A researcher measures stress and cortisol levels at a single time point in 500 employees
and finds a correlation. What is the principal limitation of this design?
A. The sample size is too small for statistical analysis
B. The design cannot establish the direction of causality or exclude third variables
C. Cortisol cannot be measured reliably in employed populations
D. Correlations cannot be computed on biological measures
Answer: [✓] B.
Rationale: Cross-sectional correlational designs suffer from the directionality problem
(stress may elevate cortisol, or elevated cortisol may influence reported stress) and the
third-variable problem (unmeasured factors such as sleep or caffeine may drive both).
Sample size is adequate, cortisol measurement in workers is routine, and correlations
apply to any continuous variables. Longitudinal and experimental designs address these
limitations.
7. According to the World Health Organization (1948), health is defined as:
A. The absence of disease or infirmity
B. A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence
of disease or infirmity
C. The capacity to perform daily occupational tasks without assistance
D. The statistical normality of all measurable biological parameters
PSYCHOLOGY – COMPREHENSIVE EXAM
STUDY GUIDE WITH VERIFIED ANSWERS &
DETAILED RATIONALES
SECTION 1: FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY OF HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY
(QUESTIONS 1 TO 10)
1. Which definition of health psychology, attributed to Matarazzo (1980), best captures the
discipline as it is taught in this course?
A. The study of mental disorders that arise from physical disease processes
B. The aggregate of the specific educational, scientific, and professional contributions of
psychology to the promotion and maintenance of health, the prevention and treatment of
illness, and the analysis and improvement of the healthcare system
C. The application of medical knowledge to treat psychological symptoms in psychiatric
populations
D. The experimental investigation of neural mechanisms underlying emotional behavior
Answer: [✓] B.
Rationale: Matarazzo's classic definition emphasizes four pillars: health promotion and
maintenance, illness prevention and treatment, identification of etiological correlates of
health and illness, and improvement of the healthcare system and health policy. Option A
describes liaison psychiatry, option C describes clinical medicine, and option D describes
behavioral neuroscience. The breadth of Matarazzo's definition distinguishes health
,psychology from neighboring disciplines such as clinical psychology and behavioral
medicine.
2. The biopsychosocial model, proposed by Engel (1977), primarily challenged which
assumption of the biomedical model?
A. The belief that infectious agents cause most diseases
B. The assumption of mind-body dualism and reductionism, in which illness is explained
solely by biological deviations
C. The use of randomized controlled trials in evaluating medical treatments
D. The classification of diseases according to observable symptoms
Answer: [✓] B.
Rationale: The biomedical model rests on mind-body dualism (the separation of mental
and bodily processes) and reductionism (reducing illness to disordered biological
mechanisms). Engel argued that biological, psychological, and social factors interact
dynamically in health and illness. The biopsychosocial model does not reject biological
processes but situates them within a hierarchy of systems, from molecules to society, each
influencing the others.
3. Which historical development most directly enabled the emergence of health
psychology as a distinct discipline in the late 1970s?
A. The discovery of antibiotics and vaccines
B. The epidemiological transition from infectious to chronic diseases as leading causes of
death
C. The invention of the electroencephalogram
D. The rise of institutionalized psychoanalysis in Europe
Answer: [✓] B.
,Rationale: During the twentieth century, chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease,
cancer, and diabetes replaced infectious diseases as the primary causes of mortality in
industrialized nations. Because chronic diseases are strongly influenced by behavior and
lifestyle (smoking, diet, physical activity, stress), psychological expertise became
essential. The American Psychological Association formally established Division 38 (Health
Psychology) in 1978 in response to this shift.
4. Behavioral medicine is best distinguished from health psychology by which
characteristic?
A. Its exclusive focus on pharmacological interventions
B. Its interdisciplinary nature, integrating behavioral and biomedical science for prevention,
diagnosis, and treatment
C. Its restriction to inpatient psychiatric settings
D. Its rejection of laboratory research methods
Answer: [✓] B.
Rationale: Behavioral medicine is the broader interdisciplinary field that integrates
behavioral, psychosocial, and biomedical science knowledge and techniques. Health
psychology is one discipline contributing to this field, alongside medicine, epidemiology,
sociology, and others. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but the course
distinguishes them by disciplinary breadth: behavioral medicine is an umbrella, health
psychology is a specific disciplinary contributor.
5. Which research design is considered the gold standard for establishing causality in
health psychology intervention research?
A. Cross-sectional survey
B. Case-control study
C. Randomized controlled trial
D. Qualitative interview study
, Answer: [✓] C.
Rationale: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) randomly assign participants to
intervention and control conditions, distributing known and unknown confounders equally
across groups. Combined with blinding and pre-registered outcome measures,
randomization provides the strongest evidence for causal inference. Cross-sectional
surveys cannot establish temporal order, case-control studies are retrospective and prone
to recall bias, and qualitative studies generate hypotheses rather than test causal claims.
6. A researcher measures stress and cortisol levels at a single time point in 500 employees
and finds a correlation. What is the principal limitation of this design?
A. The sample size is too small for statistical analysis
B. The design cannot establish the direction of causality or exclude third variables
C. Cortisol cannot be measured reliably in employed populations
D. Correlations cannot be computed on biological measures
Answer: [✓] B.
Rationale: Cross-sectional correlational designs suffer from the directionality problem
(stress may elevate cortisol, or elevated cortisol may influence reported stress) and the
third-variable problem (unmeasured factors such as sleep or caffeine may drive both).
Sample size is adequate, cortisol measurement in workers is routine, and correlations
apply to any continuous variables. Longitudinal and experimental designs address these
limitations.
7. According to the World Health Organization (1948), health is defined as:
A. The absence of disease or infirmity
B. A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence
of disease or infirmity
C. The capacity to perform daily occupational tasks without assistance
D. The statistical normality of all measurable biological parameters
