Health Psychology
Addresses factors that influence well-being & illness, as well as measures that can be taken to
promote health & prevent illness.
Biological, psychological, & environmental factors that
contribute to disease processes & health
1. Lifestyle: health-impairing & health-protective behaviour (e.g., diet, exercise, smoking,
drinking, brushing teeth)
2. Health-relevant behaviour (e.g., compliance with medical regimens & seeking medical
care) ; Cultural norms (eg. traditional medicines) ; Social relationships (eg. Being around
smokers. Want to be similar)
3. Factors affecting physiological systems & equilibrium (e.g., stress, conditioning)
4. Other biological response modifiers: Age ; Race (some are more prone to illnesses than
others) ; Gender (males: more behaviour disorders); Genetics (mental illnesses)
What is Stress? - NB: learn to explain the 3 ways stress can be defined
Stress as stimulus
• Stressors: Events that place strong demands on us/threatening situations
• “I’ve got a lot of stress in my life right now. I have three exams next week, I lost my
notes…”
Stress as a response, with cognitive, physiological & behavioural components
• Response to stressors
• “I’m feeling stressed out. I’m tensed up. I’m having trouble concentrating, and I’ve been
flying off the handle all week.”
• Negative emotions involved
Stress as an on-going transaction between the organism & environment
• A pattern of cognitive appraisals, physiological responses, & behavioural tendencies that
occurs in response to a perceived imbalance between situational demands & the
resources needed to deal with them
• A person-situation interaction
Stressors - NB: learn to differentiate between physical and psychological stressors
Stimuli that place demands on us & require us to adapt in some way
• Physical (e.g., mugging)
• Psychological (e.g., teasing)
, Eustress vs. Distress
• Eustress: Optimal level, beneficial, enhancing
performance
• Distress: Demands outweighing resources
Severity of stressors
• Micro-stressors
− Daily hassles & annoyances
− E.g., traffic jam, difficult colleague
• Major negative events
− Personal negative events placing major demands on the individual
− E.g., divorce, death of a loved one, serious illness
• Catastrophic events
− Tend to occur unexpectedly & affect large numbers of people
− E.g., acts of war, natural disasters
Valence also important
• Both positive & negative stressors can result in stress
All stressors result in adaptation. A positive stressor = a promotion at work; marriage; exercise.
Measuring Stressful Life Events
Life event scales
• Self-report measures
• Quantify the amount of life stress a person has experienced over a given period of time
Valence - the intrinsic attractiveness or aversiveness of an event
• Some life event scales include positive & negative events
• Only negative consistently predict health & behaviour problems
• Some events could be positive or negative – perception matters
The Stress Response
Cognitive, physiological & behavioural components
Addresses factors that influence well-being & illness, as well as measures that can be taken to
promote health & prevent illness.
Biological, psychological, & environmental factors that
contribute to disease processes & health
1. Lifestyle: health-impairing & health-protective behaviour (e.g., diet, exercise, smoking,
drinking, brushing teeth)
2. Health-relevant behaviour (e.g., compliance with medical regimens & seeking medical
care) ; Cultural norms (eg. traditional medicines) ; Social relationships (eg. Being around
smokers. Want to be similar)
3. Factors affecting physiological systems & equilibrium (e.g., stress, conditioning)
4. Other biological response modifiers: Age ; Race (some are more prone to illnesses than
others) ; Gender (males: more behaviour disorders); Genetics (mental illnesses)
What is Stress? - NB: learn to explain the 3 ways stress can be defined
Stress as stimulus
• Stressors: Events that place strong demands on us/threatening situations
• “I’ve got a lot of stress in my life right now. I have three exams next week, I lost my
notes…”
Stress as a response, with cognitive, physiological & behavioural components
• Response to stressors
• “I’m feeling stressed out. I’m tensed up. I’m having trouble concentrating, and I’ve been
flying off the handle all week.”
• Negative emotions involved
Stress as an on-going transaction between the organism & environment
• A pattern of cognitive appraisals, physiological responses, & behavioural tendencies that
occurs in response to a perceived imbalance between situational demands & the
resources needed to deal with them
• A person-situation interaction
Stressors - NB: learn to differentiate between physical and psychological stressors
Stimuli that place demands on us & require us to adapt in some way
• Physical (e.g., mugging)
• Psychological (e.g., teasing)
, Eustress vs. Distress
• Eustress: Optimal level, beneficial, enhancing
performance
• Distress: Demands outweighing resources
Severity of stressors
• Micro-stressors
− Daily hassles & annoyances
− E.g., traffic jam, difficult colleague
• Major negative events
− Personal negative events placing major demands on the individual
− E.g., divorce, death of a loved one, serious illness
• Catastrophic events
− Tend to occur unexpectedly & affect large numbers of people
− E.g., acts of war, natural disasters
Valence also important
• Both positive & negative stressors can result in stress
All stressors result in adaptation. A positive stressor = a promotion at work; marriage; exercise.
Measuring Stressful Life Events
Life event scales
• Self-report measures
• Quantify the amount of life stress a person has experienced over a given period of time
Valence - the intrinsic attractiveness or aversiveness of an event
• Some life event scales include positive & negative events
• Only negative consistently predict health & behaviour problems
• Some events could be positive or negative – perception matters
The Stress Response
Cognitive, physiological & behavioural components
