Exam Prep Chapter 1 Introduction To Health Psychology

Chapter 1

Introduction to Health Psychology

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Health psychology can be considered a discipline-specific descriptor within the field of ________.
   1. psychiatry
   2. behavioural medicine
   3. psychology
   4. occupational health

Page: 3

1. Clinical health psychology is ________.
   1. a discipline that helps people diagnosed with a disease manage their symptoms
   2. a discipline that helps people diagnosed with a disease recover full health
   3. a discipline that works to effect change and to promote access within health-care systems
   4. a set of practices aimed at preventing disease

Page: 3

1. Occupational health psychology is ________.
   1. a discipline that helps people become highly productive in their workplace
   2. a discipline that focuses on reducing stress and preventing injuries at work
   3. a set of practices aimed at preventing disease transmission in the workplace
   4. a discipline that works to effect change and to promote access within health-care systems

Page: 3

1. Community health psychology is ________.
   1. a field that focuses on reducing stress and preventing injuries at work
   2. a field that focuses on curing illness among of a specific group of people
   3. a discipline that works to effect change and to promote access within health-care systems
   4. a set of practices aimed at preventing disease

Page: 3

1. The ideas advanced by René Descartes set the stage for the development of health psychology, because ________.
   1. he believed that the body and the soul operate by distinct and independent rules
   2. he proposed that the body influences the mind, but not the opposite
   3. he believed that our minds work like machines
   4. he proposed that the mind influences the body, but not the opposite

Page: 4

1. Psychological interventions for patients with chronic illnesses can result in ________.
   1. substantial medical cost increases
   2. minimal medical cost increases
   3. minimal medical cost savings
   4. substantial medical cost savings

Page: 4

1. A Canadian study involving cancer patients showed that patients who were in structured group therapy intervention ________.
   1. fared worse than patients who received standard psychosocial care
   2. fared better than patients who received standard psychosocial care
   3. fared as well as patients who received standard psychosocial care
   4. fared as poorly as patients who received standard psychosocial care

Page: 4

1. The ancient medical thinkers Hippocrates and Galen believed that ________.
   1. mind and body were independent systems without reciprocal influences
   2. the body dominated the mind
   3. mind and body were part of the same integrated system
   4. the mind dominated the body

Page: 4

1. ________ coined the term “psychosomatic.”
   1. Johann Christian August Heinroth
   2. Ivan Pavlov
   3. René Descartes
   4. Sigmund Freud

Page: 5

1. Over time, psychodynamic theory and psychoanalysis gradually became less popular in North America due to ________.
   1. lack of interest
   2. criticisms about insufficient scientific rigour
   3. insufficient funding
   4. criticisms about animal testing

Page: 5

1. Psychosomatic medicine initially focused on ________.
   1. the importance of biofeedback in the treatment and prevention of physical disease
   2. illness behaviour that could be attributed to psychological causes
   3. psychological illnesses that could be attributed to physical ailments
   4. the independence of psychological factors and disease

Page: 5

1. ________, considered to be the father of modern psychiatry, argued that “actions of the mind could cause many illnesses.”
   1. Johann Christian August Heinroth
   2. Franz Alexander
   3. Sigmund Freud
   4. Benjamin Rush

Pages: 5

1. Different health psychology programs do not ________.
   1. require the same competencies from all of their graduates
   2. have different research emphases
   3. emphasize different sets of competencies in their curriculum
   4. have faculty members with strong interests and expertise in health psychology

Page: 8

1. Entry-level health psychologists are not expected to be able to ________.
   1. develop health psychology research protocols
   2. write a research proposal for a granting agency
   3. evaluate biopsychosocial and cognitive assessment tools for evaluating physical illness
   4. disregard the bounds/limits of their research competence

Page: 9

1. Health psychologists may work ________.
   1. as university teachers
   2. as researchers
   3. as consultants
   4. all the above

Page: 10

1. The biopsychosocial model of disease posits that ________.
   1. illness is entirely physical
   2. psychological, social, and behavioural factors are linked in the causation and maintenance of disease
   3. questions about illness are answerable objectively and deterministically
   4. the physical and the psychosocial are separate

Page: 11

1. Some studies show that inadequate social support in post-surgical patients, when compared to fully supported patients, is associated with ________.
   1. an unchanged amount of pain
   2. increased experience of pain
   3. higher functional outcomes
   4. decreased experience of pain

Page: 11

1. A psychological factor that may contribute to obesity is ________.
   1. depression and low-self esteem
   2. slower metabolic rate
   3. absence of social support
   4. inability to afford healthy foods

Page: 13

1. According to some critical evaluations, the health belief model does not account for all the factors that guide health-relevant behaviours and/or their treatment. For example, ________ are not accounted for by this model.
   1. demographic factors
   2. beliefs regarding susceptibility to disease
   3. beliefs regarding disease severity
   4. economic factors

Page: 14

1. According to empirical data collected to test the social cognitive theory, ________ influence health-promoting behaviours during recovery from coronary artery surgery.
   1. self-efficacy beliefs
   2. various types of social support
   3. normative beliefs
   4. control beliefs

Page: 14

1. According to the theory of planned behaviour, “behavioural beliefs” are ________.
   1. beliefs about others’ expectations
   2. beliefs about factors that facilitate or prevent performance of behaviour
   3. beliefs about the consequences of inaction
   4. beliefs about the likely consequences of behaviour

Page: 15

1. According to the theory of planned behaviour, “control beliefs” refer to ________.
   1. beliefs about others’ expectations
   2. beliefs about factors that facilitate or prevent performance of behaviour
   3. beliefs about the consequences of inaction
   4. beliefs about the likely consequences of behaviour

Page: 15

1. The theory of planned behaviour does not account for ________.
   1. emotional factors
   2. behavioural beliefs
   3. normative beliefs
   4. control beliefs

Pages: 15-16

1. ________ argues that different people with the same health condition may show different emotional responses to their health depending on their and behaviours.
   1. The health belief model
   2. The theory of planned behaviour
   3. The common-sense model of self-regulation
   4. The cognitive behavioural perspective

Page: 17

1. ________ is not a stage in the transtheoretical model of behaviour change.
   1. Contemplation
   2. Preparation
   3. Action
   4. Protection

Page: 17

Short Answer Questions

1. Provide a specific experimental example that illustrates why a contemporary technique such as brain imaging can expand our knowledge in health psychology.

Page: 18

1. Describe and discuss one of the main challenges facing the practical implementation of health psychology in the developing world.

Page: 18

1. Briefly illustrate how an illness such as pneumonia can be described using both the medical model of disease and biopsychosocial theory.

Pages: 11-12

1. Suggest one therapeutic measure for each factor contributing to bacterial pneumonia.

Pages: 11-12

1. Briefly discuss how the interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors may explain the current epidemic of obesity among youth.

Pages: 11-12

1. Suggest one therapeutic measure for the biological, psychological, and social factors that may explain the current epidemic of obesity among youth.

Pages: 11-12

1. Chapter 7 will present studies illustrating how multiple factors, as predicted by the biopsychosocial theory, explain chronic pain. Using your current knowledge, briefly suggest three hypothetical factors—biological, psychological, and social—responsible for pain and discuss how they could interact.

Pages: 11-12

1. Briefly describe the theory of planned behaviour.

Pages: 15-16

1. Provide an example of how beliefs can affect compliance to well-established preventive practices such as vaccinations.

Page: 14

1. Provide an example of how economic factors are poorly accounted for by the health belief model.

Pages: 13-14

Essay Answer Questions

1. Compare and contrast the three different subspecialties of health psychology.

(1) Clinical health psychology. This subspecialty deals with patients suffering from mainly physical (but potentially also mental) illnesses. Its primary goal is to help them manage their symptoms, a broad concept that includes: seeking ways to reduce the psychological impact of symptoms on the patients and their families; reducing stress and its multiple consequences; in some cases (e.g., pain), seeking ways to reduce the intensity of symptoms; and, collaborating with health psychologists within the other two subspecialties, as well as nurses, social workers, epidemiologists, and physicians, to prevent and/or mitigate the occurrence of medical conditions affecting any aspect of health.

(2) Occupational health psychology. This subspecialty is focused on working people, their workplaces, and the social relationships centered on their work. This subspecialty aims at reducing stress, particularly chronic and repeated stress, including mitigating sources of stress and all its consequences, b :reducing work-related accidents and the chronic medical consequences of stress, and collaborating with social workers, human resource officers, nurses, and physicians, to maintain workers’ health by assisting with education, information, and training efforts.

(3) Community health psychology. This subspecialty is focused on the health needs of entire communities, with the specific aim of improving the efficiency of health-care systems by promoting access and cultural competence in order to effectively reach all segments of society.

Page: 3

1. Within the biopsychosocial model, compare and contrast the relative influence of different factors on recovery from two medical conditions: (1) bacterial pneumonia (an infection of the lungs that is treated with antibiotics); and (2) cardiac disease (which is clearly multifactorial and is treated with surgical and/or pharmacological approaches).

(1) Students are expected to expand along the outlines of short answer questions 3 and 4 regarding bacterial pneumonia. Here, the key element that should emerge is that no matter how important psychological and social factors are, timely delivery of antibiotics will eliminate this illness, allowing full recovery—but only in the industrialized world. In less-industrialized societies, issues of organization and funding, combined with broad factors such as social unrest, warfare, poverty, and cultural opposition, may severely limit access to a decisive measure like antibiotics.

(2) Ischemic cardiac conditions form the background material of a multitude of health psychology studies and are dealt with repeatedly in this textbook. Here, the key point is that, in contrast to pneumonia, no single “magic bullet” is available to eradicate ischemic heart disease. Cardiac disease has emerged as a major problem, in part because the success in fighting infectious diseases has extended life expectations dramatically—at least, in more developed countries. Moreover, the lack of a single “magic bullet” highlights the relevance of social and psychological factors in reducing mortality and morbidity due to ischemic heart disease.

Pages: 11-12

1. Discuss how the dualistic theory of René Descartes has shaped modern medicine and how his ideas have influenced the ways in which disease is interpreted today.

Page: 4

1. Chapter 1 presents obesity and drug addiction as classic medical conditions influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors. Based on your knowledge and/or experience, discuss a third example, with an emphasis on the contributing weight of each factor. Complete your essay with suggestions as to why it is exceedingly difficult to change certain behaviours.

Pages: 1-17

1. Discuss one theory, among those presented in Chapter 1, that best accounts for a lack of compliance in adopting certain health habits, such as taking advantage of freely available flu vaccines.

Page: 14