PSY 325 Health Psychology
Health and Stress – Chapter 12 + slides + reading “Iranian Refugees in Sweden”: What is stress and kinds of stresses (stressor; micro-stressor; physiological reactivity)? Three perspectives on stress (stimulus-based; response-based; interaction btw person and environment – appraisal, coping). What is Cannon´s fight-or-flight model? What is Salye´s General Adaptation Syndrome (alarm, resistance, exhaustion; psychosomatic disorders; criticism)? Social Readjustment Rating Scale – describe; criticisms (e.g. subjective meaning of the events, individual rating of various aspects of the event; retrospective assessment – under or over-reporting). What is immune system (kinds of IS; its function); How do we measure the immune system? Problems with research and measuring of immune system effects? What is appraisal in relation to stress? Richard Lazarus´model: (primary & secondary a.; problems w research). Types of coping (children and adults); best way of coping; factors that influence coping. Factors that moderate the relationship btw stress & illness (social support; personality factors like self-efficacy or hardiness; coping styles); problems with studying the relationship btw stress and illness. (textbook Third Edition; pp. 283-289)
Obesity – Chapter 7 + slides: Factors that influence eating preferences and habits (e.g., classical and operant conditioning). What is Neophobia? How does the media influence our eating preferences and habits? Explain (know at least one study on this influence)! What is obesity and Body Mass Index. Causes of obesity (e.g., obesogenic environment)? Health consequences of obesity. Interventions for obesity (textbook Third Edition, pp. 161-165)
Eating Disorders – slides + the CASE “I used to love bread”: Types of eating d/o´s. What is anorexia nervosa; bulimia nervosa? Risk factors? Explanations of eating d. (e.g., cultural explanation, relational explanation). Medical consequences and complications from anorexia and bulimia. What is alexithymia? Basic info re: Treatment (examples from the written case and the doc “Thin”).
Disability – slides + the reading “Son” (to answer the questions): Why do we stigmatize and devaluate people who are ill or disabled? Which are possible risk and protective factors (resources) for families w disabled children? What are the reasons FOR and AGAINST abortion of impaired fetuses? Why some claim that abortion on the basis of potential impairment is discriminatory (eugenic)? What are the challenges of the right-to-die or “assisted suicide” initiatives (consent; QoL)?
Grief and Bereavement – slides + reading “The wrong one died”: Which are the detrimental health effects of (complicated) grief? Which are the 5 stages of grieving as described by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (describe them briefly)? What are hypnagogic hallucinations in grief? When do most people recover after deep grief? Risk factors for complicated grief? Know all the aspects of grief that appeared in the reading “The wrong one died”, including the mother, the brothers, the family… What were their reactions and symptoms of grieving?
Treatment – slides + reading “Therapeutic Writing”: What happens to the body during meditation/relaxation (physiological parameters)? Types of meditation: concentrative and receptive (mindfulness) – what´s the difference btw the two? What are the two major components in mindfulness? In what kinds of trauma is terapeutic writing more helpful? Which positive outcomes have been found by utilizing expressive writing? Which variations in the procedure effect the expressive writing? Do individual or gender difrences influence the effects of the procedure? Why does expressive writing work?