5.1 Introduction to Health Psychology

Explain how health psychology addresses issues of physical health and wellness as they apply to behavior and mental processes.

Explain how stress applies to behavior and mental processes.

• Stress is a factor in heightened susceptibility to disorders and disease. Stress has been linked to physiological issues such as hypertension, headaches, and immune suppression.
• Stressors can be viewed as motivating (eustress) or debilitating (distress). Stressors can be experienced as traumatic or as daily hassles that can build up over time. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are sources of stress that can affect a person throughout the lifespan.

Explain how reactions to stress apply to behavior and mental processes.

• The general adaptation syndrome (GAS) describes the process of experiencing stress. Initially, alarm reaction occurs when the stress is encountered (via a fight-flightfreeze response). Then, a resistance phase occurs as the stress is confronted. Finally, an exhaustion phase occurs when the stress subsides, or resources are spent. The greatest susceptibility to illness occurs during the exhaustion phase.
• The tend-and-befriend theory proposes that some people react to stress by tending to their own needs and/or the needs of others and seeking connection with others. This phenomenon seems to occur mostly in women.

Explain how the ways that people cope with stress applies to behavior and mental processes.

• Problem-focused coping involves seeing stress as a problem to be solved and working solutions until a solution is found.
• Emotion-focused coping involves managing emotional reactions to stress as a means of coping. Strategies that are emotion-focused may include deep breathing, meditation, or taking medication aimed at reducing stressful emotional responses.