Exam 14: Exploring the Concept of Stress: Factors, Correlations, and Implications for Health

Pennebaker's research on the effects of "opening up" or confiding in others shows that those people who________ show the most improvements to their health.

Several months after he randomly assigned nursing home residents to either have control or a lack of control over visitation schedules,Richard Schulz (Schulz & Hanusa,1978)was dismayed to find that those residents who had originally controlled the duration and frequency of visits from college students later experienced poorer health and higher mortality rates.These findings seem directly at odds with research by Judith Rodin and Ellen Langer (1977),until one considers that

Jenn uses a cognitive dissonance technique to encourage students in her Social Psychology class to use condoms when they have sex.She does so by asking her students to produce a video on the dangers of unprotected sex to be shown to local high school students.What else can she do to increase condom use among her students?

Based on longitudinal research conducted by James House and his colleagues (1982),which of the following people would be most likely to die over the next twelve years?

Bonita wants to get in good physical shape.She believes that she can eliminate fats from her diet,jog three times a week,avoid temptations when shopping for groceries,and distract herself when she gets a craving for cheese cake.In this case,Bonita is likely to _______ because she is _______.

In what way might perceived control be a detriment to dealing with an illness?

What does the Social Readjustment Rating Scale (Holmes & Rahe,1967)measure?

According to research by Shelley Taylor and her colleagues (1984),_____ is likely to reduce stress related to a negative life event such as cancer and can actually prolong life.

Researchers often employ correlational designs to assess the relation between stress and physical health .One problem with this approach is that researchers using this method

Based on Ellen Langer and Judith Rodin's (1976)study of perceived control in elderly nursing home residents,which of the following residents is most likely to feel happier,be more active,and live longer?

According to the authors of your text,one reason why self-efficacy increases the likelihood that people will engage in healthier behaviours is that self-efficacy

Research summarized in your textbook (Sastry & Ross,1998)finds that members of ________ cultures show less of a relationship between perceived control and psychological distress because of the________.

Richard Schulz (1976)randomly assigned nursing home residents to one of two conditions designed to manipulate perceived control over visitation schedules.He found that two months later,residents who

Many public service announcements (e.g.stop smoking,practice safe sex,use seatbelts,apply sunscreen,etc.)appeal to people's ________ in order to get them to change their behaviours.

According to a number of polls,in which of the following ways have unhealthy health habits among Canadians failed to improve? They are _______ than in the past.

Both Ellen Langer and Judith Rodin (1976)and Richard Schultz (1976)conducted field experiments in which nursing home residents were provided more control over their situations.Unlike Langer and Rodin,however,Schultz and Hanusa (1978)later found that those elderly participants who had earlier been allowed to schedule visits with college students actually had more health problems and higher mortality rates than those participants who had never had control over the visits.Explain these apparently contradictory findings.

Alex Rothman (1993)and his colleagues (Rothman & Salovey,1997)studied how message framing influences people's health-related behaviours.If you wanted to use results of their experiment to encourage people to use sun screen to prevent skin cancer,which of the following messages would you use?

The authors of your text provide a "word of caution." It can be dangerous to overestimate the relation between perceived control and physical health,because

From a social-psychological perspective,one problem with studies of the relation between the number of negative life events and reports of physical illness is that

At Duke University,Tim Wilson and Patricia Linville (1982,1985)recruited first-year students who were concerned about their academic performance.Students in the experimental group received statistics on grade improvement over the course of college and saw videotapes of upper-year students who talked about the improvements in their grades after the first year.Compared to students who saw no statistics and no videotapes,experimental students improved their grades and were less likely to drop out.These impressive results suggest that