Deck 10: Health and Well-Being

Question 1

If Dr. Arzun is using the biopsychosocial model as a frame of reference for understanding psychological disorders, then she will be MOST likely to prescribe which of the following as a treatment for anxiety?

A) family therapy
B) family therapy plus drug therapy
C) drug therapy
D) assertiveness training

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Psychologists use the term stress primarily to refer to our responses when:

A) the demands placed upon us exceed our abilities to respond to them
B) we are emotionally aroused but don't know why
C) the demands of a physical task exceed our capabilities
D) we experience high levels of physiological arousal

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Dr. Anh decides to test her drug, Sarzone, against a placebo in two randomly selected patient groups. She finds that in both patient groups, 20 percent of the patients reported fewer symptoms. This finding illustrates that:

A) drugs are often ineffective in treating illness
B) Dr. Anh made some mistakes in her research design
C) patient expectations have little to do with the drug effects
D) patient expectations account for the drug effects

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Compared to the medical model of health, the biopsychosocial model:

A) is more complex
B) ignores human biology
C) is rarely used in practice
D) is more simplistic

Question 5

Anna felt that she could not succeed at her final exam and thinking about the final exam made her feel physically ill. For Anna, the final exam is:

A) a form of eustress
B) a daily hassle
C) an HPA suppressor
D) a stressor

Question 6

The placebo effect is most often based on:

A) whether or not the placebo is prescribed by a doctor
B) patient expectations about the placebo's effectiveness
C) the dosage of the placebo
D) the initial, biochemical effect of the placebo

Question 7

In contrast to the ____________ model, the biopsychosocial model focuses on multiple aspects of health and well-being.

A) single stratum
B) medical
C) componential
D) interactive

Question 8

Sarah feels she is trying to function at her best and be the healthiest person she can possibly be. Sarah is concerned with her own:

A) positive emotionalism
B) well-being
C) health empowerment
D) self-control

Question 9

Psychiatrists often view their patients' problems using a medical model perspective. This means that, in the eyes of the psychiatrist, a patient should:

A) take a leading role in his or her own treatment
B) accept what the psychiatrist wants the patient to do
C) focus on multiple kinds of alternative therapies
D) seek out drug therapy plus talk therapy to increase well-being

Question 10

Juan-Carlos is extremely afraid of being attacked and killed by sharks, even though he very rarely goes swimming in the ocean. This example illustrates the fact that:

A) people often fear the wrong causes of death
B) both common and rare events are highly stressful
C) shark attacks are becoming increasingly common
D) men tend to be afraid of rare events while women are afraid of more common events

Question 11

A researcher tells his participants that a specific biofeedback technique will make them experience more positive emotions, even though the researcher knows this technique is not actually effective. After participants have practiced the biofeedback technique, brain scans of their brain areas associated with positive emotion should show:

A) no effects in these brain areas
B) moderate effects in these brain areas
C) activation in brain areas related to skepticism
D) less activation in those brain areas than before the biofeedback training

Question 12

Which of the following interventions would be most important to implement in terms of its potential for reducing the greatest number of adolescent deaths?

A) methamphetamine awareness
B) accident prevention
C) AIDS awareness
D) anorexia prevention

Question 13

Health psychologists focus on:

A) the absence of disease
B) subjective reports of health more than research findings
C) theories rather than research
D) psychological well-being

Question 14

Dr. Haverford suggests to her patient that the patient's mood problems stem from serotonin dysregulation, but mentions nothing about social or behavioural factors related to mood. Dr. Haverford is using which approach to understanding the patient's problems?

A) the intra-disciplinary model
B) the behaviourist model
C) the single stratum model
D) the medical model

Question 15

Joanie is in a research study in which she is told that a powerful new drug will dramatically increase her memory abilities. She is then administered the drug, which is in fact a placebo. How will Joanie do on a memory test after taking the drug?

A) She will remember about the same amount as she would have without it.
B) She will be able to remember more if she believes the drug is effective.
C) She will show memory interference because her expectation about the drug does not match the actual placebo effects.
D) She will remember more regardless of what she believes about the drug.

Question 16

Based on the principle of regression to the mean, if LeShaun received an award for academic excellence in grade 7, but never received awards before that point, how is he likely to perform in grades 8-12?

A) He will perform about the same as in grade 7.
B) He will perform much worse than in grades 1-7.
C) He will perform about the same as in grades 1-6.
D) His performance will gradually get better and better throughout grades 8-12.

Question 17

The fact that when you are sick you will almost always get better defines:

A) problem-focused coping
B) a facet of positive psychology
C) the medical model of health
D) the principle of regression to the mean

Question 18

When thoughts and behaviours affect the environment, then the environment affects human biology which, in turn, affects behaviour, this describes the:

A) medical model
B) multi-stratum model
C) circularity model
D) biopsychosocial model

Question 19

A stressor is any event or stimulus that:

A) threatens an organism and elicits a coping response
B) cannot be coped with
C) cannot be coped with in the short term
D) by definition has negative consequences for the organism

Question 20

Jim, a chronic migraine sufferer, is prescribed a pill the doctor says will be effective. Jim says, "I will try it, but nothing has worked so far." According to what you know about the placebo effect, the frequency and severity of Jim's headaches probably will ____________ after taking the pills.

A) decrease moderately
B) increase moderately
C) not change
D) be worse than ever

Question 21

John is a very calm and very talented person, but when he interviews for a job he suddenly becomes uncomfortably self-conscious and nervous. This stress response is probably due to the fact that:

A) John is a male, and males feel more stressed by social evaluation
B) John feels his talents will never be good enough to handle the responsibilities of a good job
C) John is using the tend-and-befriend coping response inappropriately
D) John is using problem-focused coping

Question 22

Maya's HPA axis has been activated over many weeks. You can deduce that after chronic HPA activation over this long period of time, Maya will most likely have problems in:

A) smooth muscle movement
B) remembering information
C) understanding spoken language
D) expressing both positive and negative emotions

Question 23

The threat of military combat, adjustment to a new marriage, and thinking about an upcoming exam are all examples of:

A) eustress
B) chronic stress
C) daily hassles
D) stress

Question 24

Why have psychologists emphasized fight-or-flight responses over tend-and-befriend responses?

A) The former have greater adaptive value.
B) The research has largely been done with males.
C) Research supports the former but not the latter.
D) Avoidance responses are more important to survival than are approach responses.

Question 25

Research on the fight-or-flight response has been criticized by Taylor and others for:

A) focusing too exclusively on the responses of males
B) neglecting the possibility that stress can also inhibit or prevent behavioural responding
C) focusing too exclusively on humans while neglecting other animal species
D) placing too much emphasis on the role of hormones in mediating these responses

Question 26

Harold has been unemployed for many years and is constantly struggling to pay his bills. The stress Harold is experiencing is an example of:

A) eustress
B) a-stress
C) chronic stress
D) acute stress

Question 27

Recently, Arianna was at a gas station when it was held up by two armed men. The kind of stress Arianna experienced at the time of the event is called:

A) eustress
B) a daily hassle
C) chronic stress
D) acute stress

Question 28

The difference between eustress and distress involves whether the stress is perceived as:

A) acute or chronic
B) positive or negative
C) occurring now or in the future
D) involving the self or others

Question 29

A concern over female hormonal cycles has historically led to stress research which ____________ aggression because ____________ typically have been used in stress research studies.

A) underemphasizes; females
B) overemphasizes; females
C) underemphasizes; males
D) overemphasizes; males

Question 30

Under stress, females are likely to show a ____________ response whereas males are more likely to show a(n) ____________ response.

A) fight-or-flight; tend-and-befriend
B) coping; non-coping
C) nurturing; aggression
D) flight; fight

Question 31

Events that are particularly stressful for humans are those that are:

A) catastrophic and predictable
B) uncontrollable
C) repetitive
D) a result of our own actions

Question 32

June feels that she has too many projects to do and too many people demanding too much of her. She knows she can't keep up with the demands. What is she experiencing?

A) stress
B) eustress
C) anticipatory coping
D) emotional coping

Question 33

One of the problems with the HPA axis is that:

A) it remains inactive even during extreme stress
B) it destroys neurons in the spinal cord
C) it destroys neurons in the hippocampus
D) it facilitates long-term potentiation

Question 34

Assume that a negative event has occurred in your life. Under which of the following conditions would it likely be most stressful?

A) It occurred just after a positive event.
B) It was just like an event you had experienced a year earlier.
C) It was unexpected.
D) You are female, not male.

Question 35

Miryam's boyfriend of 10 years broke up with her, an event that was extremely distressing to her. Which response will almost certainly occur?

A) anticipatory coping
B) the eustress response
C) the allostatic release response
D) HPA activation

Question 36

Research indicates that a stressor serves to activate:

A) the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system
B) the norepinephrine but not the epinephrine system
C) primarily the right brain hemisphere
D) primarily the left brain hemisphere

Question 37

If a person's HPA axis was inactive, the person would:

A) have an overly active stress response
B) be unable to cope with intense stress
C) experience eustress, but not distress
D) not have a stress response

Question 38

Amy just ran a marathon in 5 hours and 13 minutes. Under which condition would Amy feel most stressed about her running time?

A) She unexpectedly hurt her foot, which slowed her running time.
B) She ran the same marathon in 5 hours and 35 minutes last year.
C) She had breathing problems, which often happens when she runs.
D) She knew beforehand that she would come in after the fastest runner.

Question 39

The HPA axis involves initial activation of the:

A) hypothalamus
B) hippocampus
C) hindbrain
D) heart

Question 40

If no cortisol damage occurred due to HPA activation, people would likely experience no or few impairments in:

A) muscle movement
B) memory
C) social interaction
D) emotion regulation

Question 41

The fact that oxytocin is a more prevalent hormone in women's stress response provides evidence for the:

A) finding that testosterone is a relatively unimportant hormone in stress responses
B) tend-and-befriend hypothesis
C) conclusion that women do not engage in the fight-or-flight response
D) importance of excluding women from stress research studies

Question 42

Stress hormones:

A) interfere with emotional expression if they are released in the bloodstream
B) are often released at random
C) have an optimal level
D) have little effect on the coping response

Question 43

Both your father and mother are under a great deal of job stress. What might you expect from them in terms of their parenting behaviour?

A) Both will devote less attention to your needs.
B) Your mother will be more responsive to your needs than usual while just the reverse will occur for your father.
C) Both will devote more attention to your needs as a way of coping with the job stress.
D) Research has shown that stress is unrelated to parenting behaviour.

Question 44

According to the general adaptation syndrome understanding of the stress response, if stress continues long enough:

A) physiological and immune systems will begin to fail
B) the stimuli initially seen as stressful will cease to affect the organism
C) the immune system will become overactive and threaten the organism
D) the organism will learn new methods of dealing with the stress

Question 45

In which stage of the stress response does the body first start to fight back with increased immune functioning?

A) alarm stage
B) resistance stage
C) stress execution stage
D) suspense stage

Question 46

Experiencing positive events and immune functioning have been shown to:

A) be negatively correlated
B) have a random relationship
C) be positively correlated
D) have positive correlations in women and negative correlations in men

Question 47

If, by magic, the general adaptation syndrome did not occur in human beings in response to a stressor, what would be the most likely outcome?

A) Humans would deal with stress in a more effective way.
B) The fight-or-flight response would be weakened or nonexistent.
C) Mental illness rates due to stress would increase.
D) Men would find it more difficult than women to cope with stress.

Question 48

Selye's general adaptation syndrome describes ____________ responses to stress while the primary and secondary appraisal model describes ____________ responses to stress.

A) emotional; bodily
B) bodily; emotional
C) cognitive; bodily
D) bodily; cognitive

Question 49

Which of the following people is likely to have the greatest amount of lymphocyte activity after exposure to a cold virus?

A) someone with a Type A personality
B) a soldier in active combat
C) someone who has an overly active HPA axis
D) a hardy individual

Question 50

A general conclusion growing out of the research on health and stress is that:

A) short-term stress is more dangerous to your health than is chronic stress
B) until recently, psychologists have overemphasized the effects of stress on health
C) the source of stress is more important to health outcomes than is the level of stress
D) chronic stress has adverse effects on health

Question 51

____________ is NOT a phase of the general adaptation syndrome.

A) Exhaustion
B) Resistance
C) Alarm
D) Nonspecific stress

Question 52

According to Selye, the general adaptation syndrome consists of three stages that occur in the following order:

A) exhaustion, resistance, and alarm
B) resistance, alarm, and exhaustion
C) alarm, exhaustion, and resistance
D) alarm, resistance, and exhaustion

Question 53

Farhan has had to deal with repeated amounts of high stress. His parents both have chronic diseases, he and his wife are arguing constantly, and he just got a new job which demands a lot of his time. According to research on the effects of stress, Farhan will:

A) probably be divorced in the next year
B) show a decreased immune response to infectious diseases
C) develop a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia
D) develop a Type A personality

Question 54

Melinda just got a new job as a receptionist and she does not expect it to be very stressful. However, she is nervous about learning how to perform well in the job when she first starts working. This kind of stress is ____________ and may result in ____________.

A) long-term; worse immune functioning
B) long-term; better immune functioning
C) short-term; worse immune functioning
D) short-term; better immune functioning

Question 55

If plotted on a graph, the correlation between stress and immune functioning would be:

A) strong and positive
B) strong and negative
C) shaped like an inverted U
D) random

Question 56

People who live in Town A recently experienced flooding of their homes and hail damage during a particularly bad storm. People in Town B did not experience this storm. Who will have better immune functioning and why?

A) People in Town B will have better immune functioning because they used better anticipatory coping.
B) People in Town B will have better immune functioning because they did not experience the negative event.
C) People in Town A will have better immune functioning because they are working to overcome a eustress event.
D) People in neither town will experience better immune functioning because immune functioning is largely due to genetics, not environmental events.

Question 57

Participants in a research study have to provide saliva samples to a team of researchers. The researchers then relate the participants' personality traits to immune system functioning. The researchers are involved in the study of:

A) psychoneuroimmunology
B) sociobiology
C) biobehaviourism
D) allopathic load

Question 58

Stress increases the release of cortisol which in turns helps us cope with the stress. If stress continues for prolonged periods of time:

A) cortisol production is exhausted
B) the antagonist to cortisol dominates the physiological system
C) cortisol no longer has its usual effects
D) the increased cortisol begins to have adverse effects on bodily and mental functioning

Question 59

In humans, the presence of a stressor results in:

A) the inhibition of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system
B) the production of cortisol, which helps the body respond to stress
C) reduced production of both norepinephrine and epinephrine
D) deactivation of the sympathetic nervous system

Question 60

Margot is an air force pilot stationed in a war zone. You would expect her immune functioning to be:

A) better than someone who has a less stressful job
B) worse than someone who has a less stressful job
C) about the same as someone who has a less stressful job
D) It is impossible to tell from this example.

Question 61

Experiencing many self-reported negative events has an effect on health. Which of the following is correlated with experiencing more negative life events?

A) decreased HPA activity
B) increased lymphocyte activity
C) increased antibody production
D) decreased antibody production

Question 62

In a well-known study of California men, being hostile and impatient was found to be related to ____________, which shows that ____________.

A) heart disease; genes control the development of disease
B) immune functioning; stress is a function of lifestyle
C) heart disease; psychological factors are important in disease development
D) hormonal dysfunction; gender will have an effect on disease development

Question 63

Feeling hostile and impatient is characteristic of people who may later develop:

A) major depressive disorder
B) heart disease
C) an immune disorder
D) an eating disorder

Question 64

Brenda has used a primary appraisal, but not a secondary appraisal, in her analysis of an event. Because she has not used secondary appraisal, we can guess that the event was:

A) related to Brenda's self-identity
B) followed by a physiological response
C) non-threatening
D) highly emotional

Question 65

The Type B behaviour pattern describes a person who is:

A) competitive and time-pressed
B) easygoing and accommodating
C) cynical and pessimistic
D) at high risk for cardiovascular disease

Question 66

Lazarus divides the cognitive appraisal process into two parts, primary and secondary. Primary appraisals involve:

A) deciding whether an event is stressful or irrelevant to you
B) evaluating your response options
C) selecting a coping behaviour
D) deciding whether a coping behaviour was successful

Question 67

Chelsea has been sick often in the past year, and when she finally starts to recover she gets sick again. She also has a very stressful work and family life. Chelsea's doctor told her that her continued ill health is probably the result of constant activation of her body's stress response. Her doctor's explanation is based on which model?

A) the multi-stratum model of illness
B) the hybrid stress-wellness model of illness
C) the allostatic load theory of illness
D) the characteristic curve model of illness

Question 68

Your roommate is achievement-oriented, impatient, aggressive, and time-urgent. His behaviour fits the:

A) Type A behaviour pattern
B) Type B behaviour pattern
C) GAS pattern
D) glucocorticoid pattern

Question 69

Your roommate is hostile, very competitive, and pessimistic. On the basis of recent research, which of the following health problems is he most likely to experience later?

A) cardiovascular disease
B) immune system failures
C) chronic infections
D) cancer

Question 70

The more negative emotions someone experiences, the greater the chance of developing:

A) antibodies
B) eustress
C) heart disease
D) glandular cancer

Question 71

Emotional coping strategies:

A) work better over the short term than the long term
B) are usually better than problem-focused strategies in a variety of situations
C) work best in the face of a controllable stressor
D) are counterproductive in most situations

Question 72

Seeing someone who is red in the face and "ready to explode" might indicate that the person:

A) has a hardy personality
B) has a Type A personality
C) has a Type B personality
D) is using emotion-focused coping

Question 73

Smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and ____________ strongly predict heart disease.

A) an insufficient allostatic load
B) an underactivated HPA axis
C) Type A behaviour
D) Type B behaviour

Question 74

After reading your psychology textbook, your roommate decides he uses primarily emotion-focused coping strategies when dealing with problems in his daily life. This implies that he:

A) decides on which strategy to use by weighing the emotional costs and benefits associated with a particular strategy
B) tries to avoid or minimize his problems, for example by reading a book or listening to music
C) first tries to assess how he feels emotionally, and second, develops a rational plan of action
D) takes immediate steps to solve the problem

Question 75

Recent research on predictors of heart disease suggests that people who are ____________ are particularly vulnerable to cardiac problems.

A) angry or depressed
B) time-urgent and shy
C) low in self-esteem
D) low in cortisol production

Question 76

After experiencing a stressful event, happy people will return to homeostasis:

A) later than unhappy people
B) sooner than unhappy people
C) at about the same time as unhappy people
D) at times which are unpredictable based on emotional state

Question 77

Jane owns a consulting firm and has three employees. Which person should Jane recommend for a job which demands good people skills?

A) The Type A person because she will be highly extroverted.
B) The Type B person because she will be accommodating and relaxed.
C) The Type C person because she will be highly motivated to help others.
D) The "Mixed Personality Type" person because she will be the most flexible.

Question 78

The idea that personality type is related to physical conditions, like heart disease, was initially treated with skepticism. Why?

A) People believed that emotions, not personality, affected health.
B) The research evidence was experimental instead of anecdotal.
C) People believed that the mind and body were separate entities.
D) The researchers were found to be frauds, so their research was treated skeptically.

Question 79

Being hostile or depressed has been found to:

A) cause immune disorders
B) predict worsening heart disease
C) stop the general adaptation syndrome from occurring
D) increase lymphocyte production

Question 80

Two ways that hostility can affect the body are through stress on the heart and:

A) increased pulmonary function
B) reduced pulmonary function
C) decreased inflammation
D) increased lymphocyte activity