Deck 16: Application Module B: Applying Social Psychology to Health

Question 1

According to Lazarus, during ____ appraisal, we ascertain whether an event is positive, negative, or neutral, and if negative, whether it is harmful, threatening, or challenging.

A)fundamental
B)primary ​
C)identification
D)secondary

Answer 1

primary ​

Question 2

The definition of health includes ____.

A)physical health only
B)mental and physical health
C)mental health only
D)mental, physical, and social health

Answer 2

mental, physical, and social health

Question 3

The tend-and-befriend response is a more ____ stress response for females than the basic fight-or-flight response. ​

A)dangerous
B)threatening ​
C)rational ​
D)illogical ​

Answer 3

rational ​

Question 4

Health is most accurately viewed as a(n)_____. ​

A)dichotomy
B)binary state ​
C)continuum ​
D)trait ​

Question 5

_____ applied the concept of homeostasis to the study of human interactions with the environment. ​

A)Richard Lazarus
B)Walter Cannon ​
C)Sigmund Freud ​
D)Carl Rogers ​

Question 6

According to general adaptation syndrome, long-term stressors ____.

A)can cause physiological (but not psychological)damage
B)can cause psychological (but not physiological)damage
C)can cause both physiological and psychological damage
D)have temporary negative effects but cannot cause either physiological damage or psychological damage

Question 7

The three broad natural segments of health psychology are _____.

A)physical, psychological, and social health
B)stress and coping, health behaviors, and issues in health care
C)innate traits, current state, and modifiable behavior
D)infectious disease, chronic disease, and psychological disease

Question 8

If everyone in North America stopped smoking today, the death rates due to cancer would drop by close to ____. ​

A)10%
B)20% ​
C)30% ​
D)40% ​

Question 9

General adaptation syndrome is a model for understanding ____.

A)how people react to immediate dangers or threats
B)how people respond to stressors
C)how people respond to lifestyle changes
D)how people cope with long-term illnesses or diseases

Question 10

The tend-and-befriend response is ____.

A)a pattern of responding to general stress used by females
B)a style of responding to aggressive threats that is often taught in anger-management therapies
C)a style of responding to aggressive threats that is characteristic of some (non-human)animals when confronted by dominant opponents
D)a general orientation toward others that many people take on when encountering new, ambiguous situations

Question 11

When we believe an event will be extremely demanding and will put us at risk for damage, we make a(n)____ appraisal.

A)caution
B)alert
C)danger
D)threat

Question 12

The Student Stress Scale assesses a person's stress level by ____.

A)gauging basic lifestyle habits (e.g., hours of sleep received per night)
B)taking a reading of various physical phenomena that are known to be stress-related (e.g., headaches, teeth grinding)
C)asking questions about a person's mood and emotions
D)taking an inventory of recent life changes a person has experienced

Question 13

How does stress relate to homeostasis?

A)Stress is the upsetting of homeostasis.
B)Stress is another name for homeostasis.
C)Stress leads to homeostasis.
D)Stress is caused by homeostasis.

Question 14

Health psychology is an interdisciplinary subspecialty of psychology best described as dedicated to ____. ​

A)promoting health
B)promoting and maintaining health ​
C)preventing illness ​
D)promoting and maintaining health, and preventing and treating illness ​

Question 15

Suppose that you are nearly mugged while walking down a crowded city street. Your body quickly reacts to the situation. Your heart rate speeds up, your breathing becomes more intense, and you feel pumped up to either attack the mugger or flee the scene. It would be MOST accurate to say that your ____ was activated in this situation.

A)peripheral nervous system
B)sympathetic nervous system
C)autonomic nervous system
D)parasympathetic nervous system

Question 16

The cognitive appraisal model of stress developed by Lazarus suggests that when people encounter potentially stressful events, they make both primary appraisals and secondary appraisals. Primary appraisals concern ____.

A)whether an event is positive or negative
B)whether an event is relevant to oneself
C)whether one has the resources to effectively cope with an event
D)whether an event is temporary or long-term

Question 17

Many early definitions of stress tended to focus on ____ factors.

A)biological
B)psychological
C)behavioral
D)interpersonal

Question 18

Rachel has recently lost her pet dog. Assuming that she is in the primary appraisal stage of the cognitive appraisal model, which appraisal would she most likely attribute this event to?

A)Threat
B)Harm
C)Challenge
D)Anxiety

Question 19

Which of the following statements best summarizes the cognitive appraisal model of stress developed by Lazarus?

A)Our experience of stress depends on past learning.
B)Our experience of stress depends on how we interpret events.
C)Our experience of stress depends on cultural norms.
D)Our experience of stress depends on individual personality variables.

Question 20

Most researchers contend that the best way to know when people are stressed is to ____.

A)see how their bodies respond to a given situation
B)take an inventory of recent life changes that they have experienced
C)simply ask them
D)measure their blood pressure

Question 21

People not only find confirmation for what they expect to see but also tend to overestimate how often they are right. This is referred to as ____.

A)intervention
B)the illusory correlation
C)the self-fulfilling prophecy
D)misattribution

Question 22

Which of the following is most directly concerned with the stages that people go through-and the themes present at each stage-when they are trying to change a specific behavior? ​

A)The theory of planned behavior
B)The general adaptation syndrome ​
C)The cognitive appraisal model ​
D)The transtheoretical model ​

Question 23

Are there any differences in health between people who have solid social support and people who do not?

A)No-psychologists suspect that there are differences, but research has not consistently found any evidence that social support makes a real difference.
B)Yes-although social support does not appear to improve people's physical health, it does improve their mood and general psychological well-being.
C)Yes-social support appears to improve physical and psychological well-being though it does not improve objective measures of health (e.g., recovery time from illness).
D)Yes-social support has been tied to better health, more rapid recovery from illness, and a lower risk for mortality.

Question 24

In health psychology, a(n)____ can be defined as any program or message providing information or structure to change a behavior. ​

A)intervention
B)treatment ​
C)therapy ​
D)manipulation ​

Question 25

Research has shown that the more instances of smoking that adolescents view in movies, the more likely they are to smoke. This is believed to be a result of ____.

A)social pressures to smoke cigarettes
B)a spurious relationship since the actual relationship involves being able to afford cigarettes
C)a spurious relationship, since students who perform poorly are both more likely to smoke and watch movies
D)identification with movie characters

Question 26

The ____ model is a value-expectancy theory in which the values and expectations have been reformulated from abstract concepts.

A)planned behavior
B)health belief
C)cognitive appraisal
D)transtheoretical

Question 27

In the transtheoretical model, the stage in which people are ready to take action to change their behavior is termed ____.

A)precontemplation
B)contemplation
C)maintenance
D)preparation

Question 28

Edward has a difficult coworker who is constantly in conflict with him over how to use the limited resources in office. Edward offers to take the coworker out to lunch, and over lunch, they discuss how they can manage their respective needs for the office resources with less conflict. In this scenario, Edward has used ____ coping.

A)avoidant
B)emotion-focused
C)problem-focused
D)precontemplative

Question 29

A(n)____ is defined as a person's subjective probability that he or she will perform the behavior in question. ​

A)plan
B)intention ​
C)appraisal ​
D)hypothesis ​

Question 30

Who among the following is most likely to be a hypochondriac?

A)Andrea, who attributes her headache to not getting enough sleep
B)Tina, who refuses to go to the doctor to treat her flu
C)Mike, who constantly thinks that he is seriously ill despite doctors telling him he is fine
D)George, who believes he is perfectly fine and ignores symptoms of a major illness

Question 31

In one study, researchers recruited single, sexually active student volunteers to take part in a campaign (actually the experimental manipulation)supposedly designed to get other students who were just becoming sexually active to practice safe sex. The volunteers were asked to develop a persuasive speech about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)and safer sex that was then videotaped. Researchers found that the students who made the taped speeches were more likely to use condoms, a finding that is consistent with ____.

A)social learning theory
B)the stages of change model
C)the health belief model
D)cognitive  dissonance theory

Question 32

It is estimated that ____ of all deaths in the United States could have been postponed or avoided had people changed unhealthy behaviors. ​

A)5%
B)20% ​
C)50% ​
D)90% ​

Question 33

Amira notices a lump in her breast but convinces herself that it was always there. As she continues to examine her breasts monthly, the lump remains and seems larger, but each time Amira finds a way to explain it away-the lump is just a result of the uncomfortable bra she was wearing, the lump is connected to her menstrual cycle, and so forth. In fact, she never has the lump investigated because she interprets the lump in terms of her belief that she is "healthy." Which social psychological error has Amira succumbed to in her thinking?

A)Confirmation bias
B)Attribution
C)Self-fulfilling prophecy
D)Chronic negative affect

Question 34

People who experience ____ show a disease-prone personality. ​

A)low levels of anxiety
B)long-term negative feelings ​
C)high self-esteem ​
D)chronic positive affect ​

Question 35

The theory of planned behavior assumes that ____.

A)people decide to behave a certain way on the basis of intentions that depend on their attitude toward the behavior and their perceptions of the social norms regarding the behavior
B)we progress through different stages as we think about, attempt to, and finally change any specific behavior
C)our beliefs about the effectiveness, ease, and consequences of doing (or not doing)a certain behavior determine whether we do (or do not do)that behavior
D)we behave in ways that best reflect our past circumstances

Question 36

The health belief model proposes that ____.

A)we form our health beliefs on the basis of observational information and our sense of self-efficacy
B)our beliefs about the effectiveness, ease, and consequences of doing (or not doing)a certain behavior determine whether we do (or do not do)that behavior
C)our beliefs about what others are doing vis-à-vis their health (whether accurate or not)guide our health-related behavior
D)we form our health beliefs by relying too much on what feels good either psychologically or physically

Question 37

Research on the effects of movie watching on teen smoking behavior (i.e., watching popular movies containing instances of smoking)found that ____.

A)there were only very weak effects
B)there were moderately strong effects-but these effects disappeared when one accounted for individual differences on personality variables
C)there were moderately strong effects-but these effects disappeared when one accounted for parental smoking and peer group smoking
D)there were progressively stronger effects as the exposure to instances of smoking in movies increased