Chapter 11: Health & Well-Being

PSYC 201
We will focus on these
topics

Health
Psychology
A biopsychosocial
model of health
 Subjective Well-Being
• Subjective well-being is individuals’ overall evaluation of life satisfaction
and happiness.
• Positive psychology is a movement within psychology that applies
research to provide people with the knowledge and skills that allow
them to experience fulfilling lives.
• Three Lines of Inquiry in positive psychology:
1. Positive subjective experiences: Positive moods, positive emotions, flow,
mindfulness
2. Positive individual traits: Hope, resilience, grit, gratitude
3. Positive institutions: Positive workplaces, positive schools
We will focus on this
Growing UP
 What help
us grow up?
Obstacles are
steps that help
us reach the
top
 Stress and Positive Psychological Change
• Survivors of serious illnesses, accidents, natural disasters, and
other traumatic events will report positive psychological
growth (namely post-traumatic growth) if they:
- have successfully coped with the trauma (e.g., with adequate
social support)
- frequently reflect on the traumatizing event and relate it to
some positive outcomes.
 Six Domains of Post-Traumatic Growth
Domain Thought
New possibilities “I have new things that I like to do.”
Relating to others “I feel closer to other people than I did
before.”
Personal strength “I learned I can count on myself.”
Appreciation of life “I learned that life is important.”
Spiritual change “I understand religious ideas (or the
meanings of life) more.”
Life priority change “I know what really matters in life.”
 Post-traumatic
growth:
Discover your
unknown self
Your
secrets
 Stress of Living
Defining stress:
• A lack of fit between perceived demands and perceived ability
to cope with the demands.
• Stress is felt when:
Perceived resources < perceived demands
 Stress is Subjective
Stress:
• May depend on how we appraise events.
• Primary appraisal: initial evaluation of the relevance, level of
threat, and degree of stress the event brings.
• Secondary appraisal: an evaluation of our ability to cope.
Primary and Secondary Appraisal of Stress
 Types of Stress
• Acute stressors: threatening events that have a relatively short duration
and a clear endpoint (e.g., job interview).
• Chronic stressors: threatening events that have a relatively long duration
and no readily apparent time limit (e.g., relationship conflicts, financial
problems, heavy workload, fighting chronic diseases).
– Ambient stress
– Daily hassles
– Readjustment to life changes (or major life stressors)
– Burnout
 Stress May be Embedded in the Environment
• Ambient stress: chronic negative conditions embedded in the
environment
• Variety of types of environmental stress:
– Excessive noise, traffic, pollution
– Crowding
– Poverty
• Certain types (e.g., poverty) are associated with elevated stress
hormones
In rich countries:
People struggle to
get these.

In poor countries:
People struggle to
get these.
Examples of
Chronic
Stressors
 Readjustment to life changes
• Life changes: any noticeable alterations in one’s living
circumstances that require readjustment
– Both positive and negative life changes can be stressful.
– Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) measures stress caused by
major life stressors (see the next slides).
 Responding to Stress
• Human response to stress is complex and multidimensional
• Stress responses occur at three levels:
– Emotional responses
– Physiological responses
– Behavioral responses
 Intensity of Stress

Life change Traumatic stress

Chronic stress
E.g., divorce E.g.,
E.g., 1. Robbery
Daily hassles 2. Physical assault
Acute stress
E.g., 3. Sexual assault
job interview 4. Loss of a loved one through
accident/homicide/suicide
5. Personal injury
6. Serving in combat
7. Property loss due to a disaster
8. Forced evacuation due to
imminent danger or
environmental hazard
9. Injury caused by motor accident
10. Others
Why are some people
better than others in
stress management?
Because they
have these!
 Social Support and Hardiness
• Some people withstand stress better than others.
• Many moderating variables may reduce the impact of stress on physical
and mental health:
– Social support: aid provided by members of one’s social networks.
– Hardiness: a disposition marked by commitment, challenge, and control
that is purportedly associated with strong stress resistance.
 Optimism
• Optimism: a general tendency to expect good outcomes
– Optimists engage in action-oriented, problem-focused, carefully
planned coping; are more willing to seek social support
– Pessimists deal with stress by avoiding it, giving up, or using denial
– Optimism is associated with better mental and physical health around
the world.
Weiten | Dunn | Hammer, Psychology Applied to Modern Life: Adjustment in the 21st Century, 13 th Edition. © 2024 Cengage. All
Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 32
 Coping
• Coping refers to active efforts to master, reduce, or tolerate the demands
created by stress.
– Coping responses may be:
• Healthy (e.g., actively trying to solve a problem by asking for help or generating
solutions)
• Unhealthy (e.g., ignoring problem, indulging in alcohol or drugs, excessive
eating)
• Coping strategies help determine whether stress has any positive or
negative effects on a person.
 Coping
• Negative/destructive coping:
– Giving up prematurely
– Acting aggressively
– Indulging oneself/blaming oneself
– Procrastination
• Positive/constructive coping:
– Problem-focused (when the situation is controllable)
– Emotion-focused (when the situation is uncontrollable)
 Giving Up
Learned helplessness: passive behavior produced by exposure to
unavoidable aversive events
– Cognitive interpretation of aversive events determines whether
learned helplessness develops
– Sometimes transferred to situations in which the person is not really
helpless
– Creates a passive reaction to stressful events, rather than active
problem-solving
– Giving up could be adaptive in some instances, such as when goals
are truly unattainable
 Acting Aggressively
• Aggression: behavior intended to hurt someone, either physically or
verbally
• Frustration aggression hypothesis: aggression is always due to
frustration
– People often act out toward others who had nothing to do with their
frustration.
• Freud: aggressive acts release emotional tension in a process called
catharsis
– Research finds that acting aggressively produces more, not less, anger
and aggression
 Indulging Oneself or Blaming Oneself
• Stress sometimes leads to poor impulse control, or self-indulgence
– Examples: excessive eating, drinking, shopping, gambling, drug use or internet addiction
– When things are going poorly in one area, people tend to seek gratification elsewhere.

• Self-blame: a tendency to engage in negative self-talk in response to

stress
– Ellis: self-blame is associated with catastrophic thinking rooted in irrational assumptions
– Increased distress and depression for those who have experienced trauma and natural
disasters
– Heightened PTSD symptoms and greater feelings of shame in those who experienced
sexual abuse
Procrastination
 The Health Costs of Procrastination
• About 70-90% of college students put off academic
assignments
• A group of students, who had a paper due late in the semester,
completed the General Procrastination Scale.
http://www.yorku.ca/rokada/psyctest/prcrasts.pdf
• The students reported, early and late in the semester, how
many symptoms of physical illness they had experienced.
 Results
• On average, procrastinators turned their papers in later than
did non-procrastinators.
• On average, procrastinators obtained lower grades on those
papers.
• Early in the semester, procrastinators reported fewer stress-
related symptoms; later in the semester, procrastinators were
reporting more symptoms.
 Procrastination & Depression
Characteristics of depressed procrastinators
Depressed procrastinators are people who procrastinate to a substantial
degree, and who do so primarily due to their depression. Accordingly,
their procrastination is generally driven by issues such as diminished
interest in activities, lack of motivation, fatigue, and problems
concentrating.
• In addition, depressed procrastinators often also suffer from related
issues, such as irrational beliefs, pessimism, learned helplessness, and
neuroticism. Similarly, they are also likely to be low in resilience factors,
such as self-compassion, mindfulness, self-esteem, and self-efficacy.
Source: Depression and Procrastination: How They’re Connected and What to
Do About It – Solving Procrastination
 Constructive Coping
• Constructive coping: refers to efforts to deal with stressful
events that are judged to be relatively healthful
• Constructive coping involves:
– Realistic appraisals of stress and coping resources (appraisal-focused)
– Confronting problems directly (problem-focused)
– Learning to recognize and manage disruptive emotional reactions to
stress (emotion-focused)
Constructive Coping Tactics
 Ellis’s Rational Thinking
Ellis’s Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) and the (ABC)
model: therapy that focuses on altering clients’ patterns of
irrational thinking to reduce maladaptive emotions and behavior
– Negative appraisals (or beliefs) are often associated with catastrophic
thinking, which exaggerates the magnitude of our problems
– Positive (realistic and/or optimistic) appraisals allow constructive
coping
Weiten | Dunn | Hammer, Psychology Applied to Modern Life: Adjustment in the 21st Century, 13 th Edition. © 2024 Cengage. All
Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part. 49
 Humor and Positive Reinterpretation
• Humor reduces the negative impact of stress on mood for
many reasons:
– Creates a more positive appraisal
– Increases positive emotions
– Facilitates positive social interactions
• Positive reinterpretation buffers stress in the following ways:
– Recognizing that things could have been worse
– Finding benefits in a bad situation
• Searching for something good in a bad experience
Problem-Focused Strategy: Using Systematic
Problem Solving

Problem-solving skills can be increased through training and by

using these steps:
– Clarify the problem
– Generate alternative courses of action
– Evaluate your alternatives and select a course of action
– Take action while maintaining flexibility
 Problem-Focused Strategy: Social Support & Sense
of Personal Control
Two psychosocial modifiers of stress are:
1) Social support
– Feeling that one is loved, cared for, esteemed, & valued.
– Feeling that one is part of a network of communication & mutual
obligations from significant others (e.g., spouse, parents, friends,
etc.)
2) A sense of personal control
– The feeling that one can make decisions and take effective action to
produce desirable outcomes and avoid undesirable ones.
 Types of Social Support
Emotional support
• Expression of empathy, caring, and concern toward a person.
• It provides the person with a sense of comfort, reassurance,
belongingness, and being loved in times of stress.
 Types of Social Support
Esteem support
• Expressed through positive regard for the person.
• In the form of encouragement or agreement with the
individual’s ideas or feelings.
• Positive comparison of the person with others (e.g., the less
able or worse off)
• Building the individual’s self-esteem.
• Be an ego-booster; avoid being an ego-buster.
 Types of Social Support
Tangible or instrumental support
• Involves direct assistance.
• Examples: Lending money, giving ride, helping out with chores
in times of stress.
 Types of Social Support
Informational support
• Includes giving advice, directions, suggestions, or feedback
about how the person is doing.
• Examples:
- Patients getting information from friends or physicians on
how to treat the illness.
- Junior workers getting feedback from coworkers or
supervisors on job performance.
 Types of Social Support
Network support
• Provides a feeling of membership in a group of people who
share interests and social activities.
• Examples:
- Membership at church
- Alcoholics Anonymous
What types of social support do you see here?
 A Sense of Personal Control
• Other than social support, another psychosocial factor that
modifies the stress people experience is the degree of control
people feel they have in their lives.
• People generally like the feeling of having some measure of
control over the things that happen to them.
• People feel less distressed if they feel that they have control
over the problem/situation.
 Types of Control
1) Behavioural control
– Involves the ability to take concrete action to reduce the impact of a
stressor.
– Same as problem-focused coping
2) Cognitive control
– Uses thought processes or strategies to modify the impact of a
stressor.
– Same as appraisal-focused coping
 Types of Control
3) Decisional control
– The opportunity to choose between alternative procedures or
courses of action.
– Having the second choice or a “plan B”
4) Informational control
– Involves the opportunity to get knowledge about a stressful event.
– Knowing ahead of time what will happen, why, and what the
consequences are likely to be.
Emotion-Focused Strategy
• For your interest (will not be in the
exam), read textbook section 10.5:
“How can you control your
emotions?”
• The self-help book Emotional
Intimacy (by Robert Augustus
Masters) gives you detailed
guidelines on emotion regulation.
You can see the table of content of
this book in the “supplementary
readings” folder on D2L.
Happiness is
…
 Weak Predictors of Happiness

Money
Intelligence
(It depends. We will have Gender
a closer look at this)

Age
Moderately Good Predictors of Happiness

Social Activity Religion

Stronger Predictors of Happiness

Relationship Satisfaction
What make people happy?
 Dimensional Theories of Well-Being
Ryff Seligman Deci & Ryan Coan
Positive Positive Relatedness Relatedness
relationships relationships
Environmental Accomplishment Competence Efficiency
mastery
Purpose in life Meaning Self-transcendence
Autonomy Autonomy
Personal growth Inner harmony
Self-acceptance
Positive emotion
Engagement
Creativity
Defining Happiness
• Aristotle
– Happiness was attained by living a virtuous life and being a good
person.
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau
– The road to happiness lies in the satisfaction of one’s desires and the
hedonistic pursuit of pleasure.
• William James
– Happiness was the ratio of one’s accomplishments to one’s
aspirations.
Measuring Happiness (operationally defining it)
Happiness is measured in terms of:
1) The predominance of positive compared with negative
emotions. For example, the Percent Happy Scale:
What percent of time are you happy? ____
What percent of time are you neutral? ____
What percent of time are you unhappy? ____
2) A judgment that life is satisfying (e.g., Satisfaction with Life
Scale, see the next slide)
Satisfaction with Life Scale
Positive Illusion: A Paradox
• Positive illusion: An inflated view of one’s own characteristics
as a good, able, and desirable person.
• A paradox: Having a positive illusion will make you happy
• A positive illusion can be accomplished by:
– Lowering one’s aspiration
– Making downward comparisons (I am better than 50% of people. I
am half full, not half empty. I am not too bad after all)
Happy people are…
• Less abusive and hostile
• Less self-focused
• Report fewer instances of disease
• More helpful and cooperative
• More likely to spend money on others (giving)
• Have more social skills
• Are more creative and energetic
• Are more forgiving and trusting
What good is happiness?
• Happiness correlates with positive outcomes of life
– Marriage
– Longevity
– Self-esteem
– Job satisfaction
• Note: These correlations might involve reciprocal causality.
Age and
Happiness

Stone et al. (2010)

Age and
Happiness

Stone et al. (2010)

Happiness: Do sex and age matter?
• Sex
– Empirical studies consistent find that men and women are equally
happy.
• Age
– In some studies, there seems to be some variations in happiness
across different age groups. But the range of change is very small
(e.g., within one point in a 10-point scale).
– In some other studies, level of happiness is constant across different
age groups.
 National
Income &
Happiness
 National
Income &
Happiness
 Gross National Product & Happiness

18000
16000
14000
Mean Satisfaction

12000
10000 r = 0.67
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5
GNP
National Wealth and Happiness
• The correlation between a nation’s well-being score and its
gross national product is +.67
• However, national wealth is confounded with health care
services, civil rights, care for the elderly, education, etc.
• Need to hold these confounding variables at a constant level
when we look at the relationship between income and
happiness. How?
• Examine the relationship within a country (e.g., USA)
 Income &
Happiness
in the USA
Income and Happiness in the USA
• Is there a relation between income and happiness in the USA?
• The answer is: Both YES and NO, depending on whether the
individual has made enough money to support the basic needs
of life.
• There seems to be a threshold of income: There is a positive
correlation between income and happiness when this
threshold is not met. When this threshold is met, happiness
does not increase with income.
 What if you made a bit
more money, will you be
happier?
What if…
What if you won the
lottery, will you be happy
for the rest of your life?
 What if you won the lottery?
• Many people became millionaires overnight when they won
the lottery.
• Winners of lottery were interviewed, and they reported that
they were happier than before right after winning.
• Similarly, newly wedded couples were interviewed, and they
reported elevated level of happiness.
• Six months later, their moods returned to the previous level.
• The moods of the winners were not different than those in the
control group six months after winning.
 What if you tested HIV-positive
• Before taking an HIV test, people predicted that they would be
profoundly distressed were they to turn up HIV-positive.
• Only five weeks after discovering they were HIV-positive,
people were considerably less distressed than they expected
themselves to be.
• The same is true for people with paraplegia (paralyzed from
the waist down) and other physical disabilities.
 Conclusion
• People’s moods are usually maintained at a constant level.
• This overall constant level of happiness is not affected by a
sudden fortune or misfortune.
• People will gradually return to their previous state of
happiness.
• This overall constant level of happiness is affected by
personality.
 Personality & Well-Being
• Gender, age, ethnicity, and income account for only 10 to 15
percent of the variation in happiness.
• Personality accounts for up to three times as much of the
variance accounted for by age, income, gender, education,
ethnicity, & religion put together.
• Two personality traits are closely related to well-being:
– Extraversion
– Neuroticism
 Characteristics of people who score high on
extraversion (on the big-five personality
test):
• Loves variety and excitement
• Positive outlook on life
• The life of the party
Extraversion • Energetic and enthusiastic
• Seeks novelty and external stimuli
• Tendency to experience positive
emotions
• Friendly and talkative
• Highly adaptable
 • Similar terms: emotional instability,
anxiety-proneness, negative affectivity
• People scoring high on neuroticism
are:
– Moody
Neuroticism – Touchy
– Irritable
– Anxious
– Unstable
– Pessimistic
– Complaining
Why are some people happier than others?
Factors affecting people’s subjective well-being:
• Personality (happier people are emotionally stable and socially
engaged)
• Life satisfaction (ratio of one’s accomplishments to one’s
aspirations)
• Social support
– Married people tend to be happier than unmarried people.
– People with many friends tend to be happier than people with few friends.
• Socioeconomic status
– People who can support their basic needs are happier than people who
can’t.
What to read in the textbook?
• 6th Edition: Sections 11.7, 11.8, 11.12

• 7th Edition: Sections 11.7, 11.8, 11.11

• Supplementary reading posted on D2L: “Happiness and Life

Satisfaction”