Flashcards · 9990 · A Level Topic 5

Specialist Option 3: Health Psychology (A Level) flashcards

27 cards on A Level Topic 5, subtopics 3.1 to 3.5. Pick a subtopic or study them all.

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Doctor-centred vs patient-centred consultation: Doctor-centred (directing): the practitioner controls the consultation and decisions. Patient-centred (sharing): the patient's views are sought and decisions are shared.
What did Savage and Armstrong (1990) find?: In a controlled study in a general practice, patients given a directing (doctor-centred) consultation style reported higher satisfaction than those given a sharing style.
False positive vs false negative diagnosis: False positive: diagnosing an illness that is not present. False negative: failing to diagnose an illness that is present.
Munchausen syndrome vs malingering: In Munchausen syndrome a person fakes or induces illness to gain the attention of the sick role. In malingering a person fakes illness for an external gain, such as money or time off.
What did McKinlay (1975) show about medical terminology?: Patients often did not understand medical terms that practitioners assumed they knew, showing that verbal communication in consultations can fail.

Name two types of non-adherence: Failure to follow a treatment (e.g. not taking medication as prescribed) and failure to attend appointments.
What is rational non-adherence?: Choosing not to adhere for reasons that make sense to the patient, such as side effects, cost or doubts about the treatment's benefit (e.g. Laba et al., 2012).
What is the Health Belief Model?: Whether a person takes health action depends on perceived susceptibility and severity of the illness, perceived benefits against barriers of acting, cues to action and self-efficacy.
Subjective vs objective vs biological measures of adherence: Subjective: interviews or self-reports (easy but open to bias). Objective: pill counting or medication dispensers. Biological: blood or urine samples (accurate but invasive and costly).
What did Yokley and Glenwick (1984) find about improving immunisation?: Among community interventions to raise preschool immunisation, prompts helped, but a monetary incentive (with prompting) produced the largest increase.

Acute vs chronic pain: Acute pain is short-term, linked to injury, and fades as healing occurs. Chronic pain persists for months, often beyond healing.
What is phantom limb pain, and how can mirror treatment help?: Pain felt in a limb that has been amputated. Mirror treatment shows the reflection of the remaining limb in place of the missing one, which can reduce the pain (e.g. MacLachlan et al., 2004).
Specificity theory vs gate control theory: Specificity theory: specific pain receptors send signals directly to a pain centre. Gate control theory: a gate in the spinal cord can be opened or closed by other sensory input and by psychological factors, changing how much pain is felt.
What did Brudvik et al. (2016) find about pain assessment?: Comparing ratings of children's pain, physicians underestimated the pain children reported themselves on a visual analogue scale, and parents also tended to underestimate it.
Name three types of measure of pain: Clinical interview (subjective); psychometric and visual rating scales such as the McGill Pain Questionnaire and visual analogue scale; behavioural/observational measures such as the UAB pain behaviour scale.
Name three cognitive strategies for managing pain: Attention diversion, non-pain imagery and cognitive redefinition. Alternative treatments include acupuncture and TENS (stimulation therapy).

What are the stages of the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)?: Alarm (fight-or-flight response), resistance (the body adapts to ongoing stress) and exhaustion (resources are depleted and illness becomes more likely).
What did Holmes and Rahe propose about life events?: Major life events require readjustment and cause stress. Each event has a score in life change units, and a high total over a year predicts increased risk of illness.
What is Type A personality (Friedman and Rosenman)?: A behaviour pattern of competitiveness, time urgency and hostility, linked to higher stress and risk of coronary heart disease.
Biological vs psychological measures of stress: Biological: heart rate, brain scans (fMRI), salivary cortisol. Objective but costly and can be affected by other factors. Psychological: self-report questionnaires such as life events scales, quick but subjective.
What did Bridge et al. (1988) find?: Breast cancer patients taught relaxation with imagery during radiotherapy showed less mood disturbance than those taught relaxation alone or a control group.
What are the three phases of stress inoculation training?: Conceptualisation (understanding stress), skills acquisition and rehearsal (learning coping skills) and application and follow-through (using the skills in real situations).

What did Janis and Feshbach (1953) find about fear arousal?: In dental hygiene messages, a minimal-fear appeal produced more change in behaviour than a strong-fear appeal, suggesting very high fear can be counterproductive.
What is unrealistic optimism (Weinstein, 1980)?: The belief that negative events are less likely to happen to oneself than to others, which can lead people to disregard health advice.
What are the three focuses of positive psychology (Seligman)?: The pleasant life (positive emotion), the good life (engagement, using one's strengths) and the meaningful life (belonging to and serving something larger than oneself).
What did Shoshani and Steinmetz (2014) evaluate?: A school-based positive psychology programme for adolescents. Compared with a control group, students on the programme showed better well-being (such as self-esteem and optimism) and fewer symptoms of mental distress.
Give an example of health promotion in schools and in worksites: Schools: healthy eating programmes (e.g. Tapper et al., 2003). Worksites: health and safety programmes such as a token economy to reduce accidents (e.g. Fox et al., 1987).