health psychology

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  • Created by: lilly557
  • Created on: 02-06-14 14:12
what is health psychology?
application of psychology which aims to investigate why people behave unhealthily and develop methods which can improve health
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define Substance misuse?
intake of drugs in a quantity that impairs physical or mental health of the user
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Define Synapse
the gap between two neurons across which a chemical signal is sent. Neurotransmitters are released by neurons on on side of synapse and taken up on otherside.
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Define Physical dependency?
need to keep taking drugs in order to avoid withdrawal symptoms. Continued use of drugs is needed for normal function
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define psychological dependence?
the need to keep taking drugs to produce psychological feelings of pleasure
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Define Withdrawal ?
the symptoms the body produces in response to the reduction or removal of the dependant drug
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how have animal studies been used in health psychology?
investigate effects of drugs ,consequence of taking drugs, levels of addiction and effectiveness of some therapies.
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what do animal studies usually involve?
observing their behaviour under high controls. Will use genetically similar animals
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what was the aim of schramm-sapyta et al ?
investigate the origins of alcohol abuse
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what was the method?
adolescent male rats were placed in cages for 16 hours a day 3 consecutive days and had only alcohol to drink
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whats were the rats given a choice of?
water or alcohol.
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what were the results?
rats given alcohol at adolescence consummed more alcohol more frequently that rats not given this early exposure.
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give four practical reasons why animals are used in studies?
can use careful controls to get cause and effect , share same basic physiology, can carry out more invasive studies and don't show demand characteristics
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what practical limitations with using animal studies?
they ignore interaction between experience,genese and drug use that occurs in humans, cannot express the effect the drug is having on them
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What are twin adoption studies usually used for?
to investigate into nature and nurture
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what was the aim of cloninger et al study?
investigate the link between gentic make up and becoming an alcoholic
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what was the sample?
children of non-alcoholic adopted by heavy drinkers and children of heavy drinkers adopted by non-drinkers
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What are the results?
was a link between steady-drinking alcoholism and heredity. Men with fathers who were steady drinkers were almost 7 times more likely to become steady drinkers than men whose fathers did not abuse alcohol.
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why were the effects different for women?
very few daughters became steady drinkers. Instead the daughters of steady drinking men tended to develop somatisation disorder
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what are strengths of adoption studies
ethical no direct malipulation of participants,, valid as provide test of nature and nurture,
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weaknesses of adoption studies?
try to place children in simliar setting of their birth parents so not complete change of nurture, only valid as the methods used,
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what can te biological explanation of substance misuse explain?
why it is the individual continues to use a drug even though they may wish to stop
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what does the reward defiency syndrome focus on?
deficiency in the dopamine reward system
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Explain the reward deficiency syndrome?
individual has defective D2 dopamine receptor and lack a sufficient number of dopamine receptors in brain to produce pleasure. so use drugs to self-medicate to feel pleasure
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how do the drugs work in the RDS?
they increase levels of dopamine present in the brain e.g. heroin- without it the dopamine levels are too low for normal function so always chasing the high
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how does tolerance occur?
by having to increase the dose size in order to experience same dopmine feeling within the brain. Could be because drug causes reduction in number or receptor sites
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strengths of biological explanation of substance misuse
loads of support eg blattler , positive correlation between heavy drug users and mental illnesses suggesting drugs cause mental illness , helps us understand psychological dependancies
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weaknesses of the biological explanation of substance misuse?
reductionist approach as focuses on one explanation ignoring other factors (social). don't explain why people take drugs in first place,
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what does the learning explanation of substance misuse suggest?
there is a psychological explanation for drug misuse and addiction is a behaviour not a disease
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how does operant condition teach substance misuse?
heroin are injected or smoked so go into the brain quick causing an instant effect. Their reinforcing properites are reinforcing the pleasure they associate with taking the drug.
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how does operant conditioning explain addiction when they are aware of unpleasent effects?
health risks are long term where as the effects of positive reinforcement are short term, Making the user more effected by the immediate rewards,
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How can negative reinforcement reinforce drug taking?
as negative reinforcement is to do with taking something away to strengthen the behaviour addicts may reinforce their behaviour by getting withdrawal symptoms
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Strengths of the learning explanation of substance misuse?
explains why diffent drugs are used in different cultures, theories backed up by evidence (lab animal studies)
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weaknesses of the learning explanation of substance misuse?
don't explain why people choose not to take part in drug misuse or why addicts stop,, operant conditioning dont explain why nicotine was an initial unpleasent side effect yet don't put people off, don't explain physical dependence on drug
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mode of action for heroin?
stimulates opioid receptors mimincing endorphines, It causes an increase in amount of dopamine in the synapses. Releases endorphin's activating the reward system to produce a sense of well being.
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what are the effects of heroin?
feeling of euphoria and analgestic effect makes you feel calm and no pain. breathing and heart rate slow down ( causes death) , constipation, nausea low sex drive
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how does tolerance occur?
due to heroin swamping the brain the simulated neuro-transmitters regulation causes neurones to adapt their usual functioning with high levels of chemical produced by heroin so become less sensitive. So more drug is needed to get same effect.
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how does physical dependency occur?
happens quickly not immeidately an addict but user soon develops more serve withdrawal symptoms needed for normal functioning as neurons don't fire without it as adapted to the high levels produced by heroin
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how does physiological dependency occur?
increases the heroin user is driven to reproduce the feeling of euphoria by the drug and to avoid withdrawal symptoms.
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explain the withdrawal process?
symptoms occur 6-12 hours after last fix, symptoms peak after 26-72 hours. First withdrawal symptoms are agitated, aggression and hot/cold sweats , breathing goes jerky , wake up with cramps , vomiting , shakes twitching of limbs
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describe the mode of action for alcohol?
GABA inhibited slowing down neural activity, depresses activity in the brain by making GABA more effective slowing down speed of neurons. reduces effect of inhibitory mechanism. Noradrenaline boosts the flight or fight mechanism.
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what are the effects of alcohol?
low levels of alcohol can dilate skin blood vessels making user feel warm and flushed, slow reactions higher levels of alcohol impair speech,depression of activity impairs motor skills, dehydrates ( hangover) can cause nausea, vomiting , death
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how does tolerance occur?
to get the same level of feeling when alcohol is first drunk the perosn need to drink more or stronger alcohol in few weeks a drinker needs to drinl 50% more to get same effect due to stimulation of enzymes that break it down
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how does physical dependency occur?
first drink is usually to stop withdrawal symptoms increasing dependence,
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how does psychological dependency occur?
demonstrated by the relief of finding a drink, getting alcohol is priority over other things. User is less concerned about personal issues
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explain the withdrawal process?
usually appear 8-12 hours after last drink (can take up to a week) symptoms include shakes,cramps,nausea, sweating , irregular heartbeat,vivid dreaming. Can last up to 48hours.
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what happens when too little alcohol present?
When too little alcohol present fight/flight mechanism starts operating causing hallucinations, tremors, delusions even seizures
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What was the aim of blattler et al study?
investigate success of giving maintenance doses of heroin users who also use cocaine to see the effects of heroin maintenance on cocaine use
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what was the sample size?
266 patients 98 female 168 male all taking heroin for 18 months or more with mean age of 30
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what type of study was used?
naturalistic
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when were they interviewed?
at intake and every six months using independent interviewers using a standardized questionnaire abotu drug use and symptoms
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when were urine tests conducted?
on intake and randomly without warning
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What also did they have to attend?
regular counselling and received health checks for HIV / Hepatitis
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when the prgram started what percentage took cocaine in last 6 months prior to intake?
64%
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how many participant increased the use of cocaine since intake?
15
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what was the correlation between the self-reported data and urine sample and beginning and end of the study?
0.66 at beginning and 0.82 at end showed was being more honest
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how many people had worked in the sex trade at the start of the program?
84
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how many participants were still in the sex trade at the end of the study?
7
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what is the aim of ennet et al study?
to investigate the role of freindship groups and cliques in the smoking behaviour of young people
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what was the sample?
1092 ninth grade students aged (14-15) in North carolina from 5 different schools
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how many time were they interviewed
twice in their own home about their smoking behaviour using a questionnaire
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what were they asked?
to identify their 3 best friends - did they smoke , gender , race and mothers education
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how was smoking cross checked
by doing a carbon monoxide check
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what were discarded?
friendships from outside of school
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how many cliques was there left to analyse?
87
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what is the results of this study
average clique size was 5 members. 414 member of 461 was non smokers , only 2 cliques contained all smokers
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what was the smoking rate among clique members?
11.1% was less than the 15.2 % found in overall schools
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what conclusion was drawn?
cliques influenced more nonsmoking than smoking
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evaluate the study in terms of strengths?
high validty as asking particpants about what is relevant to them e.g. friends , large sample. generlisable to age group in USA,
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weaknesses of the study?
doesn't look into data from outside of school so could miss important factors, self-report data might not be reliable
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

define Substance misuse?

Back

intake of drugs in a quantity that impairs physical or mental health of the user

Card 3

Front

Define Synapse

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

Define Physical dependency?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

define psychological dependence?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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