8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
1/44
Health Psychology: Module 1Health Psychology: Module 1
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
2/44
Physical
HealthObservable,
physical symptoms
Mental
Health
psychologicalfactors
Probably best example of intersection:
stress
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
3/44
Alternative views on alternativeAlternative views on alternative
medicinemedicine Lance Armstrong
What does alternative mean,
exactly? Several issues here
Experimental evidence weightedvs. not
Western vs. non-western medicine
Focused vs. holisticapproaches
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
4/44
Regardless of whether the treatment is
traditional or alternative, avoid anecdotalevidence!
Many ailments get better on their own Introduces STRONG confound of time
i.e. the build-up of any drug in your system, andthe passage of time, are always perfectlyconfounded
Try to resist temptation for self-blame if
treatments dont work
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
5/44
stressstress
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
6/44
Possible to rank stressfulPossible to rank stressful
events?events?
Holmes & Rahe (1967)
Death of a spouse100
Divorce73
Marriage50
Getting fired47
Change in residence20
Christmas12
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
7/44
problemsproblems Third variable
problems
Sample
Whats key is how
event is perceived.Personality
trait
Health
problemsp(events
)
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
8/44
Great study by Cohen et al. (1991)Great study by Cohen et al. (1991)
Psychological stress index
50%
25%
Percent who caught cold
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
9/44
some causal evidence
Cacioppo 1998
Pre-measure stress post-measure
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
10/44
Perceived control and healthPerceived control and health A
gain, power of correlational vs. experimentaldesigns
Some causal evidence
Langer and Rodin (1977; p. 513)
Nursing home studyRandom assignment to high personal (and
lasting) control vs. no treatment (baseline).
15 months later:
mortality (death) rate in high control condition: 15% Mortality rate in baseline condition: 30%
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
11/44
A very disturbing follow up studyA very disturbing follow up study
Schulz and Hanusa(1978; p. 483-484)
Somewhat similar toLanger and Rodin(1977): Random assignment to
high control, vs.baseline But: when
study was over, senseof control was removed;
i.e. temporary control
Death rate
among
baseline (never
had control
increased):0%
Mortality rate
among
temporary
control:
20%
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
12/44
Risk perception andRisk perception and
moodmood
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
13/44
Johnson & Tversky (1983):Johnson & Tversky (1983):(specific) cognitive vs. (general) affective routes(specific) cognitive vs. (general) affective routes
Read about case
of cancer
cancer
lightning
earthquakes
Cognitive/priming hypothesis
Not supported
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
14/44
Read about case
of cancer
cancer
lightning
earthquakes
Generalized affect hypothesis supported
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
15/44
Study 2Study 2
Unrelated
mood manipulation
Positive mood
Negative mood
Decreased risk
increased risk
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
16/44
Gender differences in coping with stressGender differences in coping with stress
Fight or flight (Cannon, 1932)
Norepinephrine, epinephrine
Little-known fact about experimental workmost
done on males (e.g., male rats)Taylor et al., 2000
Females
Tend and befriend
More likely to produce oxytocin (calming,
promotes affiliation)
Caution
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
17/44
Optimism, health and accuracy
Optimism, health and accuracy
Optimism
Unrealistic optimism
The above average effect (Weinstein, 1980)
Health and accuracy
Trade offs
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
18/44
Positive vs. negative
Key variable: Detection vs. prevention
Detection (e.g. for cancer): negativeframing works better
Prevention (e.g. putting on suncreen:
positive framing
Message framingMessage framing
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
19/44
Applied focus:Applied focus:how can we motivate people to engage in healthy behavior?
e.g., BSE greatly increases early detection
of cancer, yet relatively few women do so
Message framing
Let X = healthy behavior
Positive framing (gain):
If you do X, good outcome
Negative framing (loss):
If you dont do X, bad outcome
Detection behavior
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
20/44
(Myerowitz & Chaiken, 1987)(Myerowitz & Chaiken, 1987)
Positive (gain) framing By doing BSE now, you can learn what your body normallyfeels like so that you will be better prepared to noticed any
small, abnormal changes that might occur as you get older.
Research shows that women who do BSE have an
increased chance of finding a tumorin the early, more
treatable stage of the disease.
Negative (loss) framing By not doing BSE now, you will not learn what your body
normally feels like so that you will be ill prepared to noticed
any small, abnormal changes that might occur as you getolder. Research shows that women who do not do BSE have
an decreased chance of finding a tumorin the early, more
treatable stage of the disease.
Detection behavior
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
21/44
designdesign Framing manipulation:
Gain
Loss Control (no message)
Immediate follow-up
4 MONTHS later: follow upquestionnaire on behavior
Detection behavior
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
22/44
CONTROL
Intention to perform BSE
Actual BSE behavior GAIN (PF)
Intention to perform BSE
Actual BSE behavior
LOSS (NF) Intention to perform BSE
Actual BSE behavior
Immediate
5.95
6.83
5.18
4 months later
3.95
5.48
3.47
.74
1.42
.75
Detection behavior
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
23/44
Replications and extensions for
Replications and extensions fordetection behaviorsdetection behaviors
Negative framing superior to positive
framing: Encouraging self-exams for skin cancer (Block
& Keller, 1995)
HIV testing (Kalichman & Coley)
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
24/44
preventionprevention behaviorsbehaviors Prevention focuses on averting the onset of
a health problem
Provide people with the opportunity to maintain
their present healthy status and to reduce risk of
future illness
Here, positively-framed messages are moreeffective
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
25/44
ExamplesExamples Encouraging use of sun screen (Rothman et
al. 1993)
Positive frame: using sunscreen, you greatly
reduce the chance of getting cancer later on in
life
Negative frame: by not using sunscreen, yougreatly increase the chance of getting cancer
later on in life
prevention behavior
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
26/44
Other examples
Other examples
Exercise (Robberson and Rogers, 1988)
Use of infant car seats (Christopherson &
Gyulay, 1981)
Using condoms (Linville et al. 1993)
prevention behavior
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
27/44
Probability assessment, risk, andProbability assessment, risk, and
healthhealth Again, judgments are biased by what comes
to mind first
Flying vs. driving
Lotteries
Wildly inflated perceived risk of vivid
accidents (e.g. getting struck by lightning) AIDS
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
28/44
Risk that woman will
contract AIDS with
one heterosexual
contact with HIV
positive male, no
condom
Statistics (as of 1988)Participants
estimates
.2% (1/500)50%
w/condom .02% (1/5000)5%
BUT: Why important to wear a condom:Calculation of objective risk is an inexact science (and these data are somewhat
dated)
Helps prevent: unwanted pregnancy, spread of other STDs (e.g. herpes; 20-30%U.S. population, no cure at current time)
8% ofAIDS cases in the United States have been attributed to heterosexualcontact.
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
29/44
Illusions and well being:Illusions and well being:A second look at mental health and realityA second look at mental health and reality
Main sources:
Taylor and Brown, 1988
Rebuttal by Colvin and Block (1994)
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
30/44
Overview
Overview
Definition of mental healththe standard
view
Illusions and biases among healthy
normal individuals
Taylor and Brown thesis; evidence
Rebuttal by Colvin and Block
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
31/44
Previous assumptions aboutPrevious assumptions about
reality and mental healthreality and mental health Psychological health Close contact with reality
Reasonably accurate
The perception of reality is called mentally healthywhen what the individual sees corresponds to what is
actually there (Jahoda, 1958)
Seems reasonable, but
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
32/44
Biases in social perceptionBiases in social perception Most of the time, people do notsee the
world as it really is.
These often take the form of self-serving,flattering portraits of the self
two main classes of findings
U
nrealistically positive views of the self positivity distortions
Exaggerated perceptions of personal control
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
33/44
I. positivity distortionsI. positivity distortions
For most people, positivepersonality information isefficiently processed
RTs
Memory
success vs. failure
Attribution
Recall
Estimated commonality ofstrengths and weaknesses
Weaknesses/faultsseen asrelatively common
Strengthsseen as rare anddistinctive
Above-average effect inratings, predictions The future looks bright, especially
for me! (Weinstein, 1980)
Comparisons of self-ratings vs.observer ratings
Lewinsohn, Mischel, Chaplin,and Barton (1980) College students interact with
others in get-acquainted setting
Researchers compared ratings ofself, vs. ratings by observers
Relative to observers, people sawthemselves in flattering terms
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
34/44
WhoWho doesntdoesnt show these positiveshow these positive
distortions?distortions?
Moderately depressed individuals, peoplewith low self esteem
Such people show More accurate recall of positive vs. negative
information
More even handed in attributions of self-
responsibility
More congruence between self evaluations andappraisals by others
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
35/44
II. Illusions of controlII. Illusions of control
Most people infer greater control than theyreally have
When outcome is objectively random,
people still persist in believing that theyhave personal control
And, once again, this effect disappearsamong those who are mildly-to-severelydepressed individuals
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
36/44
Summary and major implicationsSummary and major implications
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
37/44
Rebuttal:Rebuttal:
Colvin and Block (1994)Colvin and Block (1994)
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
38/44
Critique #1Critique #1
Taylor and Brown define healthy vs.
unhealthy (mentally ill) in a very
circumscribed way
Healthycollege students with moderate to
strong self esteem
Unhealthy -Mildly depressed college students
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
39/44
Depressed individuals, especially those with
moderate to severe levels, may be distorting
in the opposite (negative) direction Thus, it may be a simplification to say that
healthy people distort, but unhealthy people
dont distort
Critique #2
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
40/44
extremely negative extremely positive
SELF CONCEPT
Theoretical neutral
(unbiased) point
Positivebiases
Negativebiases
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
41/44
Critique #3: Questions aboutCritique #3: Questions about
operationalization ofoperationalization of accuracyaccuracy
Recall that Taylor and Brown claimed that non-
depressed individuals show positivity biases,
whereas show even handedness in self-relatedprocessing
But even handedness in self processing (e.g.
using just as many negative as positive traits to
describe the self) is not a very good indicator of
accuracy
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
42/44
Critique #4: Major problems withCritique #4: Major problems with
Lewinsohn et al. (1980) studyLewinsohn et al. (1980) study
In this paradigm, observers tend to be
relatively harsh (negative) when judging
others.
Leads to an artifactual appearance of
accuracy for people if they happen to be
negative in their own appraisals
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
43/44
critique #5: excessive positivity/highcritique #5: excessive positivity/high
optimism may not always be healthyoptimism may not always be healthy
Narcissism
Disappointment McGraw, Mellers, & Ritov (2004)
Very high self esteem can be associated
with excessive aggressiveness, especially
with males
8/6/2019 Social Psych & Health Mod1all-1
44/44
SummarySummary Taylor and Brown (1988)
Attempts to propose new viewof mental health and mentalillness
Positive illusions/biases notnecessarily maladaptive
Colvin and Block (1994)
At least Five majorcritiques
Narrow Definition ofhealthy vs. unhealthy
Problems with distortionhypothesis
Definition of accuracysuspect
Problems with Lewinsohnet al. (1980) paradigm
Downside of excessivelyhigh self esteem