Determinants of Health
What is a "determinant of health?" Give two examples.
Any factor that influences your health.
COMT gene
LOC
Appraisals
Status
Hormones
What are the two "content" points in the Health problems topic?
Explanations of health problems
Prevalence rates of health problems
What is the goal of "health promotion" when we talk about stress?
Reduce stress levels.
What are two characteristics of a laboratory experiment?
The researchers manipulate the IV to create the conditions.
Extraneous variables are controlled.
Usually takes place in a controlled environment.
True or False. You might be asked about one or more of the approaches (bio, cog, soc-cult) in relation to health problems.
True.
Genetics are a "dispositional factor." True or false.
True. Dispositional factors are any internal factor, whether thats biological or psychological.
Explanations of health problems (e.g. stress) are the same as determinants of health. True or False.
True.
If you are explaining how specific factors influence stress, you are also explaining how those factors can determine someone's stress levels.
True or false: An exam question asking you to discuss promoting health, discuss health promotion, or discuss the effectiveness of one health promoting strategy can all be answered the same way.
True.
You can answer almost any question from this topic by discussing/evaluating one health promotion strategy. But be careful - questions about the "approaches" and also research methods, is difficult.
What is one study in which "parental consent" would have been important?
Any study that used adolescents for their sample, e.g. McCrory et al. Steen et al. Armbruster etc.
True or False. You are GUARANTEED a question on health problems in the exam.
True.
There is one question from each of the three topics (determinants, problems, promotion).
George Engel (in 1977).
Examples: appraisals can affect our physiological stress response.
Genetics (COMT) can affect our cognition under stress.
Social status can affect our stress response (see Rahal).
Others might be acceptable. Check with your teacher if you want an answer checked.
State one way you can answer prevalence rates AND sociocultural explanations of stress using the same content.
Social status - you can explain how stress and stress-related illnesses are more prevalent in groups with low status, which is also a sociocultural explanation since status is a social factor.
Name two health promoting strategies.
Mindfulness (e.g. MiSP)
WHO health promoting schools
What are two ethical considerations relevant to studies in health psychology? Give a reason for each.
Informed consent - e.g. participants often do the TSST, which has to be a surprise so researchers need to consider how much to inform them about beforehand.
Anonymity - e.g. researchers are gathering personal data on things like stress levels.
True or false - you might be asked to write a whole essay on just health beliefs.
True. The topic "Dispositional factors and health beliefs" is one of three topics in the course that uses "and" but they might be separated in the exam questions.
Tip: Health beliefs ARE dispositional factors, so just study health beliefs for this topic and you're covered.
List three health beliefs that are also dispositional factors.
Locus of control (do you believe your health is within or beyond or control)
Self-efficacy (to what extent do you believe you can cope with your stressors)
Appraisals (do you think stress is bad for you or not? Do you think stressors are threats or challenges?)
TIP: By studying health beliefs that are also dispositional factors you are covered for any question on this content.
List three groups of people who are more at risk for chronic stress.
Met/Met homozygotes
Women
IB students
People with low SSS and/or SES
True or False. You might be asked about the cognitive approach to promoting health.
True. That is why the "Promoting health" topic is tricky for the exams. Studying one or both of the other two topics allows you to answer these types of questions more easily.
Name three correlational studies from this unit.
Horner
Hosseini
Kalia and Knauft
(Any other study that measured a correlation coefficient is acceptable)
If you're aiming for a 7, what is the minimum essay score you should be aiming for?
17/22.
(I would accept 17, 18, 19 or 20 as well).
The point is - in Paper 2 the boundaries for a 7 are higher than in Paper 1 because they assess less content.
List four risk factors and four protective factors for stress.
Met/Met (risk) and Val/Val (protective)
Low status (risk) and high status (protective)
External LOC (risk) and internal LOC (protective)
Low social support (risk) and high social support (protective).
Others might be acceptable - check with your teacher.
Give one explanation for chronic stress from each of the three approaches.
Bio - COMT gene
Cog - Appraisals or Locus of control
Soc-cult - Status
(Other answers might be acceptable - check with your teacher).
What is the difference between a question on "Promoting health" and "health promotion?"
This is a trick question - there is no difference.
Exploiting overlaps like this can help save you hours of revision time.
What is the "gold standard" of research in health psychology?
Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment.
List the three topics in the "Determinants of Health" topic.
Risk and protective factors
The Biopsychosocial model
Dispositional factors and health beliefs