Course Schedule (Click on a week for course content) |
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8 / 30 |
Introduction: Course goals, student goals, evaluations. Examples of health behavior models: Social networks, "social neuroscience", non-conscious determinants of behavior. |
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9 / 6 |
Overview of Health behavior & behavioral medicine concepts |
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9 / 13 |
Applications of personality theory to health & health behavior. |
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9 / 20 |
Basic attitude theory, self-regulation |
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9 / 27 |
Self-regulation, Self-Efficacy and Health Belief models. |
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10 / 4 |
Cognitive respresentations of health and illness. |
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10 / 11 |
Dual systems theories: affect, cognition and self-regulation. |
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10 / 18 |
Judgments of vulnerability & risk estimation. |
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Some out-of-the-blue bonus readings on evolutionary perspectives. |
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10 / 25 |
Self-awareness, "Automaticity", and Cognitive Escape. |
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11 / 1 |
Overview of Psychoimmunology: affect, coping and health. |
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11 / 8 |
Psychoimmunology 2: Effects and interventions |
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11 / 15 |
Socio-economic Status, Race & and Health. Minority Stress. |
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Week 13 |
11 / 22 |
No class: Have a happy Thanksgiving. |
11 / 29 |
Policy, Economic and Political Influences on Health |
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12 / 6 |
Spirituality, Happiness, Mindfulness, Well-Being and Health. |
Announcements & Miscellany Is facebook making us lonely? Click the image for a good Atlantic piece that reviews the very interesting literature on loneliness, and explores the effect of facebook. For recent highly scientific data on Facebook-related attitudes, click here. The Atlantic also has a recent piece on the potential evolutionary advantages of talking about oneself; click the image... |
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Overview |
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Lecture Notes. Many weeks have PowerPoint notes associated with them. If you decide to print them your might wait until the week before each class to print these, since I will likely be changing them as we proceed. Grant Proposal. The other evaluation is your writing a brief PHS-style grant proposal, presenting an empirically testable model of a health behavior or intervention. Students are strongly advised to articulate this project with their other (MA, Prelim, Ph.D.) work. We will discuss these in class. I will also expect students to present their ideas to the class in 15 minute APA-style talks (we will see if we have time for everyone to get a turn). An over-inclusive paper outline is here. The Health Blog I have been periodically writing to is here. I plan to use in for class, so check it out. |
Week 1 8 / 30 |
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Introductions, student goals and projects, overall framework of Health Psychology This first week we will articulate goals. So, for your Wiki entry, besides commenting on the papers please note your interests in Health Behavior and/or theories or empirical questions you are particularly interested in. I will try to adjust the schedule to meet everyone's interests. To kick off we will have readings at two extremes, to illustrate the range of issues we will address and to get you all thinking. The first is on social networks and obesity, and two others taking a neurobiological look at behavior, one a review of "Social neuroscience" and another on histocompatability, mating and romantic faithfulness (and you thought love was an emotion...). Warm-up Reading Do your friends make you fat (happy, fit, a smoker...)? Read a nice overview of social network approaches to health, particularly the Christakis & Fowler analyses of the Framingham study, from the NYT Sunday Magazine (click image; a word version is here).
Click this image for a critique of the Christakis & Fowler analysis, also from the NYT: Lecture Notes HerePrimary Readings Christakis, N. A., & Fowler, J. H. (2007). The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years. N Engl J Med, 357(4), 370-379. Link Barabasi, A.-L. (2007). Network Medicine -- From Obesity to the "Diseasome". N Engl J Med, 357(4), 404-407. Link Cacioppo, J. T., Amaral, D. G., Blanchard, J. J., Cameron, J. L., Sue Carter, C., Crews, D., et al. (2007). Social Neuroscience: Progress and Implications for Mental Health. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2(2), 99-123. Link Garver-Apgar, C. E., Gangestad, S. W., Thornhill, R., Miller, R. D., & Olp, J. J. (2006). Major Histocompatability Complex Alleles, Sexual Responsivity, and Unfaithfulness in Romantic Couples. Psychological Science, 17(10), 830-835. Link Christakis, N. A., & Fowler, J. H. (2008). The Collective Dynamics of Smoking in a Large Social Network. N Engl J Med, 358(21), 2249-2258. Link Fowler, J. H., & Christakis, N. A. (2008). Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network: longitudinal analysis over 20 years in the Framingham Heart Study. British Medical Journal, 337(dec04_2), a2338-a2347. Link Click here for comments and rebuttals on this line of research |
Week 2 9 / 6 |
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These readings are a little dated but give good overviews of core concepts and models. We will do more "big picture" stuff as we go along, particularly on the Psychosocial side. The Krantz article is limited to CHD, but gives a more recent look at core constructs. Lecture Notes Here Primary readings Breslow, L. (2004). Perspectives: The Third Revolution in Health. Annual Review of Public Health, Preface,Vol. 25, xii - xviii. Link House, J.S., Landis, K.R., & Umberson, D (1988). Social relationships and health. Science, 241, 540-545. Link Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., & Layton, J. B. (2010). Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review. PLoS Med, 7(7), e1000316. Link Baum, A. & Posluszny, D.M. (1999). Health Psychology: Mapping Biobehavioral Contributions to Health and Illness. Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 137-163. Link Krantz, D. S., & McCeney, M. K. (2002). Effects Of Psychological And Social Factors On Organic Disease: A Critical Assessment of Research on Coronary Heart Disease. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 341-369. Link Bonus Reading Gladwell, M. The Tipping Point. New Yorker. Link |
Week 3 9 / 11 |
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Basics of personality theory and applications to coping, health behavior, and physical health. "Personality" encompasses many theories and variables: "temperament", The "Big 5", Type A / C / D, "Bis-Bas", impulsivity, and so on. We will not remotely cover all this territory. For this week I want you to understand how personality constructs are validated, and to get a sense of the "Big 5" personality model, currently the big dog of personality theory, as well as other constructs that have been associated with health. Begin with two nice overviews by Smith. The first covers construct validity and other issues surrounding personality theory, while the second is a concise discussion of how personality may actually relate to health. Then read about the Big 5 and all cause mortality. This provides a quick overview of the theory, and data addressing how it may predict health (hint: neuroticism and (low) conscientious will kill you!). Then read Harriet de Wit's excellent paper on impulsivity and drug use. Impulsivity is associated with lots of poor health behavivors, as she quickly reviews, and may be itself increased by drugs. Then get to a concise overview of Type D personality (negative affect / neuroticism plus social inhibition) and cardiac disease. If you are interested in this construct I have two very good bonus papers by Denollet on the development of the DS14 scale of Type D Take the Big 5 personality inventory here. Take the DS14 (type D personality) here. Score yourself using the attached sheet. Warm-up reading Are kids
inherently riskier than adults? Is it their brain?
Or is that a myth? Click image for an interesting NYT op-ed piece. Primary readings Smith, T. W., & MacKenzie, J. (2006). Personality and Risk of Physical Illness. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 2(1), 435-467. Link Smith, T.W. (2006). Personality as risk and resilience in physical health. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(5), 227-231. Link Sher, L. (2005). Type D personality: The heart, stress, and cortisol. Quarterly Journal of Medicine, 98, 323-329. Link Bonus Readings Denollet, J. (2005). DS14: Standard assessment of negative affectivity, social inhibition and Type D personality. Psychosomatic medicine, 67, 89-97. Link Yanovitzky, I. (2005). Sensation Seeking and Adolescent Drug Use: The Mediating Role of Association With Deviant Peers and Pro-Drug Discussions. Health Communication, 17(1), 67-89. Link Carver, C. S., & Connor-Smith, J. (2010). Personality and Coping. Annual Review of Psychology, 61(1), 679-704. Link Crawford, I., Hammack, P. L., McKirnan, D. J., Ostrow, D., Zamboni, B. D., Robinson, B., et al. (2003). Sexual sensation seeking, reduced concern about HIV and sexual risk behaviour among gay men in primary relationships. AIDS Care, 15(4), 513-524. Link Amodio, D. M., Master, S. L., Yee, C. M., & Taylor, S. E. (2008). Neurocognitive components of the behavioral inhibition and activation systems: Implications for theories of self-regulation. [Article]. Psychophysiology, 45(1), 11-19. Link |
Week 4 9 / 20 |
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Basic attitude theory, self-regulation
I am changing to a new lead attitude article this year, Bohner & Dickel's Annual Review paper. This may be a little tough for those of you who have had no introduction to attitude theory/research, but it does cover some recent, very exciting developments in that field with direct relevance to health. I have put my old lead article as a bonus; it reviews basic attitude theories well.. Quickly look it over first if you can. I am also including a bonus paper on attitude change and persuasion by Wendy Wood. To some extent that is the real bottom line for us, but I don't want to load you up with too many readings. Get to it if you can, however.
Warm-up media
On a more serious note, click the image to the left for an excellent piece from Frontline on the "vaccine wars". Beginning in the late 90s - and extending in a big way until Lancet retracted a phoney research paper that had poured fuel on that fire -- this huge attitude shift left many kids here and particularly in Briton unvaccinated. Of course these cultural fears continue now, and affect medical decision making (fear being far stronger than bland science in steering attitudes and decisions.) Primary readings Bohner, G. & Dickel, N. (2011). Attitudes and Attitude Change. Annual Review of Psychology, 62, 391–417. LinkKaroly, P. (1993). Mechanisms of self-regulation: A systems view. Annual Review of Psychology, 44, 23-52. Link Williams, G.C., Rodin, G.C., Ryan, R.M., Grolnick, W./S., & Deci, E.L. (1998). Autonomous regulation and long - term medication adherence in adult outpatients. Health Psychology, 17(3), 269-276. Link Albarracin, D., Johnson, B. T., Fishbein, M., & Muellerleile, P. A. (2001). Theories of reasoned action and planned behavior as models of condom use: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 127(1), 142-161.Link Bonus Reading Ajzen, I. (2001). Nature And Operation Of Attitudes. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 27-58. Link Wood, W. (2000). Attitude Change: Persuasion and Social Influence. Annual Review of Psychology, 51(1), 539-570. Link This paper is not really about attitudes or norms per se. (a key component of the Fishbein model is social norms), although I guess I could make a linkage between cultural norms, sexual attitudes, and lax self-regulation in key environments. Anyway, this is an excellent piece on the "down low" phenomenon among African-American men who have sex with men. Just to spice up your week... Link Politics, fear mongering, and attitudes toward vaccines
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Week
5 9 / 27 |
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More on self-regulation & Self-Efficacy.
Lecture Notes Here Warm-up media Warm-up reading Primary readings Carver, C.S. & Scheier, M.F. (2000). On the structure of behavioral self-regulation. In: M. Boekaerts, P. Pintrich & M. Zeidner (Eds)., Handbook on Self-Regulation. New York : Academic Press. Pp. 41-84. LinkMyrseth, K., & Fishbach, A. (2009). Self-Control: A Function of Knowing When and How to Exercise Restraint. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(4), 247-252. Link Bandura has a concise overview of his model-of-all-of-behavior on his web site. |
Week 6 10 / 4 |
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Cognitive representations of health and illness: The first paper is a nice (brief!) overview of the history of cognitive - health models, with a review of applications of one model to adherence and health in diabetes. The Wu paper applies a Protection Motivation model to drug use in adolescents. This model is basically a marriage of self-efficacy to risk appraisals. Read it in terms of individual differences in the salience of health and risk avoidance. The Benyamini paper provides a good review of Leventhal's "illness cognition" model, and moves us squarely toward cognitive appraisals of illness and coping resources. They examine affective responses as an outcome variable among women who are coping with a naturally occurring stressor, that of infertility treatment. The final paper provides a very good overview of coping models, stress, and key dimentions of affect. It presents a meta-analysis of experimental stress manipulations, a nice contrast to the measurement models that dominate this field. Their outcome variable is cortisol and immune function, so read this as a warm-up to the psychoimmunology section. Lecture notes here How do placebos work? Introductory Social Cognition Classic Markus, H. (1977). Self-schemata and processing information about the self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35(2), 63-78. Link Bonus Readings Ogden, J. (2003). Some problems with social cognition models: A pragmatic and conceptual analysis. Health Psychology, 22(4), 424-428. LinkAjzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (2004). Questions Raised by a Reasoned Action Approach: Comment on Ogden (2003). Health Psychology, 23(4), 431-434. Link Sturges, J.W. & Rogers, R.W. (1996). Preventive health psychology from a developmental perspective: An extension of protection motivation theory. Health Psychology, 15(3), 158-166. Link Ismail, K., Winkley, K., & Rabe-Hesketh, S. (2004). Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials of psychological interventions to improve glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes. The Lancet, 363(9421), 1589-1597. Important reference readings |
Week 7 10 / 11 |
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Dual systems theories: Affect, Cognition and Self-Regulation
How do we "choose" the correct path to be healthy? We think we rationally choose our dietary, exercise, romantic, or other health-related behaviors, but do we? The "rational operator" models of Social Psychology assume that conscious choices, based on attitudes, values, stoical norms and the like, guide us toward or away from health. However, cognitive control over health choice may be tenuous at best; Freud described consciousness as "...a reed blown in the wind of the emotions." The "dual systems" literature most clearly articulates the affect versus cognition conflict we have been dancing around in trying to understand the psychological basis of health behavior. The Hoffman et al. paper is a good & not too long overview, so spend time on that. You will see that a lot of this thought overlaps with the "controlled" versus "automatic" distinction in perception and cognition. The difference is that here affect weighs heavily in the "automatic" side, rather than, e.g., highly accessible or automatic thoughts.
Carver, in the second paper, harkens back to psychodynamic views (the "ego psychology" school) in showing how long this distinction has held in Psychology. He provides an historical and highly integrative review, with more emphasis on stable individual differences ("personality") in impulsivity or constraint. The Gailliot papers address the very interesting finding that cognitive control or restraint may be a limited resource: after exercising self-regulation on one task people are generally less able to self-regulate on subsequent tasks. The first paper reports (relatively minor) effects of self-regulatory depletion on actual sexual behavior in the lab (!). The second paper attributes these effects to blood glucose levels, suggesting a relatively straightforward physiological mechanism. The warm-up podcast is excellent - make time for it. The RadioLab guys review the issue of choice, emotions and mindfulness in a very entertaining and informative fashion. I have already spoken about some of the research they review. The clinical students will be interested in the Carver bonus paper: he ties self-regulatory ability into serotonin levels, and further into depression and aggression. Finally - do bacteria in your gut actually communicate to your central nervous system to cause emotional states? Read a quick review of a fascinating new perspective on "gut feelings" from last month's APA Monitor. Warm-up PodCast Listen to a great show from NYC RadioLab on emotions, logic, self-awareness and choice. From the producers: Lecture notes here Primary readings Make up reading from last week: Hofmann, W., Friese, M., & Strack, F. (2009). Impulse and Self-Control From a Dual-Systems Perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(2), 162-176. Link Carver, C. S. (2005). Impulse and Constraint: Perspectives From Personality Psychology, Convergence With Theory in Other Areas, and Potential for Integration. Personality & Social Psychology Review (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), 9(4), 312-333. Link Gailliot, M. T., & Baumeister, R. F. (2007). Self-regulation and sexual restraint: Dispositionally and temporarily poor self-regulatory abilities contribute to failures at restraining sexual behavior. [Article]. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(2), 173-186. Link Gailliot, M. T., Baumeister, R. F., DeWall, C. N., Maner, J. K., Plant, E. A., Tice, D. M., et al. (2007). Self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: Willpower is more than a metaphor. [Article]. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92(2), 325-336. Link Crum, A. J., Corbin, W. R., Brownell, K. D., & Salovey, P. (2011). Mind Over Milkshakes: Mindsets, Not Just Nutrients, Determine Ghrelin Response. Health Psychology, 30(4), 424-429. doi: 10.1037/a0023467. Link. Bonus Readings Carpenter, S. (2012). That Gut Feeling. APA Monitor, 9/2012. Link Carver, C. S., Johnson, S. L., & Joormann, J. (2009). Two-Mode Models of Self-Regulation as a Tool for Conceptualizing Effects of the Serotonin System in Normal Behavior and Diverse Disorders. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(4), 195-199. Link
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Week 8 10 / 18 |
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We will read Neil Weinstein's basic perspective on optimistic bias in risk perceptions, plus two empirical articles that illustrate these effects. Then read Janet Talors classic discussion of how optimism realistic or otherwise may in fact underlie positive mental health and coping. Following are two papers demonstrating how individual differences in optimism may in fact not only affect coping, but more direct measures of health. Warm up NPR report Click here for an NPR report on how patient attitudes - including perceptions of over vulnerability - drive up health costs.Primary Readings ![]() Weinstein , N.D. (1980) Unrealistic optimism about future life events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 806-820. Link Arnett, J. J. (2000). Optimistic bias in adolescent and adult smokers and nonsmokers. Addictive Behaviors, 25(4), 625-632. Link Blanton, H., & Gerrard, M. (1997). Effect of sexual motivation on men's risk perception for sexually transmitted disease: There must be 50 ways to justify a lover. Health Psychology, 16(4), 374-379. Link Taylor, S. & Brown, J.D. (1988). Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health. Psychological Bulletin, 103(2), 193-210. Link Raikkonen, K., Matthews, K. A., Flory, J. D., Owens, J. F., & Gump, B. B. (1999). Effects of optimism, pessimism, and trait anxiety on ambulatory blood pressure and mood during everyday life. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 76(1), 104-113. Link Segerstrom, S. C., Taylor, S. E., Kemeny, M. E., & Fahey, J. L. (1998). Optimism is associated with mood, coping and immune change in response to stress. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 74(6), 1646-1655. Link ![]() Bonus Readings Slovic, P., Fishhoff, B. & Lichtenstein, S. (1982). Facts versus fears: Understanding perceived risk. In: D. Kahneman, P. Slovic & A. Tversky (Eds.), Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1982.LinkSmith, T. W., Pope, M. K., Rhodewalt, F., & Poulton, J. L. (1989). Optimism, neuroticism, coping, and symptom reports: An alternative interpretation of the Life Orientation Test. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 56(4), 640-648. Link Click the image for a New York Times / Science Times |
Week 9 10 / 25 |
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Self-awareness, "Automaticity", and Cognitive Escape. This week we review the larger phenomenon of self-awareness. Most models we have discussed assume that people "know what they are doing" and make conscious decisions about behavior. That assumption may not always hold. Karoly several weeks ago and Bargh here notes that much of behavior is relatively mindless (that is, automatic rather than controlled). Automatic cognitive behavior (such as lexical processing, generative grammar, etc.) is dramatically more efficient: imagine if you had to consciously parse each sentence you recognize or speak. The same may be the case for much of our self-regulatory behavior. Of course there may be times when being mindful of our behavior and its consequences is actually aversive, and we are motivated to escape self-awareness. Heathertons semi-classic article reviews this, as does my humble entry in the HIV area. Christensen has two papers describing both self-awareness as it varies by symptom levels, and a self-awareness intervention. Bonus: A cute paper by our former faculty member Len Newman, plus a larger review by Bargh for those interested in further readings. Lecture notes here Video warm up Rosemary's Baby (the classic horror flick by Roman Polanski, starring Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes) has a great scene illustrating the interplay of mindlessness and self-awareness here. Does stress make us stupid? Brain changes in response to stress make make us less able to change our ineffective coping behaviors. Click the image for a recent overview from the NYT. Angier, N. Brain Is a Co-Conspirator in a Vicious Stress Loop. New York Times, August 18, 2009. Primary readings Bonus Reading |
Anytime |
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This gets even worse in an evolutionary frame, where the core assumption is that many key behaviors -- mate selection, social organization, eating behaviors are governed by naturally selected brain mechanisms that operate wholly outside of conscious awareness. This assumption has been important to those who stress the continuity of humans and other primates, and therefore assign no special status to the distinctive human characteristics of reflexive consciousness and verbal behavior. Bering & Shackelford counter this trend with interesting discussion of the possible role of human consciousness as a causal factor in evolution. Take a look at this if you need some reassurance that mind may still be important. I am including an Annual Review paper by Caporael that provides a general overview of evolutionary theories applied to Psychology, FYI. In applying evolutionary theories more directly to health I am including a Darwinian view of stress reactions I found very interesting by Korte. He argues that most species divide into Hawks and Doves, each of which represents a coherent approach to coping with adversity (environmental pressure, feeding
), and each of which has distinctive consequences for stress responses and physical health. This gets a little far afield from our discussion of social cognition (it reviews animal research and falls into the unconscious evolutionary mechanism camp), but is a very interesting read on possibly naturally selected stress responses. |
Week 10 11 / 1 |
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Psychoimmunology and "Illness Behavior" . I have added a paper by Sheldon Cohen, who has done a lot of work on stress and the immune system. This older paper remains one of the excellent studies experimentally demonstrating the differential effect of short- v. long- term stressors on upper respiratory infections. Lecture notes here Primary readings Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., McGuire, L., Robles, T. F., & Glaser, R. EMOTIONS, MORBIDITY, AND MORTALITY: New Perspectives from Psychoneuroimmunology. (2002). Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 83-107. Link. Suinn, R. M. (2001). The terrible twos--anger and anxiety: Hazardous to your health. American Psychologist, 56(1), 27-36. Link Cohen, S. et al., (1998). Types of Stressors That Increase Susceptibility to the Common Cold in Healthy Adults. Health Psychology, 17(3), 214-223. Link Bonus readings![]() Classic paper describing conditioning processes in immune function: Ader, R., & Cohen, N. Psychoneuroimmunology: Conditioning and Stress. (1993). Annual Review of Psychology, 44(1), 53-85. Link Everything you needed to know about stress, cytokines, illness behavior and depression: Very interesting evolutionary / ecological perspective on immune function: Of course all these variables interact with genetics. For an overview of "Epigenetics" - the influence of early and ongoing environmental stimulation on the activation of genetic traits - see: |
Week 11 11 / 8 |
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Lecture notes here Primary readings Wiedenfeld, S. A., O'Leary, A., Bandura, A., Brown, S., & et al. (1990). Impact of perceived self-efficacy in coping with stressors on components of the immune system. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(5), 1082-1094. Link
Good example of a psychotherapy intervention study: Therapy to lessen depression among breast cancer patients also lowers inflammation: Thornton, L. M., Andersen, B. L., Schuler, T. A., & Carson, W. E. (2009). A Psychological Intervention Reduces Inflammatory Markers by Alleviating Depressive Symptoms: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial. Psychosomatic Medicine, 71(7), 715-724. Link Smyth, J. M. (1998). Written emotional expression: Effect sizes, outcome types, and moderating variables. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66(1), 174-184. Link Simmons, D. A., & Broderick, P. A. (2005). Cytokines, stressors, and clinical depression: augmented adaptation responses underlie depression pathogenesis. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, 29(5), 793-807. Link More Psychosocial oriented Readings in Psychoimmunology Cohen, S., Frank, E., Doyle, W. J., Skoner, D. P., Rabin, B. S., & Gwaltney, J. M., Jr. (1998). Types of stressors that increase susceptibility to the common cold in healthy adults. Health Psychology, 17(3), 214-223. Link |
Week 12 11 / 15 |
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I have two excellent short bonus articles for you - try to get to them if you can. The first is an overview of social stress, immune and neuroendocrine changes, and infant birth weight: a very concrete example of the stress and health processes we have been discussing. Dunkel-Schetter makes clear references to SES and race in her discussion of these effects. The second is a little far afield - is it an overview of animal studies of separation, proinflammatory cytokine stimulation, and "depression". The interesting element here is that introducing an exogenous anti-inflamatory agent (IL-10) breaks up these strong effects. I also have a link to a very good NYT series on social class in the U.S. Lecture notes here Primary readings
Brief article outlining an informative model of how stress, behavior and immune function contribute to pre term birth (with a focus on SES and race): Hennessy, M. B., Schiml-Webb, P. A., & Deak, T. (2009). Separation, Sickness, and Depression: A New Perspective on an Old Animal Model. [Article]. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 18(4), 227-231. Link Oakes, J. M., & Rossi, P. H. (2003). The measurement of SES in health research: current practice and steps toward a new approach. Social Science & Medicine, 56(4), 769-784. Link |
Week 13 11 / 22 |
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Happy Thanksgiving! All students will be required to report on the health status of their Thanksgiving dinner next class. |
Week 14 11 / 29 |
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There are a number of readings, but most are short & easy, so do actually work your way through them.... Begin with minority stress, social norms and health behavior among men who have sex with men. This outlines a minority stress perspective emphasizing the intersection of cultural vulnerability and individual stress. A link to this Jr. Counseling Psychology special issue on GLBT health is given below. Second is a commentary on how our meritocratic ideology harms the health of groups that are discriminated against. Meritocracy presupposes that personal characteristics - rather than any political or structural variables - underlies our successes and problems. So, those who "don't make it" must have character flaws, potentially a stressful and self-defeating view. This perspective is topical given some recent conservative depictions of the "bottom 47%" as lazy and entitled. Rosmond describes the Metabolic Syndrome, a key construct in the pathways linking stress and health. This paper does a nice (brief!) job summarizing the general construct of stress, genetic contributions, and the cluster of poor health outcomes that characterized the metabolic syndrome (high blood pressure, antipose fat, high glucose levels...). ![]() Then is a Chicago Tribune series on the Oreo® cookie. The history of the Oreo illustrates a variety of issues, including financial pressure for junk food production, the role of regulation, and the potential influence of scientific findings, including whether researchers can or should ever be neutral about these topics. Brownson et al. review a wide range of policy and structural interventions for disease prevention. This is mostly tables; do not spend too much time on it, but go through it to get a sense of the diversity of structural interventions out there. The first cluster of bonus papers are very informative and eye-opening. I did not list them as required but it would be a big benefit for you to read them. They are all NYT-style commentaries, so they are easy reads.
Lecture notes here Primary readings ![]() Kwate, N. O. A., & Meyer, I. H. (2010). The Myth of Meritocracy and African American Health. American Journal of Public Health, 100(10), 1831-1834. Link Rosmond, R. (2005). Role of stress in the pathogenesis of the metabolic syndrome. Psychoneuroendocrinology 30(1): 1-10. Link Manier, J., Callahan, P., & Alexander, D. (2005) The Oreo, Obesity and Us. Chicago Tribune, 8/21/05, Link.
Political & Economic Changes and Health: Economic changes and obesity: Companion to the Brownson paper on the "built environment" and health, here focused on obesity. Certain political constituencies in the U.S. simply do not want to hear about health disparities. The Bloche & Steinbrook pieces from NEJM describe an attempt by the Bush administration to ignore SES and racial Disparities in health by altering a DHHS report in 2004 What is "racism"? "Classism"? How & when do they overlap / differ? A nice overview of social class differences in food resources and diet: Fat Stigma: The perception that you are (too) fat may cause health problems beyond the actual physical effects of weight... The Hamilton paper is from a special issue of Jr. Counseling Psychology on GLBT issues in mental health: |
Week 15 12 / 6 |
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Spirituality, Happiness, Mindfulness, Well-Being and Health We have the (currently) definitive study on whether being prayed for "works" on clear biomedical outcomes, plus two brief comments. This is followed by two papers (one co-authored by Leila Shahabi, one of our grads!) addressing whether simply being religious is health inducing. The Miller paper presents a nice overview of the question (for a special issue of American Psychologist), whereas the Powell paper actually provides a literature review.
![]() Warm-up reading See also a Chicago Tribune discussion of whether Christian Science prayer should be covered as "treatments" in an earlier version of a comprehensive health care bill here. Primary readings Does prayer work? Benson, H., Dusek, J. A., Sherwood, J. B., Lam, P., Bethea, C. F. et al. (2006). Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: A multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer. American Heart Journal, 151(4), 934-942. Link
What qualities of religious faith may enhance health?
Masters, K.S. (2008). Mechanisms in the relation between Religion and Health with an Empasis on Cardiovascular Reactivity to Stress. Research in the Scientific Study of Religion, 19, 91-115. Link. Powell, L. H., Shahabi, L., & Thoresen, C. E. (2003). Religion and spirituality: Linkages to physical health. American Psychologist, 58(1), 36-52. Link. Happiness, positive coping and mindfulness: A secular spirituality?Both these papers have some heft to them, but please read on!! Ryan & Deci are the autonomous regulation guys, and their review of happiness, well-being and the like is very good and readable. Brown & Ryan give an very good overveiw of assessment and operation of mindulness. See bonus papers for empirical studies of mindulness & immune function.. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2001). ON HAPPINESS AND HUMAN POTENTIALS: A Review of Research on Hedonic and Eudemonic Well-Being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 141-166. Link. Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2003). The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(4), 822-848. Link. Bonus Readings Jane Simoni explores subjective spirituality among HIV+ women, a major issue in working with African-American and other ethnic minority women in HIV/AIDS. This is followed by some papers on mindfulness, and the remaining papers from that American Psychologist set. Then I have included most of the papers from a special issue of Behavioral Medicine on spirituality and health, FYI. Folkman, S., & Moskowitz, J. T. (2000). Positive affect and the other side of coping. American Psychologist, 55(6), 647-654. Link. Schneider, R., et al. (1995). A Randomized Controlled Trial of Stress Reduction for Hypertension in Older African Americans. Hypertension; 26: 820-827. Link Tartoro, J., Luecken, L.J., & Gunn, H.E. (2005). Exploring Heart and Soul: Effects of Religiosity/Spirituality and Gender on Blood Pressure and Cortisol Stress. Journal of Health Psychology, 10(6) 753–766. Link. Wink, P., Dillon, M., & Larsen, B. (2005). Religion as Moderator of the
Depression-Health Connection. RESEARCH ON AGING, Vol. 27 No. 2, March 2005 197-220. Link Simoni, J. M., Martone, M. G., & Kerwin, J. F. (2002). Spirituality and psychological adaptation among women with HIV/AIDS: Implications for counseling. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 49(2), 139-147. Link. |