Health Psychology & Behavioral Medicine Flashcards

A health psychologist is designing an intervention to reduce smoking in low-income communities. Which social determinant lens is most critical to address?

Answer: Structural factors including tobacco marketing targeting, stress from economic hardship, and limited cessation resources

Effective interventions in low-SES communities must address structural barriers—targeted advertising, chronic stress from poverty, and lack of access to cessation programs—not just individual motivation.

Which psychological construct refers to the degree to which a person believes they can successfully perform a health behavior under challenging circumstances?

Answer: Self-efficacy

Self-efficacy (Bandura) is the domain-specific belief in one's capability to execute a required behavior, and is one of the strongest predictors of health behavior initiation and maintenance.

Prolonged bereavement following the death of a spouse is most associated with which health consequence?

Answer: Increased mortality, particularly from cardiovascular disease, in the months following loss

The 'widowhood effect' documents elevated mortality risk—especially cardiovascular—in the months after spousal loss, driven by grief stress, behavioral changes, and loss of health-promoting social support.

Which factor most distinguishes illness behavior from disease in behavioral medicine?

Answer: Illness behavior encompasses how individuals perceive, evaluate, and act on symptoms, independent of objective pathology

Mechanic's concept of illness behavior describes the socially and psychologically influenced process by which people interpret, respond to, and seek care for symptoms, which may or may not correspond to measurable pathology.

A patient undergoing dialysis for end-stage renal disease reports feeling that life is meaningless and that they are a burden to their family. The health psychologist's first clinical priority should be:

Answer: Conducting a thorough suicide risk assessment given the elevated risk in this population

End-stage renal disease carries substantially elevated suicide risk; statements about meaninglessness and burdensomeness (Joiner's interpersonal theory) require immediate systematic risk assessment before other interventions.

Which concept describes the tendency for health interventions to be most effective for patients who are already motivated and least effective for those at highest risk?

Answer: Prevention paradox

The prevention paradox (Rose) notes that population-based interventions produce most absolute benefit at the population level but individuals at highest risk may respond least, while already-motivated low-risk individuals show strong change.

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) offers a methodological advantage in health psychology research primarily because it:

Answer: Captures real-time health behaviors and psychological states in natural settings, reducing recall bias

EMA collects data repeatedly in participants' daily lives, capturing in-the-moment behaviors and states and avoiding the distortions inherent in retrospective self-report.