IB Docs (2) Team
Health glossary
The following page is simply a glossary of terms to assist students with the health psychology unit. If there is a term that is missing from this list and you would like a clear definition, please let me know.
To make the glossary a bit more readable, the terms are divided into terminology related to research, concepts in health psychology and specific theories.
Terminology related to research
Ascertainment bias: When the way data is collected is more likely to include some members of a population than others. For example, when studies look for volunteers on a Saturday, this may exclude people who are working in retail on the weekends. It can also happen when you are looking at a trait (for example, homosexuality) and don't include people that don't have that trait in your research.
Cross-sectional design: Comparing two or more groups on a particular variable at a specific time. The opposite is a longitudinal design where the researcher measures change in an individual over time.
Domino causality: cause and effect relationships where the effects become causes and there is a sequential unfolding of effects over time.
Double-blind testing: an experimental procedure in which neither the researcher doing the study nor the participants know the specific type of treatment each participant receives until after the experiment is over; a double-blind procedure is used to guard against both experimenter bias and placebo effects.
Ecological fallacy: when we assume that because all of the members of a group share one trait (e.g. obesity), they share other traits (e.g. poor eating habits or lack of exercise).
Longitudinal study: research over a period of time using observations, interviews or psychometric testing. (Similar to a repeated measures design in an experiment).
Meta-analysis: Pooling data from multiple studies of the same research question to arrive at one combined answer.
Outcomes-based research: an attempt by healthcare agencies to see how certain healthcare practices, treatments, and other interventions affect a person's health. This type of research focuses on the results.
Participant attrition: the rate at which participants drop out of a study over time. This often occurs when research has many steps or takes place over a long period of time.
Placebo effect: a beneficial effect produced by a placebo drug or treatment, which cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must, therefore, be due to the patient's belief in that treatment.
Process-based research: an attempt by healthcare agencies to see how certain healthcare practices, treatments, and other interventions affect a person's health over time. This type of research is focused on the changes over time, rather than the final results.
Prospective research: A study that attempts to find a correlation between two variables by collecting data early in the life of participants and then continuing to test them over a period of time to measure change and development.
Single-blind testing: an experiment in which the researchers know which participants are receiving a treatment and which are not; however, the participants do not know which condition they are in.
Health concepts
Acute stress: comes from demands and pressures of the recent past and anticipated demands and pressures of the near future. Acute stress is short-term in nature.
Addiction: a condition in which a person engages in the use of a substance or in a behavior for which the rewarding effects provide a compelling incentive to repeatedly pursue the behavior despite detrimental consequences.
Adverse childhood experiences: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are stressful or traumatic events, including abuse and neglect. ACEs are strongly related to the development and prevalence of a wide range of health problems throughout a person’s lifespan.
BMI: Body Mass Index. An approximate measure of whether someone is over- or underweight, calculated by dividing their weight in kilograms by the square of their height in meters.
Cognitive appraisal: a personal interpretation of a situation and possible reactions to it
Defensive pessimism: a strategy that involves setting low expectations in risky situations in order to prepare for failure
Dispositional optimism: a global expectation that good things will be plentiful in the future and bad things scarce.
Downward comparison: when people compare themselves to those who are less proficient or worse off than they are.
Emotion-focused coping: involves trying to reduce the negative emotional responses associated with stress such as embarrassment, fear, anxiety, depression, excitement and frustration
Episodic acute stress: a lifestyle choice. Episodic acute stress is the result of constant worry, being over-extended or a lack of organization that leads to persistent stress. Episodic acute stress becomes integrated with one's personality and public image.
Ghrelin: a hormone that helps to regulate energy balance by stimulating hunger.
HPA Axis: an abbreviation for the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. These are the parts of the brain that are responsible for the flight or fight response.
Leptin: a hormone that helps to regulate energy balance by inhibiting hunger.
Locus of control: the degree to which people believe that they have control over the outcome of events in their lives.
Obesity: a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have a negative effect on health.
Optimism bias: a cognitive bias that causes a person to believe that they are at a lesser risk of experiencing a negative event compared to others.
Prevalence rate: the proportion of a population found to have a disorder. Lifetime prevalence" (LTP) is the proportion of a population that at some point in their life has experienced the disorder.
Problem-focused coping: targets the causes of stress and tackles the problem or stressful situation that is causing stress, consequently directly reducing the stress.
Protective factors: conditions or attributes in individuals, families or the larger society that, when present, lessen or eliminate the risk of mental disorders.
Risk factors: conditions or attributes in individuals, families or the larger society that, when present, increase the risk of mental disorders.
Self-efficacy: one's belief in one's ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task.
Upward comparison: when people compare themselves to people who are better off than they are.
Vicarious reinforcement: our tendency to repeat or mimic behaviors for which others are being rewarded
Theories in health psychology
Biopsychosocial model: A holistic approach to understanding health by looking at the interaction of biological, psychological and social factors that influence an individual's well-being. This was in response to the medical model which was solely based on biological origins of behaviour and was seen as being too reductionist.
Diathesis-Stress Model: The theory that behavior may be the result of a genetic predisposition that is "activated" by stress from life experiences. This approach is an interactionist approach that looks at how biological and environmental factors interact in order to cause behavior - for example, over-eating and obesity.
General Adaptation Syndrome: describes the immune system's response to stress. It involves an alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion. It is seen as an explanation of how long-term stress affects one's health.
Health belief model: a model that attempts to explain and predict health behaviors by focusing on the attitudes and beliefs of individuals.
Social self-preservation theory: A cognitive theory of stress. Situations that threaten the "social self" result in increased feelings of low self-esteem which increases one's level of cortisol.
Theory of planned behaviour: One's health behaviors are shaped by one's attitude toward the behaviour, subjective norms, and perceived self-efficacy.
Vulnerability theory: the inability of people to withstand adverse impacts from multiple stressors to which they are exposed. This may be the outcome of a genetic predisposition, patterns of cognition, adverse childhood experiences, or environmental risk factors. The more risk factors for stress that one is exposed to, the more vulnerable one is for negative health effects.
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