Promotion and maintenance of health Avoidance, diagnosis, and treatment of illness Improvement of health care provision Focuses on areas of health where mental processes are involved e.g. sleep, stress, drug misuse, how people cope with life threatening illnesses, and...
Health Psychology
Define and Use Psychological Terminology Appropriately and Accurately
Substance misuse Addiction to a substance that causes disruption in everyday life Use of a drug in a way that affects the individual’s mental and physical health Interferes with social and personal functioning Synapse Tiny gap between axon terminal and dendrite In the...
Describe and Evaluate the Use of Animals in Laboratory Studies When Researching Into Drugs
Animals are used in laboratory studies in health psychology to investigate the effects of drugs Mice, rats, pigeons Genetically similar to humans Good when we cannot use people Controlled lab experiments – IV, DV, hypothesis Can find cause and effect Can study an...
Describe and Evaluate Two Research Methods Using Humans to Study the Effects of Drugs
Laboratory studies Aim to investigate the effects of drugs on mental and physical processes Data gained is used to further understanding of the nature of a psychoactive drug Objective, quantitative measurements – brain scans Behavioural measurements – speed of...
Describe Two Explanations for Substance Misuse. One Explanation Must Be From the Biological Approach, and One From the Learning Approach
Learning Approach – Social Learning Theory Observe role models taking drugs e.g. celebrity in media Identify with the role model – want to do the same Become motivated to take drugs and be like their role model Start imitating their role model’s behaviour of taking...
Describe and Compare Relative Strengths and Weaknesses of Explanations From the Biological and Learning Approaches
Both explanations can be tested with animal studies However, data gained from animal studies is hard to generalise to humans Neither explanation can give reason as to why some people are more likely to become addicted to a substance than others The learning approach...
Describe and Evaluate Two Ways of Treating Substance Misuse, Including Drug Treatment in Heroin Dependence (the Biological Approach) and One Other – Aversion Therapy for Alcohol Abuse (the Learning Approach)
Methadone – treatment in heroin dependence (Biological Approach) Synthetic opiate – similar in chemical structure to heroin – has a similar effect at the synapse – replaces heroin at synapse Taken orally as a liquid Addicts assessed and level of methadone is...
Describe and Evaluate One Campaign That Has Encouraged People Not to Use Recreational Drugs (Scared Campaign). Note: in Exam, Students May Be Given Stimulus Material About the Application and Asked to Describe and Evaluate, Drawing on Knowledge of the Application and the Five Psychological Approaches in as.
Scared Campaign 2008 – description Using the concept of children being scared of a parent dying Targeted at parental conscience Smoking parents are encouraged to identify with the parent being portrayed on the advertisement (TV) Exploits parental protectiveness of...
Describe and Evaluate One Study on Heroin (Blattler Et Al 2002) and One Other Study (Stacy Et Al 1993).
Blattler et al 2002 Heroin maintenance programme – Switzerland Aim To see whether supplying heroin on a medical programme, combined with therapy, would reduce cocaine use among participants Sample 266 heroin addicts who also take cocaine 168 male – 98 female Original...
Describe One Key Issue in Health Psychology, Using the Content Studied Within the Application. What Is the Key Issue?
What is the key issue? Whether or not drug abuse can be treated Why is the topic a key issue? Drug misuse and addiction have so many underlying dimensions and disrupt so many aspects of an individual’s life Treatments must help the individual stop using drugs and...
Summarise Two Magazine or Newspaper Articles Concerning a Topic Covered Within This Application. Write Up the Summaries and Draw Conclusions About Their Findings Linked to Concept, Theories, and/or Research From the Topic of Relevance.
Describe how you carried out your practical investigation As out key issue is ‘can drug abuse be treated?’ I sourced two newspaper articles from ‘The Guardian’ and ‘Daily Mail’ websites, focusing on treatments with a psychological rather than biological basis Both of...