Ch 10 Health & Well-Being

A lot of things affect our well-being and health as humans. The main parts are biology, psychology, and social factors influence health. Many see people healthy as not being sick like from a disease but there are other important parts to being healthy. For the biological part there are genetic predispositions like exposure to germs, and brain and other nervous system development. Socially we are affected by the environment, cultural factors, family relationships, and social support. People need these as a source of security so that they can be healthy. Lastly there are the psychological factors like thought, actions, lifestyles, stress, and health beliefs. These three areas are what make people healthy and is called the Biopsychosocial Model which shows how health is made. Body weight also has an important role health and well-being. The most common measure of body weight is the Body Mass Index, or BMI. The body index chart is good way to measure this but it doesn’t take in the amount of muscle mass so it isn’t always accurate, but it is a good starting point. In 1960, having a BMI of 40 was unheard of but now 1 in 20 Americans have a 40. Obesity is a growing concern in the United States because it can lead to heart disease and other serious health problems causing death. A big part of obesity is the genetic influence which tends to run in families. Sometimes being scared of being fat can cause anorexia nervosa which is the fear of becoming fat and take in a low amount of energy to have a low body weight. Individuals with bulimia have a similar fear but instead diet, binge eat, and purge to stay skinny. Another major killer of people all over the world is smoking. Smoking is influenced by family and friends because if they smoke, then the individual is more likely to smoke as well. There are many reasons how we can be ill and sick, but on the bright side there are also many ways to be healthy. Changing habits can improve health such as adding exercise into your daily routine. Exercise can enhance your mood and keep you fit and good looking. This chapter informs me not to smoke and to find ways to exercise when I can to stay healthy. The most important thing to me are how stress can have a huge impact on a person’s life.
Well-being, Biopsychosocial Model, BMI, anorexia, bulimia

So many people, especially in our western culture, attribute health to the absence of disease. This is very untrue. Our health is actually measure by our well-being which is the positive state in which we feel our best. This skewed view of health leads to misconceptions about the power we have over our health. Too many people only see the biological factors that affect health like germs, genetics, and brain and other nervous system development. Health has two other factors which all affect each other. The psychological factors are thoughts, actions, lifestyle, stress, and health beliefs. The other is social conditions such as environment, cultural influences, family relationships, and social support. Knowing this about health I have made many changes in how I view my personal health and what I do in my life to improve my health. I no longer only think about needing to eat healthy and exercise. I also make an effort to surround myself with positive people and environments. I try to avoid things that bring up stress in my life. I think positively and do things in my daily life that make me feel good like going outside or being productive. I can tell even these small changes have made an affect of my overall well-being and health.
What interested me the most was the benefits of positivity and well-being. There was a study done in which patients took a questionnaire that measured positive emotions (hope and curiosity) and negative emotions (anger and anxiety). A few years later the patient's medical record were looked at to see if there was any relationship between these emotions and a few specific diseases. Higher levels of hope lead to lower risk of these diseases and higher levels of curiosity were associated with lower risk of hypertension and diabetes. I think that emotions are more powerful than many people believe.
When people see an image of themselves and that same image mirrored they tend to prefer the mirrored image. People family members preferred the original image because that is how they are used to seeing the person. This really surprised me. This is due to the mere exposure effect. People prefer the mirrored one because they are used to seeing their image mirrored. The more familiar you are with something the more you are likely to like it.

Psychological Terms: health, well-being, biological, genetics, brain, nervous system, development, psychological, mere exposure effect

My understanding of health and well-being has changed dramatically since reading this chapter. Before this reading, I had no idea of all of the factors associated with health and well-being. I simply believed that if you ate properly, you would be healthy. I know now that I was far from correct and that one’s health depends on a lot more than just what you eat. Behaviors and attitudes also play a role in whether someone is healthy or not. Small changes in behavior, as well as changes in attitude, can get one back on track to live a healthy life. Psychologist have found that personality and thoughts also impact our health in one way or another. An example that was shared in the book was the impact of high anxiety. A person with high anxiety is more likely to stress out about a test which can lead to a larger consumption of food. The eating of more food can lead to weight gain which ultimately leads to a decrease in health. This reading gave me many things to think about when I consider my health.
I learned a lot from this chapter and what I have learned will have an impact in my day to day life. I will now be more conscious about what I eat and in the portion sizes of my meals and snacks. I also have a better understanding of the ways that stress can impact health. This is something that I will now be more conscious of each day. Even small changes in eating habits and stress can help me live a healthier more enjoyable life.
The most interesting thing to me in this chapter was the section on different responses to stress. I found all of the different impacts that stress can have on a person very interesting. The immune system is greatly impacted by stress. When someone is stressed their level of white blood cells decreases. This makes people more susceptible to becoming sick. Fight-or-Flight is another way that stress impacts us. During a fight-or-flight reaction our bodies are ready to deal with an attack and the body begins to fight back. I had no idea of all of the physical impacts of stress on the human body.
What I found most surprising was the section in this reading which covered where in the United States the people were with the highest and lowest well-being. Five hundred people across the United States participated in this survey. The participants were asked about their lives, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behavior and access to food and shelter. I was surprised to see that Iowa was ranked among the group with high well-being. I also noticed that states with lower populations were the ones with higher well-being. I can understand the relationship between the populations and the stress levels. Life in areas with fewer people can be less stressful than life in congested areas. I have also always been told people in Iowa are very friendly, which can impact the mental health of its residents.
Terms: Stress, Well-being, immune system, behaviors, attitudes, fight-or-flight

Reading this chapter really opened my eyes. I have always known that stress can negatively impact being as healthy as possible because it has happened to me many times. For example, the stressor in my life would be a change in my high school. This would be categorized under major life stressors because it was a large disruption in my high school career, having to make that big of a change. The mediating factor would be my coping strategies, which involved eating in excess. When eating this much in little amounts of time, it would be considered binge-eating disorder, which I was diagnosed with a few months after moving schools. It became a normal way of eating to me because I had just gotten in the routine of it for a long time. The stress response would be physically- gaining 20 pounds, psychologically- developing depression, and behaviorally- becoming very irritable. I think it was very beneficial for me to be able to connect these because it never really made a lot of sense to me why all of it happened so quickly, but now after reading how much stress can impact your health, I understand it to a deeper level.
I thought the most interesting topic was learning strategies to help stay healthy. All of these tips make a lot of sense to me because they were of a lot of help to me. The most important on to me was happiness exercises. One that really aided me in getting better was complimenting myself. Sometimes you have to think good things about yourself and have good self talk, because without it, you are really against yourself and nothing can be positive if you don’t let it. When I used to get compliments, I wouldn’t take them because I didn’t believe them and now when I am complimented, I take it and make myself believe it, no matter how difficult it is. I also started to be very active because my weight was one of the most negative thoughts that I fed myself. I began to exercise regularly and it not only helped me lose weight, but I naturally felt better about myself. It gave me more energy and it all around helped my moods.
The most surprising thing I read in this chapter was learning about body mass index. It wasn’t really what I wanted to learn about- reading that I’m overweight. I already thought that, but I didn’t know it for a fact. About 135 pounds is ideal weight for my height. I don’t really think this is as accurate as it could be but I think it’s a good chart for approximating. I believe that most people these days will find themselves either overweight or obese, honestly. I think it’s crazy to me that in the 10.4 figure, that more people are obese now than just overweight.
Psychological Terms: stress, stressor, major life stressor, mediating factor, coping strategies, binge- eating disorder, stress response, happiness exercises, BMI, overweight, obese

After reading chapter ten, I now understand all the concepts that make up our well-beings. Some examples which I learned more about were the types eating disorders and how they can play a huge role in our well-being. I also learned more about how stress can cause problems. I also think the section about stress was one of the most interesting sections to read because I know I am under a lot of stress along with almost every other student. Being a freshmen in college leads me to have a lot of stress because it’s hard to balance everything throughout the course of one week. In this section, I learned more details about the three parts which make up stress. These include; stressor, stress responses, and mediating factors. Stressors are the threatening event which takes place in a person’s life and this can even be simple daily tasks. The stress responses can be physical, psychological and behavioral. Mediating factors include personality and certain ways of coping with the stress. Major life stressors and daily hassles are different but both can play a huge role in causing stress. Major life stressors are certain changes which strain main areas of a person’s life. Daily hassles include day to day annoyances. I was looking through the “try it yourself” chart on page 361 and I was looking through the type of events and realized I have been through a lot of these events. My first major stressor happened back in the fifth grade when I lost my grandma to cancer and this put a lot of stress on a ten year old. I did not really know how to handle the stress of losing her. One big major life stressor I have experienced so far is coming to college. The couple of weeks and even months prior to college was stressful because I had to decided what I needed to bring, how much of it should I bring, and filling out financial aid to name a few. I am sure I will experience several more of these stressors as I continue throughout life. Daily hassles for me would include waiting in line for lunch or dinner, being stuck behind slow walkers/drivers,and of course homework. One memorable fact I learned in this reading was about how stress can enlarge adrenal glands and can potentially damage the immune system. I knew lots of stress isn’t healthy on the body, however, I didn’t know it could cause this. Another memorable fact I learned was short-term stress can boost the immune system through the fight or flight response. During this stage, the body has a better chance of being exposed to disease or infections this ultimately leads the immune system to notice and respond to the new factor. This reading also gave some tips in the last section of the chapter. Some of these include eat natural food, watch portion size, keep active along with others. I think every college student would like to achieve all of these but sometimes it’s hard to resist temptations when it comes to eating healthy and it’s difficult to fit everything like studying and exercising in one day.

Terms- Well-being, Fight or flight response, Stressors, Stress, Mediating Factors, Major Stressor, Daily Hassles, short term stress, Immune System

Since reading this chapter I now know that there are many aspects that go into health and well-being. Also, being healthy doesn’t just mean not being sick. Well-being is a positive state in which we feel our best. To achieve this state, we must strive for optimal health and life satisfaction. Understanding these two concepts means to study the complex relationship between thoughts (health related cognitions), actions, and physical and mental health. Overall, our behavior and social systems can affect our health. The Biopsychosocial Model illustrates how health and illness result from a combination of biological, psychological, and social factors. The two main factors talked about in this chapter that influence our health is obesity
and stress.
The information in this chapter can help me in my day-to-day life because I learned how stress can affect my health and how to avoid/minimize it. Being in college I definitely experience stress from classes. A stressor is an environmental event or stimulus that threatens an organism. There are two types of stressors; major life stressors and daily hassles. Major life stressors are large disruptions, especially unpredictable and uncontrollable catastrophic events that affect central areas of people’s lives. Daily hassles are everyday irritations that cause small disruptions, the effects of which can add up to a large impact on health. The general adaptation syndrome shows the patterns of physical responses to stress; alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. Once the body hits the exhaustion stage the person is more likely to experience adverse health effects and the body organs that were weak before the stressors are the first to fail. All of my exams and homework can be classified into daily hassles. By learning to relax, learning to cope, and following several other strategies described in this chapter I can help stay healthy and live a happy life.
The most interesting topic I read about was Type A and B behavior patterns. Type A describes people who are competitive, achievement oriented, aggressive, impatient and time-pressed. These personality traits also predicted heart disease, having high blood pressure, high cholesterol or smoking. Type B describes noncompetitive, relaxed, easygoing, accommodating people. Type B personality traits were much less likely to develop heart disease. I found it interesting that they were able conduct an experiment to find out if personality affects heart disease. This made me think about what type I am because I think I have a little bit of both behavior patterns.
The most surprising thing I read about in this chapter was Gary Stocklaufer’s story. He was a happily married man, the adoptive father of a great son, and certified by the state to be a foster parent. Gary and his wife were foster parents for his cousin’s son, and after 3 months filed paperwork to adopt him. However, the same Missouri judge who had presided over Stocklaufer’s earlier adoption said no this time just because Gary weighed between 500 and 600 pounds. The judge thought that he was likely to develop a serious disease and die at a young age due to his obesity. I couldn’t believe that the judge would rule that he was too obese to be a good parent. All that should matter is that the children are loved and in a good home. Since then however, he had surgery to lose weight and the court reversed the ruling.

Psychological Terms: health, well-being, biopsychosocial model, stimulus, major life stressors, daily hassles, general adaptation syndrome, type A behavior, type B behavior, heart disease

Starting the chapter reading about how individuals can be denied the right to adopt if he/she is overweight is something new to me. I had no idea when one wants to adopt that the approval, or denial of that right is based on many factors. Since one’s health and illness is based on three factors: psychological factors, biological characteristics, and social conditions, according to the biophychosocial model, it is crucial for one to be aware of this fact and control each factor. For instance, our attitudes and behaviors can affect our health, so one’s ethnic and sex differences influence health outcomes. In the book, it states that the Japanese tend to live very long lives due to the their combination of genetics and behavior. With that being said, if one is to learn from the Japanese ways then there is a great chance that one can establish a positive well-being.
The information that I learned that can help you day to day was that our thoughts and action affect the environments we find ourselves in. In addition those environments influence our thoughts and actions, which can result in a continuous loop. If you are an anxious person, chances are you cope with that anxiety in certain ways, if one eats food to suppress the anxiety it can help calm you down, but if you eat the food in excess then that will cause you to gain weight from overeating, which will make exercise difficult to do, so you don’t work out and being overweight makes you more anxious and the cycle, or loop, continues which could cause obesity.
The topic that interested me the most is section on how our immune system responses to stress. The books says that short term stress actually boosts the immune system, but chronic stress weakens it which leaves the body less able to fight off viruses, bacteria, or allergens. A perfect example of this is having the cold virus then mix that in with being highly stressed and in a study it showed that it caused worse symptoms.
The most surprising thing I read was the difference in well-being here in the USA. It just seemed like a very interesting index to see, which gave me a better view of how each state balances their health and illness factors and how satisfied they are with their lives.
Terms: overweight, overeating, biopsychosocial model, well-being, behavior, health, illness, obesity, immune system, stress

Chapter 10 blog response

10/26/14

My understanding of health and well-being was altered slightly, because I didn’t know that mental health played such a large role in your physical health. I knew to a certain extent that moods and stress could have some bad health effects, but never knew how significant they really were. This whole chapter explored something called health psychology which integrates research on health and psychology and applies psychology principles to promote health and well-being. I find it really awesome that people can find ways to prolong their lives, and the best part about it is that all of those ways are incentives to eat better, learn how to cope with stress and be a healthier person!

This was one of my favorite chapters that we have covered so far in this class, I say that because almost everything is applicable to my life. I enjoyed the section when the book discussed the positive effects exercise had on your body. To me, this is very applicable because I workout pretty regularly and I have used it as a stress reliever many of times. It actually was very helpful for me when my parents got a divorce two years ago. Working out really helped me to deal with my stress responses to what was happening. I was in a situation that I didn’t have much control over but it was definitely a healthy way to channel my stress and emotions. I learned that this sort of coping is emotion focused, which is when people try to prevent having an emotional response to a stressor. Since I had no say in the matter, exercise was my healthy way of distracting and distancing myself from the major life stressor I was experiencing.

Since I am kind of a workout junky, the section I was most interested in was the benefits of exercise. Up above I talked about how I used exercise to cope with my situation but the book also had a different take on the some of those same things. The first things they said that are beneficial about exercise are the obvious ones, it controls appetite, increases your metabolism, and burns calories. What we discover in this chapter is that it’s not just beneficial for your body but for your mind as well! Exercise is good for us, so it benefits our self-esteem, it makes us feel better about ourselves and gives us more confidence. Not only can exercise decrease fat and increase muscle but it can also enchances the growth of new neurons. Exercise is also shown to improve memory and cognition. Exercise is good for body and mind, another reason why it is such a great thing.

The most memorable things I read was the difference between men and women in adrenaline induces experiences. Although I don’t believe these prove to be true with every person and in every circumstance, I think that women definitely having a different approach to protecting themselves. Everyone has heard of the flight or fight response, but it was the first time I had ever heard of the tend and befriend response. Which is the female tendency to respond to stessors by protecting and caring for their offspring and forming social alliances. I can honestly say that this would be a legitmate thing that I would do. I am a small girl, and if the situation came down to it, I would fight like hell if I had to, but I know that some fights I just can’t win. For a person like me sometimes the best option would be to try to get through to whatever was about to do me harm. I thought this was interesting and something I would remember for a long time.

Terms: Well-Being, Health Psychology, Stress Responses, Emotion-Focused Coping, Stressor, Major Life Stressor, Fight or Flight Response, Tend and Befriend Response

Chapter ten helped me realize many things about health and well-being. I learned about anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder. After reading about each of these topics, I think that I have the binge-eating disorder. Everything in the description box was pretty accurate. Since I can now identify what my eating problem is, I can help myself in new ways. I’ll be able to understand what my body is telling me, listen to my hunger cues and more.
One topic that was very interesting to me was the topic of stress. I thought that it had very good timing considering finals are right around the corner! I learned many different things about stress for example, the exam that I have today is the stressor and how I prepare myself mentally is my stress response. I also learned that there are two different types of stressors. Those are major life stressors (catastrophic events that are not controllable such as deal or job loss) and daily hassles (daily irritations that can lead up to large health problems over the years). Each of these affects each person differently but, they can both damage your immune system and create general adaption syndrome leading to many health problems in the future.
The most appealing thing that appealed to me was the part about how body weight is socially contagious. I have always thought that this was an accurate thing, but never knew that there was a study about it. This part made me think about my own weight and my friends’ weights. I numbers, I mean pant sizes, add up. I think that this surprising correlation has to do with the biopsychosocial model. In other words, the fact that the people that you surround yourself with have that much of an impact on your own perception, goals, image of yourself, and your well-being. I’m in the process of losing weight, but now this is making me question if I can actually do it with all of my friends influencing me the wrong way. I feel as if I need to look more into health psychology and see if I can find some answers.
TERMS: Goals, perception, well-being, health psychology, biopsychosocial model, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, stress, stressor, stress response

My understanding of health and well-being has improved since reading this chapter. For example, I did not quite realize that there was a biopsychosocial model. It is a model that represents how health and illness can be affected by biological, social, and psychological factors. Some of the biological factors that affect health include exposure to germs, the nervous system, genetic inheritances, etc. The social factors that affect health include environments, family and friend relationships, influences of culture, etc. Finally, the psychological factors that affect health and illness includes stress, thoughts, actions, beliefs, etc. Overall, thoughts and actions affect the environments around us, therefore affecting the biological background of those thoughts and actions.
I also learned that health is not simply the lack of infection or disease. Health is a state of well-being. I knew that well-being and health were similar, but I was not aware that health truly meant the state of well-being. There are many things that contribute to health. Obesity is an incredibly large amount of body mass index. I was unaware that it was influenced by genetics, though. However, exercise can help this, and it also has physical, emotional, and cognitive benefits. I knew that it helped physically, but I was unaware of the true cognitive boost that exercise provided. Stress is another factor that can put a burden on health and well-being. However, there are many coping processes and activities to help gage stress in individuals. Social support and having a positive perspective in life leads to a happier, healthier well-being in life. I was unaware of all the factors and effects on health that this chapter provided.
I feel that the information from this chapter can really help in my own day-to-day life. For example, when one has a positive outlook on life, their health increases. Health can be improved by psychological thinking, such as thinking in an optimistic way. This is just one stress-reliever. Being a college student, my life gets very stressful and overwhelming. I know that it is okay to be a bit stressed, but I must learn different ways to cope with my stress so I can continue on with a healthy well-being in life. This chapter gave me ideas and information about coping with stress, such as meditation, happy exercise, and building a strong support system. All of these things can help me on a daily basis when I get stressed out.
Some topics that have always interested me are the topics of anorexia and bulimia. I knew slightly what they were about, I never fully understood them. These topics were the most interesting to me. Of course, both of these fall under the category of disordered eating. Anorexia nervosa is the excessive fear of becoming obese. To prevent that fear from occurring, one will restrict the amount they eat. Therefore, their energy intake is incredibly low and it leads to low body weight. One struggling with anorexia does not just starve, they vomit, overuse laxatives, or indulge in overactive exercise. Medical attention is required. Bulimia nervosa includes the alternating use of dieting and binge eating. Binge eating occurs more secretively than anorexia does. Bulimia is not fatal, but it is just as dangerous as anorexia. I always find it so fascinating how one can starve themselves. From experience, skipping a meal or two results in horrible aches and pains, and the energy level drops dramatically. Bulimia and anorexia, in my opinion, are slight mental disorders. If one feels that they are morbidly obese when in fact, they are just fine, then there has to be a psychological issue going on in the brain.
The most memorable thing from this chapter was the section that discussed stress affecting our health. As stated before, stress seems to be a constant feeling in college, with classes, homework, tests, and being out in the real world. Something memorable about this is that there are three components of stress, including stressors (which is an event that threatens an organism), stress responses (which are simple responses to stress), and mediating factors (which either increase or decrease the likelihood of a stressor igniting a response). I found the specific terms of stress very important to remember. Maybe a better understanding of stress will help me gage in on myself, and it can help me cope a little better when I feel stressed out.
Terms: Stressor, stress responses, mediating factors, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, biopsychosocial model, obesity, health, well-being.

Many of us think a simple thought when we hear the world health or the fact that someone is healthy. We simply think that being healthy is the absence of disease, but psychologist and health-care professionals look at health in a more complex way. They believe that our attitudes and behaviors are critical in our health and staying healthy. The field of health psychology is a field that studies and researches the application of psychological principle to promote health and well being (positive state where we feel our best). The biopsychosocial model shows the effects of biological, behavioral, and social factors on health. Psychological factors like your thoughts, how you react, and how stressed you get have an impact on your health, along with social conditions like the environment you’re living in, your relationships with your family and friend, and the amount of support you receive. These factors effect individuals differently; maybe someone is very “needy” of friends and relationships so when they aren’t being fulfilled with enough relationships they will be very sad, while another person doesn’t want many people in their life and this could cause different behaviors. Biological characteristics also have a factor on your health such as; genetic predispositions, exposure to germs, and brain and nervous system development. There are many things weighing in on one’s health so it differs from person to person.

There are also a lot of factors in our world today that make it hard to stay healthy. Being overweight is obviously not healthy. You can measure your obesity by using the body mass index (BMI) which is, a ratio of body weight to height. Obesity is a good example of biopsychosocial model of health. The way one thinks about food and obesity, not wanting to spend too much or too little money, and the idea of how fast you want your food all effects how you eat, which effects your weight, but genetics also plays a big part in obesity. Obesity is becoming a huge problem in todays world. Along with being overweight comes many diets and other strategies to losing the extra weight. When someones diet fails and they become frustrated they might, unfortunately, turn to eating disorders (which are very hazardous for health).

Along with obesity and eating disorders smoking has a big impact on our generations health. About 1 in 5 Americans are current smokers. Tobacco causes 5.4 million deaths worldwide every year. Smoking is blamed for 440,000 death per year in the United States and takes more than 12 years off a smoker’s life. Smoking can cause heart diseases, respiratory ailments, and numerous amounts of cancers. Along with the smokers damaging their own health, they are putting the people around them in danger as well. There are many different reasonings to why people even start smoking; that also are an example of a biopsychosocial model of health.

Stress is also a big effect on our health. Stress is a group of behavioral, mental, and physical processes occurring when events match or exceed the organism’s ability to respond in a healthy way. A stressor is an environmental event or stimulus that threatens an organism and stress responses are physical, behavioral, and psychological responses to stressors. There are two types of stressors; your major life stressors and daily hassles. Major life stressors are big, unpredictable events in your life. For example; if a tornado would come through and destroy your town that would be a major life stressor. A daily hassle would be if you were to get stuck in a traffic jam while trying to make it to work on time. The way we choose to respond to stress has many different health effects; whether you turn to friends for help, eat chocolate or ice cream, drink a few beers, or get upset; all of these choices have effects on your health.

Chapter 10 changed the way I thought about health completely. Previous to reading this chapter I thought health was just not being sick, but there is so much more to our health. I learned the many factors that have an impact on our health such as obesity, eating disorders, stress, and other environmental things. The most surprising thing that I learned in this chapter was about the adopted children and their BMIs. I figured that if children were adopted their weight would be like their adopted parents because they are being raised in their home, eating the meals they make, etc. But the book said the exact opposite, the adopted children's weight was related to the weights of their biological parents and not at all their adoptive parents. The most interesting topic in chapter 10 was that a healthy marriage is a positive health influencer. Being in a happy, loving marriage gives you a lifetime supporter, a lifetime friend and adviser, and many other positive factors which leads to better heath and well being.

Terms used: Health, well being, stressor, stress responses, major life stressors, daily hassles, stress, eating disorder, body mass index, biopsychosocial model, health psychology

Since reading this chapter my understanding on health and well-being has changed a lot. I though health and well-being just meant eating the right things and not being sick or having an illness. I didn’t know stress was the core to all of this. I now know that health and well-being has to do with psychological factors, biological factors and also social conditions. Our Immune system has a lot to do with us being healthy as well which I did not know. Reading this chapter can help me and many others on a day to day basis. It is important to know that stress has a major effect on our body. Depending on if it is a major life stressor or just a daily hassle. Even though major life stressors are worse than daily hassles, they can add up to be a major hassle if it happens on a day to day basis. Any little change in attitude or behavior can mean that we are stressed about something. The student stress scale is also good for many people to see because you can see what people generally stress over and can also see what your risk and chances are of a health change due to stress. Not only does stress affect us but also negative attitudes. This increases our risk of heart disease. It causes a lot of wear and tear on the heart which overall leads to heart disease. Even though many people do stress over many things there are ways with dealing with these stressors. We use emotion-focused coping, or problem- focused coping. In emotion-focused coping we prevent or at least try to prevent the stressor by numbing the pain. Ways of doing this is avoiding it, distancing our self from the problem, or do other things like eat a lot or drink a lot. Problem-focused coping is a better way of dealing with the stress which is trying to solve the problem. This can help me because many stressors come my way with school, basketball, and working. Knowing of the different ways of dealing with these stressors is helpful.

The most interesting topic that I read in this book was when I was reading about the several ways to stay healthy. Many of the things are true and I never would have thought about them being related to staying healthy. My favorites on this long list of things were to keep active, do not smoke, learn to relax, and try some happiness exercises. These are all good things to try to deal with stress I think and the next time that I am feeling stressed out I may have to come back to read this chapter.

The most surprising and memorable thing reading in this chapter that I read was about smoking is a leading cause of death. Even though I don’t think of cigarettes being that bad I read that smoking cigarettes lead to premature death. It also said that many people that smoke started between the ages of 11 and 17. I think this is amazing because I think there should be help for children to show them what cigarettes do to them. I think they are starting to show and say more of it but the generation that smokes the most I don’t think got that treatment. Being a smoker you can’t just quit because they then are already addicted to smoking.

Terms: Stressor, psychological factors, biological factors, social conditions, immune system, major life stressor, daily hassle, emotion-focused coping, problem- focused coping, health, well-being

Out of all of the chapters that we have read I have found that this one was the most relatable and the one that I knew the most information about. A lot of it was building on previous information that I was already aware of. While reading this chapter my understanding of health and well-being has changed. Health and well-being is something we’re all aware of but don’t take too seriously or think about it all that much, it’s just kind of there. After reading this chapter though I am more aware and more motivated to actually do something so I can have a healthier life and an overall healthier well-being as well. I need to make small changes in my life if I want to live a happier and less stress filled life. This information can help me in many ways in my day-to-day life. It reminded me that I need to get off my lazy butt and actually do something. I need to stop letting stress effect me on a daily basis because not only is it ruining my emotional and mental health, but my physical health as well. There are many stressors in college such as test, papers, and assignments. Following my stressors, my stress response isn’t always healthy ones, such as eating and avoiding doing the things that need to be done. There were many interesting topics in this chapter that stood out to me. One topic in particular was the Type A and B behavior patterns. I’ve always heard people talk about that but I’ve never been too sure which was which. People with a Type A behavior pattern shows more competitive, achievement oriented, impatient, and aggressive behaviors. While those with Type B behavior pattern show more relaxed, easygoing, noncompetitive, and accommodating behavioral traits. The other topic that I found very interesting was the one on the different responses to stress. One was immune response and immune system responds when we’re stressed out. The other was fight-or-flight which is the physiological preparedness of animals to deal with danger. Basically are you going to run from the danger or face it head on? The other, which is new to me, was tend-and-befriend response which is the female tendency to respond to stressors by protecting and caring for their offspring and forming social alliances. The last one was the general adaptation syndrome (GAS) which is a consistent pattern of physical responses to stress that consists of three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. The topics that were most memorable to me were the ones on eating disorders which are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder. With anorexia a person doesn’t eat because they see themselves as fat even though they are severally underweight. A person with bulimia alternates between dieting and binge eating. And those with a binge-eating disorder are when someone binges on food which causes significant distress.
Terms: Type A behavior pattern, Type B behavior pattern, stress, stressors, stress response, immune response, fight-or-flight, tend-and-befriend, general adaptation syndrome, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder

This chapter to me was the most interesting to me. My understanding on health and well-being has changed a ton. I learned about lot of factors that effect our well-being and health. I had no idea that dieting is not a good way of losing weight. I also learned about how being positive can help you health and over all well-being. In the mean time regulating emotions, controlling daily habits and coping with stress are also a good strategies for healthy life. This information in this chapter help me in my day-to-life, like it gave a way to control stress, how to eat healthy, different ways to relax.
Well-being is a stage where we feel good in a positive way. To get to this place we need to participate in health-enhancing behaviors. Some of the factors that can effect our health is overeating, genetic influence, restrictive dieting, and eating disorder. overeating is when you eat more than a usual meal size. If you eat the same type of food everyday you are more likely not to gain weight, but if you are presented with more than one type good tasting food everyday then, you are more liking to gain weight and more likely to overeat and become obese. In a research that found that close friends of the same sex tend to hand out with people of their size. So if you are obese then you will hang around people who are obese and you would then learn that obesity if normal. Another thing that effects our health is genetic influence. obesity tends to run in the family. Genetics determines whether a person can become obese or not, but the environment determines whether that person will be fed the right amount of food or not. Restrictive dieting is not a good way and a permanent way to loos weight. The way that the body response to dieting is that our body slows down metabolism and uses less energy therefor weight gain occurs much faster than weight loss. Another thing that effects our health is eating disorder. Individuals with anorexia nervosa has the fear of becoming fat. I usually begins in the early adolescence. There BMI is under 17. Issues with weight and food dominates their lives thus controlling how they view themselves and the world. Person with anorexia can engage in activates like vomiting, abuse of laxatives, excessive exercise and starves themselves. Bulimia nervosa, this disorder begins between late adolescence and they alternate between dieting and binge eating They binge regularly, feel their eating is out of control and worry excessively about body weight issues and engage in behaviors like vomiting, excessive exercise, or the abuse of laxatives. Another disorder that effects our health is binge-eating. People with this disorder do not purge and binge eat once a week.
The most intersecting topic for me was how stress effects our health. I do get stressed out easily so, maybe that is the reason why that topic is intersecting to me. There are three parts to stress, stressors, mediating factors, and stress response. Stressorrs is our everyday life hassles, meditation factors helps with coping stress and stress responses is the effect on physical, psychological, and behavioral. When a person is required to an adjustment due to major life events or daily hassles can also have an effect on health. A respond to health is general adaption syndrome, it is an alarming phase which includes exhaustion, continues stressor, fight-or-flight response and resistance. Some of the ways that people under stress responses is overeating or smoking.
The most memorable thing for me is several strategies can help us stay healthy. Eating natural food, such as whole grain, fruits, vegetables, and beans. Watching portion size eat only when you are hungry. Drink alcohol in moderation, if at all, excessive alcohol can cause liver problems, hearth diseases and immune system deficiencies and some cancer. Keep active, exercise is a good way to keep active.
Psychological terms- Health, well-being, obesity, genetic influence, restrictive dieting, disordered eating, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, stressors, mediating factors, and stress response, general adaptation syndrome

After reading this chapter my perspective on health and well-being was furthered and I gained a better insight on the topics. Before reading this chapter I believed that health was just not being sick and avoiding the urge to eat cake and candy for every meal. Also I thought of well being as more of a state or contentment and safety for people. I learned that the biopsychosocial model integrates the effect of biology, behavior and social factors on health and illness affects our health. The biological characteristics include our genetic predispositions, exposure to germs, and our brain and nervous system development. The psychological factors are our behaviors such thoughts, actions, lifestyles, stress, and our health beliefs. The social conditions are our environments, cultural influences, family relationships and social support. Health psychology does not focus primarily on being physically healthy and not having any illness or diseases but rather focuses on psychological principles to promotes ones help and well-being. Well-being is a positive state were we feel our best, which can be reached by striving for optimal health and life satisfaction. This state of optimal well-being can be achieved by participating in health-enhancing behaviors. A person can increase their health by changing their life-style and habits such as eating healthier, quit unhealthy habits such as overeating or smoking, increasing exercise, losing weight, and seeking and maintaining healthy relationships with others to promote your healthy lifestyle.
The most interesting part of this chapter was the section about stressors having a negative impact on our health. Stress is a group of mental, behavioral, and physical processes that occur when a threatening event matches or exceeds our ability to respond to the situation in a healthy way. Stressors cause us to produce many stress responses but mediating factors, personality and copy strategies, can cause a decrease or increase in the stress responses produced by the stressor. I also learned that there are different types of stressors such as major life stressors and daily hassles. Major life stressors are large disruptions in our life that are often unpredictable, uncontrollable positive and negative events that greatly affect peoples lives such as hurricanes, a sudden death of a loved one, getting married or starting a new job. Daily hassles are every day issues that cause small disruptions in ones life that can add up and cause a large impact on our health such as conflicts with others, traffic, large lines and overcrowded living areas.
The most surprising part of this chapter was the opening section about Gary Stocklaufer and the case about his weight possibly making him an unfit parent. I thought it was ridiculous that the same judge that allowed him to become a foster parent denied him the adoption of his foster child. I agree with the idea that some parents with unhealthy eating habits and sever obesity may be unfit to raise a child due to the fact that they could pass on these eating habits to the child. Since obesity arises from our eating habits it’s very possible that a child can gain an unhealthy eating habit from their parents and environment they grow up in. But a persons weight actually has to do with their genetics so even if Gary raised the child there is statistical proof that an adopted child’s BMI would be similar to that of his parents. Also there was nothing to suggest that Gary was unhealthy other than his weight even when a doctor stated that Gary was healthy. The judge later stated the possibility that Gary would die early from a weight related disease was more or a biased personal belief but still a possibility.

Terms used: biopsychosocial model, biological, psychological factors, social conditions. health psychology, well-being, health-enhancing behaviors,
stress, mediating factors, stressor, major life stressors, daily hassles,
obesity and BMI

From reading this chapter, my understanding of health has greatly been changed. Having a healthy lifestyle does not just mean eating good foods and exercising, but maintaining a positive attitude with low stress levels and relationships with others. A person’s health and illness result from three spheres in their life known as the biopsychosocial model. This model integrates the effects of psychological factors (such as thoughts, stress, beliefs), social conditions (such as environment, culture, relationships), and biological characteristics (such as genes, exposure, and growth). These three work in a loop, for the environment affects the biological underpinnings of our thoughts and actions. This cycle of health and well-being is in turn also affected by obesity, eating disorders, smoking, and stress, none of which have a positive impact. I learned how to avoid and identify these problems in my own life. I do not smoke nor am I considered overweight, but I do deal with a lot of stress and could have an eating disorder. I do not consider myself bulimic for I have never purged, but I do constantly worry about my weight and figure, often eating out of control then starving myself the next day. This cycle has to stop for I read that it can mess up one’s metabolism. Also, I find myself binge-eating a lot when I’m stressed or delighting in comfort foods too regularly. This stress I feel from school, social pressure, financing, and the need to succeed needs to be managed in a different way. I let these daily hassles run my life, all compiling into one giant major life stressor that poses a threat to my coping ability. I have broken down a few times and felt hopeless when my stress point peaked. Living like this is not healthy for it can weaken my immune system and cause heart damage. I definitely have a Type A behavior pattern, and I do not want develop heart disease because of it. I am glad to have learned this information so I could identify the problems in my life and alter them so I do not suffer from the long term consequences. I learned many ways to deal with the stress, such as appraisals and focused coping and how to reduce my exam anxiety. It also told me to talk to people who care instead of bottling up all my stress to prevent a meltdown. If I learn to control my stress then maybe I will not develop an eating disorder.

The topic that was most memorable to me was the section on overeating. It said that that people who are obese try to lose weight by dieting, but they almost always gain it back do to overeating. The reason they overeat is because of food availability. With countless options to choose from, people tend to try to consume them all. People, and animals, tend to eat more when there are more options presented, especially when the options all taste good. Sadly, the better things taste the more calories they tend to contain. In order to curb this behavior, people should only give themselves a few options so they will eat less or realize that they were never truly hungry in the first place—they were just longing for the pleasant taste. Also, people tend to eat more when the portions are bigger or their stomachs are slow to cue them they are full. These two can be harder to manage so one should employ the information presented to them about serving size and calorie count before diving into their food.

The most memorable thing I learned in this chapter was when the book said to ignore the maxim “no pain, no gain”. I never liked this saying because if you hurt yourself while trying to be healthy, how is that keeping you healthy? It is causing more damage than good. The book supported my feelings by saying that pain may deter one from exercising over the long run. It encouraged moderate exercise that will not leave you breathless then to gradually integrate yourself into more intense workouts. It encouraged doing simple things such as walking or biking places rather than driving. I can use this information to better my life style and stop my friends from working out so hard to the point they hurt themselves. I was also happy that the book discouraged smoking because I feel it is something most people try to ignore, so its slapping the facts in the readers faces made me happy.

Health, biopsychosocial model, psychological factors, social conditions, biological characteristics, well-being, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating, stress, daily hassles, major life stressor, Type A behavior pattern

Before reading this chapter, I viewed health and well-being as stay healthy and avoiding from being sick.And by being healthy, I simply believed it is the stage whereas the absence of disease. But since reading this chapter, my understanding of health and well-being changed a lot. There are more factors that can influence our health involving biology, psychology and social factors. Therefore, health psychologists study to understand the complex relationship between thoughts, actions, and physical and mental health. To do that, psychologists rely on the research methods of psychology. They study how our behavior and social systems, and ethnic and sex differences affect our health.
After conducting enough study, psychologists came up with biopsychosocial model, a model of health that integrates the effects of biological, behavioral, and social factors on health and illness, to understand the difference between traditional medical model and the approach taken by health psychologists. From there, I can understand that illness is the result from a combination of factors, including psychological factors (thoughts, actions, lifestyles, stress, and health beliefs), social condition (environment, cultural influences, family relationships, and social support), and biological characteristics (genetic predispositions, exposure to germs, brain and other nervous system development).
These information from this section helps me understand the factors in causing illness. I will be able to stay away from sickness and will be able to deal with sickness. For instance, when dealing with stress, I often find myself comfort foods such as mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, or ice cream to calm myself down. But from reading this chapter, the metabolism in those foods will make me gain weight and I will become overweight if I do that often. And from being overweight, it will cause me to be more anxious and therefore, the circle will continue.
The most interesting topic in chapter 10 to me was the second section about how stress can affect our health. Stress is defined as the set of behavioral, mental, and physical processes that occur as we attempt to deal with an environmental event or stimulus that we perceive as threatening. More to that, stress contains threatening event is called a stressor, which it can elicits stress responses. Those three factors are connected which makes your mood changes rapidly. For example, you go to class at the starting time, and realize that you forget to print your paper to turn in to your professor, and you become angry.
There are two types of stressor: major life stressor and daily hassles. Major life can be defined as changes that strain central areas of people’s lives. And daily hassles are stressors that are small, dayto-day irritations and annoyances. Both of these stressors will genuinely affect our health by the way that we response to stress. Stress produced roughly the same pattern of physiological changes. These changes can damage to part of the immune system, which reduce potential ability ability to resist additional stressors. But putting that all aside, our way of responding to stress is the number one factor in our health. We should go work out instead of drinking alcohol, eating junk food, smoking and using drugs.
Terms: health, well-being, biopsychosocial model, genetic predisposition, metabolism, stress, stressor, stress response, major life stressor, daily hassle, immune system,

Honestly this chapter did not change my views on health and well-being too much. I have always thought of health in the way of the biophyschosocial model. Because I know many people with mental illnesses, I am well aware of how important psychological health is to biological health. In my mind, they are dependent on one another. For example, I have friends who have suffered from depression. One of them eats a lot in what I assume is an attempt to cope with the disorder. I see very well just how unhealthy a mental disorder can make someone.
I did however learn a lot about stress. While I am familiar with the idea of stress affecting one’s health, I did not know how serious it could be. I did the Try It Yourself activity on page 361 to see just how stressed I was. I do not really see myself as a stressed person, seeing as I know people around me who are inconceivably stressed out at nearly all times. So, I added up all of the things that have happened in my life, and I was honestly baffled that I got 338, which in the range for high-risk of health problems. I do not really feel the effects of this stress too much, so I figured that I must be hardy or resilient. I personally find that I am really good at coping with stress. One method I really make use of, which was actually mentioned and defined in the text, is downward comparison. I live my life knowing that whatever happens, no matter how bad it may seem to me at the time, someone out there has it worse than me. I find this to be a really healthy way of coping with stress. It makes me appreciative of my life and keeps me going.
However I am also very guilty of emotion-focused coping. I always try to push things out of my mind, but sometimes it’s just what has to be done. For example, I found out that my grandfather died about twenty minutes before I was supposed to go leave and get my senior pictures taken. While no one told me, I definitely knew what had happened as my mom suddenly canceled and said that my dad would be taking me instead. I was really close to my grandfather, and to this day he is the most inspirational man I have ever met. He was wise, good-humored, and loving. However I knew that it had to happen someday, and while it was awful that it happened to be the day of my senior pictures, I was prepared. I pushed off the sadness and thought about how he would want me to smile. I am not sure if I ever ended up fully coping with his death (it was a little over a year ago), so I do wonder just how healthy this type of coping is.
Something I found really interesting was the tend-and-befriend response. I had never heard of such a thing, and I tried to apply it to my life. Biologically, it does make sense. However, I definitely feel that I am more of a flight-or-fight response kind of person. I don’t really go to others for support, I generally am the support.

Terms: biopsychosocial model, depression, stress, downward comparison, hardy, resilient, emotion-focused coping, tend-and-befriend response, flight-or-flight response

My thought of health and well-being before reading this chapter was the idea that if we are healthy, active, and motivated to be social we will be better off in life. All of those characteristics would increase our well-being because it will make us feel accomplished, satisfied, and happier with ourselves. The idea I had is sort of right after reading this chapter. Health is obviously if we are active, eat right, good genes, and happy. Active is a major part of health because if we sit around all day, every day, then heart problems develop or other major failures of organs. Eating right is also good for the health because if we eat right then we feel better about ourselves, which is the concept of well-being.
Something that I found interesting in this chapter is that our immune system is related to stress. I found this interesting because usually when I am sick I get tired, and when I am tired I feel like doing nothing and therefore would be stress free. But according to the scientific thinking example when you are sick with a cold virus, your psychological stress goes up. After further reading I then found out and thought back to when I am sick my eating habits go way up. When I am sick I can never seem to get full. This was also part of the experiment that stress eating factors in the immune system when you are sick.
Something memorable from this chapter is the idea of obesity and how it affects our well-being. As an American I believe that obesity can cause psychological problems, as listed in the book as, depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem. I believe that this is true because if you are overweight you may become depressed with yourself because others will judge you, make fun of you, and other gestures. It could lead to anxiety due to the fact that people who are overweight may not be as confident with their selves because of low self-esteem. This may be true in America where some prefer thin girls, but in Pacific Island countries obesity is good in the case that it can prevent diseases, starvation, and is a sign of more healthy births.
Terms: healthy, active, motivated, accomplished, immune system, stress, eating habits, depression, anxiety, self-esteem

While reading this chapter I did not learn a ton about well-being as I have studied this before and I am have recently studied a lot more about the psychological factors that go into well-being. I did learn more about the social conditions of well-being. Stated in the biopsychosocial model this is a huge part of the well-being of any person. It says that your environment and the support you have from all the people around you are a huge help to a person’s well-being. People in living conditions that are not so great might have a lot more daily hassles then other people and the environment can make their life much more stressful and overall effecting their well-being. I think one thing that I have learned from this chapter that I can implement in my day to day life is to just make sure I spend time with the people around me. I need to create a support system everywhere I go whether it be at school, home or at work.
I think that the most interesting thing for me from the reading was in the stress topic when it was talking about the immune system. It says that stress can significantly break down the immune system causing someone to possibly get seriously ill. On the same token short-term stress can also stimulate the immune system. Someone who has short amounts of stress for a short period of time might have a better immune system fighting off pain and disease rapidly during that short time period.
The most memorable part of the chapter was the talk about Mr. Stocklaufer. It is very interesting that they take into consideration the weight of someone when they are trying to adopt a child. I realize that the weight issue could possibly cause a shorter life span, but do people really take into consideration other things that also might cause a shorter life span. I also think it is interesting that his weight only was the reasoning behind this as the book said he was perfectly healthy other than his weight. It would have made more since if he had diabetes or high blood pressure or something of that nature also because that would be a much more sure sign of a shorter life span.
Key terms: well-being, social conditions, biopsychosocial, environment, stress, immune system, short-term stress,

I now have a better understanding as to what it means to be healthy, as well as having a good well-being after reading Chapter 10. Prior to this, I just thought these ideas were things such as just exercising and eating healthy. There is much more to it. Well-being is the positive state that includes life satisfaction and striving for optimal health. Health is a complex relationship between thought, actions, mental and physical conditions. Psychologists study both these terms to a high extent and do research to understand this relationship. When it comes down to it, our behavior and social systems can affect our health. The Biopsychosocial Model illustrates how health and illness result from a combination of biological, social, and psychological factors. This chapter also said that the two main factors that influence our health is stress and obesity.
The information I learned in the chapter is something I can certainly benefit from. I learned how stress can affect my health and how I can deal with it in a way so it can be minimized, as well as being avoided. When it comes to the situation I’m in with being in college, I experience stress daily, particularly from classes and homework. A stressor is an environmental event or stimulus that threatens an organism, and there are two types: major life stressors and daily hassles. Major life stressors are large disruptions, like unpredictable and uncontrollable catastrophic events that affect areas of a person’s life, while daily hassles are everyday irritations that cause small disruptions, which can later add up to a large negative impact on someone’s health. One thing the book covered was general adaption syndrome, where it shows the patterns of physical responses to stress. These include alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. Once the body gets to the exhaustion stage, the person’s health isn’t going to look too good. The person is more likely to experience adverse health effects and the body organs that were weak before the stressor will be the first to fail.
When it comes to relating to this material, homework and exams probably fit into the daily hassle category. I just have to find a way to relax so I can cope with these stressors, and use some of the strategies that were described in Chapter 10. Dealing with stressors the right way is a key to happiness, no matter what life throws at you.
One thing that caught my attention is that Iowa is known to be higher well-being area. I can definitely believe this too because I’ve found people all seem to be in better health than other areas of this country, which is just another reason I’ve liked living here my whole life thus far.
Another thing that interested me was the benefits of exercise. It’s just something I’m really interested in and has been apart of my life in many ways, including being in football. The benefits that the chapter said about exercising includes it controls appetite, increases your metabolism, and burns calories. However, one thing I didn’t really know prior to reading this chapter is that it benefits your mind as well. Then when I think about it, it makes great sense because people generally feel good after something such as a workout, and find it self-fulfilling. It benefits peoples’ self-esteem, as well as giving people more confidence. It’s interesting to think that working out can provide many reasons as to why it can be beneficial to someone. It’s not just good for the body, but for a person’s mindset as well.
Terms Used: well-being, health, Biopsychosocial Model, stress, stressor, major life stressors, daily hassles, general adaption syndrome, alarm, resistance, exhaustion

Health and Well-Being is defined as a positive state in which we feel our best. Health psychology, research on health and psychology, uses the biopsychosocial model to show that health and illness come from a number of different factors. The three include: psychological factors (thoughts, lifestyles, stress, etc), social conditions (environments, family relationships, social support, etc.), and biological characteristics (genetic predispositions, germ exposure, nervous system development.) While reading this chapter I noticed that they were talking about how to maintain a positive life style by working out, eating right, having a positive attitude, etc., which are things I was already familiar with. However, this chapter showed how important these little things can be when determining your stress levels. For example, there are two types of behavior patterns in people who are Type A or Type B. Type A behavior pattern describes people who are competitive, impatient, and time-pressed which give them higher levels of stress. While Type B behavior pattern describes people that are relaxed, non-competitive, and easygoing. Type A people have proven to be at a higher risk of developing heart disease, high blood pressure, or a high cholesterol more than Type B people. This has shown me that while it is normal to stress over school, work, etc., too much stress can cause serious health problems in the future. However, these factors can also lead to problems in the near future, like developing eating disorders or becoming an alcoholic or starting a habit of smoking.
An interesting topic discussed in this chapter was the types of responses to stress: for example, the fight-or-flight vs. tend-and-befriend response. Fight-or-flight response is when the person physically prepares to deal with stress of an attack. While the tend-and-befriend response is when a female tends to protect and care for their offspring. For me, men have always been seen as the more aggressive type and deal with problems more physical than women do. These responses have proven that more likely than not men will have a tendency to respond using the fight-or-flight method while women use the tend-and-befriend method. This is because women tend to have a greater responsibility to care for their children than men do.
The most memorable thing from reading this chapter was differences individuals have when coping with stressors. This involves the traits hardiness and resilience. People with the hardiness trait tend to be less affected by stressors and rather view them as an opportunity to do something beneficial. Similarly, people with the resilience trait tend to recover quicker after bad things have happened by using their emotional resources. While neither one is seen as better than the other, it is interesting to see and think about how I deal with stress and see if I can relate to either one of these concepts.
The psychological terms I used were: Health and Well Being, health psychology, biopsychosocial model, psychological factors, social conditions, biological characteristics, Type A or Type B behavior pattern, fight-or-flight response, tend-and-befriend response, hardiness, resilience

My understanding of health and well-being has actually changed a lot throughout this chapter. I learned that not just eating unhealthy can cause you to not be healthy and eventually cause you to become obese, but also a lot of different factors can make you become unhealthy. Like stress, for example, is a major factor on your health. It can cause a negative effect to your health. I have had stress make an impact on me multiple times. Like in school, for example. Sometimes I get very stressed out and over think things too much. Like when i am studying for a test. I sometimes study too much because I stress out about it, and when the test actually comes, I can’t think straight because of how stressed out I really am. I also connected in other ways that were bad for my health. Like an eating disorder, for example. There are multiple different eating disorders like annorexia and bulimia, which cause you to become too small and can cause internal damages. Or there is something called binge eating, which is when you eat too much in a small amount of time, which can eventually lead to obesity if you do it for long enough. Last year, I experienced a small amount of annorexia. I thought that eating 1,000 calories was too much, and when I did eat that much, I would go to the gym and work it all off until I was too tired to do more. I lost a total of 35 pounds. Once college hit, I realized that being stick skinny was not the most important, or enjoyable thing in the world. And being in college, a lot of the activities that go on involve food, which makes it a hard environment to live in if you are annorexic and miserable.
The most interesting topic to me was how they talked about how body weight was “contagious.” Although it did seem like people that were friends were about the same size as eachother. But I never knew that it was a legit fact that people had studied. This is because the people that you are around the most, influence your everyday activities. If you are trying to lose weight and the people that you are around are not, then chances are you are not going to lose the weight that you have desired. Unless you have the high motivation to do so, but in most cases, if you do not surround yourself around the right group of people, then chances are you are not going to get the outcome that you were hoping for.
Psychological terms: annorexia, bulimia, binge eating, obesity, motivation, well-being, stress

Morgan Sowers

My understanding of health and well-being has been somewhat refocused. I always have heard that mental health was important but I didn’t realize the extent of how important it was. While reading the section on spirituality I found it intriguing because although I was raised a Christian, I am nonreligious. When I was younger I definitely used the idea of being forgiven for my sins to pretty much do whatever I wanted because I would be forgiven but without that buffer I find that I’m not really any more stressed than I was with it, however I’m not nearly as rebellious as I was in high school. The information from this chapter can be integrated into my daily life especially when it comes to positive psychology. Although I do occasionally “fake it until I make it” this chapter was a good reminder of the power of positive thinking. The topics covered in the chapter also made me think about my day-to-day life in the form of things I used to do and things I can’t overcome, such as smoking, stress and anxiety. I don’t smoke but when I was high school I did it socially. I have probably inhaled two-three cartons of cigarettes but I never became addicted, and they honestly just made me feel sick all the time. After reading this chapter I’m glad smoking never became a habit for me, not only do I not want yellow teeth and mouth wrinkles, I, more importantly, don’t want to die at age 60 from cancer or heart disease. On the other hand, stress is something I have yet to overcome—I’m the type of person that makes herself sick over stress. Nearly everything is a stressor for me: school, work, time, even my friends and family stress me out. Unfortunately, I tend to make an irrationally big deal out of daily hassles, possibly because they trigger my anxiety. Whenever I encounter a situation that meets the criteria of a major life stressors it tends to overwhelm me, and on occasion it shuts me down to the point where I pretty much do nothing. Reading this chapter was honestly a stressor for me, the effects of stress on health makes me uneasy but it does explain why I am often sick. The near promise of heart disease and cancer, among others killers, makes me want to go see a doctor about my stress and anxiety issues. What I found most interesting this week in the reading was well-being because it focuses on the physical and mental health of an individual, which I believe to be very important. I think it is fascinating how behavior, social systems, ethnicity, and sex influence our health. I also found it interesting that characteristics people find negative, such as hostility and depression, are traits that lead to diseases, therefore shortening life. It made me think of a psychosocial “survival of the fittest”. Lastly, I was surprised that single people had higher mortality rates than married people. One of the most surprising thing I read about this week was that Gary Stocklaufer was denied the privilege of adopting his foster child. Agreeably he was seriously over weight but the text mentions that he was a healthy man (with the exception to his weight). I found it odd that the judge based his verdict on what could happen, rather than the situation as it was at the time but the thing that really gets me is that a child was neglected of a loving home when the foster system is notorious for placing children in situations where they are less than happy. I personally believe that if a person is unfit to take care of a child, whether it be due to weight, addiction, insufficient means, or any other reason, they shouldn’t take on any more responsibility; if they are unable to take care of their current situation why add to it? However, considering that Stocklaufer had no health issues I found this to possibly be discriminatory. The text does a good job of pointing out that the possible shorter lifespan of being over weight also applies to things such as smoking and diabetes. Also, I found it kind of shocking that in 1960 having a Body Mass Index of over 40 was practically unheard of and now 1 out of every 20 Americans fit in this category. Even more so I found it interesting that roughly half of “African” American and “Mexican” American women were found to be obese, which could be used as an example of the biopsychosocial model. I was further surprised by the study done on inmates where they doubled their caloric intake, which should have made them gain 170 pounds, but rather few gained more than 40 and once normal eating resumed the only ones that kept the weight on were those with a family history of obesity. The psychological terms that I used were: Well-being, Body Mass Index, Biopsychosocial model, Stress, Stressor, Daily hassles, Major life stressors and Positive psychology.

Since reading this chapter, I now know that health is not just not having diseases, but it is a positive state of well-being. Health can be affected by not only the social aspects of your life but also by biological characteristics and psychological factors. Not only is health relevant to your “outward body” such as your body mass index, having conditions such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or a binge-eating disorder, but it is also a psychological factor, like how you deal with stressors and daily hassles. Your psychological health also ties in with the eating disorders that affected your outward body health, along with your psychological health.
This chapter can help me in my day-to-day life because it has really got me to think about my own health, both bodily and psychologically. It has gotten me to think about stress and how I respond or don’t respond to the stress that is in my life, and it has also helped me remember that it is always best to try to keep a positive attitude, even when it is hard, because it will only make me feel better.
What is most interesting to me from the reading is learning about the psychological aspect of your health, because that definitely seems to get less attention and deemed “less real” than your physical health. Eating disorders and depression are certainly an aspect of mental and physical health that are important to acknowledge and understand that they are just as detrimental to well-being as having the correct BMI.
I think that the most memorable thing that I learned about in reading this chapter is about how different personalities influence how things and stress affects us. It’s interesting that type a and b behaviors, different personality traits, would be more or less likely to have certain diseases. It makes sense, but I had never really thought about it that way. What I read about hostile personalities and depression was also interesting, that having lots of hostility can predict a greater change of having heart disease.

words used: well-being, body mass index, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, stressor, daily hassle,

After reading Chapter 10, I have learned a lot about what goes into a person’s well-being. When thinking about health before the reading, I would I have thought about not being sick with illnesses and diseases. I also had the idea health was exercising, eating healthy, and just taking care of yourself. When thinking about health, I always thought about it from a medical or biological standpoint, and not the psychological aspects of health. I learned that psychologists believe that attitude and behavior is also linked to our health. This field is called health psychology, in which research is done on health and psychology together, and involves applying psychological terms and principles to encourage health and well-being. To better understand how our behavior and personality affects our health, the biopsychosocial model was created to comprehend the methods health psychologists have taken. The model shows how different factors can affect health and illness. The three factors in this model are, biological factors, psychological factors, and social conditions. The three factors showcase how our behaviors affect the environments we are in, which in turn affect the foundation of our thoughts and actions. In this way, the model works in a continuous cycle. Another aspect of life that affects our health and well-being is stress and our stress responses. How we respond to major life stressors and daily hassles, like getting overly anxious about a situation, can affect well-being in major ways.

I actually think this chapter can help me a lot. The example with biopsychosocial and obesity really connected with me. This section talked about how our thoughts, actions, and environments can affect our health in a never-ending loop. The example was that a person with anxiety may deal with their stress by eating comfort food, could gain weight, feel insecure and even more anxious about their weight gain, and will eat more comfort foods to make up for this new anxiety. The cycle just spirals out of control. This is a very scary example because I have bad anxiety and tend to eat to feel better. After reading this, I know I need to find a different way to calm myself down. I think this chapter will help me in my day-to-day life by explaining how I can cope with stress in a healthy way.

One of the most interesting parts of the chapter was the section on overeating. The section starts off by saying scientists do not know why some people can control their eating habits while others struggle. I have thought about this many times, I’m pretty sure everyone has questioned how some people can eat so much food and gain an amazing amount of weight. I can’t imagine being extremely obese; I don’t know how I could consume that much food. The section says that overeating is explained by the easy access to a variety of bad foods, the large portions, and the individual differences in response to food cues. A study showed that overweight people have more activity in reward areas of the brain when presented food than people who are a healthy weight. I always thought overly obese people were just not motivated to diet or take care of themselves, but many factors contribute to overeating.

I think the most memorable part of the chapter is the first story about Gary Stocklaufer. The story was that he was a happily married man who had an adopted son. His cousin was unable to raise his son, so Gary was going to adopt the child. The judge denied the adoption stating Gary was too overweight. The judge thought that because Gary was so overweight and was at risk for diseases and death at an early age, he was ill fit to raise the child. I have never heard of this happening before. I always knew that to adopt a child, you had to have a good home and be good parents, but I didn’t take the caregivers health in the situation. This really opened my eyes actually, and I agree with the judge ruling that he could not adopt the child. I think that the child growing up in a stable home is important and if Gary was not going to take care of himself to make sure the child has that, he shouldn’t be able to raise the child.

Psych Terms: Well-being, health psychology, biopsychosocial model, stress, stress responses, major life stressors, daily hassles

Before reading this chapter I thought of health and well-being as being one in the same. Now I have learned that that is simply just not true. Well-being is move of the mind set in which we feel the best. Psychologist see health as being effected by three different factors. They are Psychological factors, biological characteristics, and social conditions. Biological conditions include the stereotypical medical factors, like disease. Psychological factors encompass stress to thoughts and actions; family matter, environment, and cultural influences all go under the social conditions of health. I was also surprised to see how much stress effects health and well-being. I had no idea that high levels of it weaken the immune system so much. Looking back at my own experiences it does make sense. My mother pretty much always gets sick around the end of the business quarter when she has so much to do, and that I’m sure stresses here out. I also get worse acne when I’m stressed. Usually around test, when I am in a fight with my girlfriend, or when there is tension at my house.
There is a ton of information that can be used to help me out in my own life. The first, and probably biggest was the section on quitting smoking. I have used tobacco for 5 years now and I honestly love it. That being said I knew and know even more now that the stuff is bad for you. Unfortunately I don’t think that I will be reaching rock bottom any time soon. Most of my family smokes, my girlfriend does, and I am currently in pretty decent health. I don’t even smoke that much, maybe a pack a week. So for the time being it is information that I know I should use in my daily life, but know I most likely will not follow through. Another bit of advice I found interesting is how spirituality can be good for well-being. As of now I am not the most spiritual person in the world. As I grew up my parents forced me to attend a catholic church three times a week. The whole experience made me disgusted with the idea of organized religion, and so my spiritualty has been pretty much non-existent. In the summer however my girlfriend and I started practicing meditation and going on a lot of nature walks and things of that sort. I would call both of them spiritual events. They both clear my head and make me happier.
The most surprising thing to me was the fact about marriage being good for one’s health. My parents are the main reason for my shock. I cannot say that they are the happiest people that I have ever seen. I am sure that being in a healthy marriage is has positive side effects, but I have not witnessed one of those myself. The most memorable information I learned was that Iowa was in the highest category for well-being. Most of the people I know from Iowa are happy individuals so it makes sense.
Terms used:health, well-being, Psychological factors, biological characteristics, social conditions. spirituality

After reading chapter ten over health and well-being, I realized how important it is to eat healthy, exercise, and keep an open mind when facing challenges or major life stressors. My understanding has changed about health and well-being after reading this chapter is several aspects. One aspect is how eating disorders can affect the body in many ways and they could possibly be fatal. Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by the fear of becoming fat, causing an individual to have low food intake. This disorder can cause loss of bone density, heart disease, or death because of starvation. Another disorder is bulimia nervosa which is, an eating disorder characterized by purging, dieting, and binge eating. This can possibly cause cardiac disorders, dental problems, or can lead to death. Binge-eating disorder is characterized by eating that causes a lot of distress. This leading to obesity and possibly death. After reading about these eat disorders, I have learned that it is important to keep a well balanced diet everyday and exercise properly to maintain a healthy body. Another aspect covered that I understand differently is stress eating. Stress eating can cause weight gain especially because it is normally unhealthy foods. This is an example of a stress response. Eating does not cure your stress. It only alters it until you experience more stress throughout your day.

The information in this chapter can help me from day-to day because it provides general information about what is right to eat and what is wrong to eat. Knowing what I consume will affect my body in many ways is normally on my mind when I am eating. With this information, it is only right to eat healthy foods that will give me energy and nutrients to move forward with my day. I realized that it is okay to have a sweet every once in awhile but, eating sweets several times a day can impact your health. Another reason why this chapter will help me is because I am usually stressed when it comes to exams. Test taking has never been my favorite thing about my education but, knowing that I am not the only one and that others have it harder than I do, can get me through my day. I will find new ways to cope with my stressors when it comes to exams by, changing how I think about them, sleeping enough, and preparing myself more before the exam.

Social support is associated with good health is a topic that I found most interesting. For example, marriage. Marriage can be good for your health if marital partners can support each other by helping cope with stress, life demands, and encouraging each other to do the right things. But, if the marital couple is showing signs of distraught then, this can affect an individuals health and well-being. Troubled marriages are usually caused by an increase in stress and lack of togetherness. The most surprising thing I learned was how Gary Stocklaufer was turned down to adopt a child because of his weight. The reason was because he could have serious health problems because he was obese. After having gastric bypass surgery, Stocklaufer lost 200 pounds and was able to adopt again.

Terms: Major Life Stressor, Stressor, Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, Stress Eating, Stress Response

This chapter discusses the growing area of psychology related to health and well being. The biosphosocial model explains the difference between the traditional medical model and the approach taken by health psychologists. Among the major health issues of today are those dealing with obesity and eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. People who deal with these issues feel helpless and depressed. This results in a continuous loop whereby depression leads to poor health and habits and that leads to anxiety,obesity and eating disorders. Along with eating problems, smoking has a huge negative impact on health causing heart disorders, cancer and respiratory ailments. Finally stress and how one deals with it has a huge impact on one's health. It is believed that stress affects the immune system and makes the body less capable of warding off diseases. There are also personality factors that affect how a person handles stress.

The topic most interesting to one was the idea that type A and type B personalities have general behavior factors that can affect health. Having the type A genetic makeup, which is the person who is competitive, achievement oriented, aggressive and impatient, can be a strong predictor of heart disease, high cholesterol or smoking. Also people on the Type A spectrum who are also hostile and angry are much more likely to die at an early age from heart disease. Hostile, angry people are at a greater risk for serious diseases and earlier death than people who tend to be more optimistic and happier. Having a generally positive attitude has multiple benefits on the immune system. Finally, I found it interesting that studies show that people with a lot of friends live longer that those with fewer friends and that spirituality contributes to one's well-being and a healthy outlook.

terms: biopsychosocial, anorexia nervosam bulimia nervosa, type A, type B, genetic makeup

Emotional well-being and mental health concerns are major health issues in their own right. But they can also greatly affect physical health. Stress, depression, and anxiety can contribute to a host of physical ailments including digestive disorders, sleep disturbances, and lack of energy. Our lifestyle not only influences our health and well-being but also our personality and philosophy of our life. It may not be always possible to bring changes in lifestyle in all aspects of our life but certainly there are some aspects where it can be done. Sometimes excessive noise, too much furniture equipment, poor lighting arrangement and ventilation, too much heat/cold, diet and depressed look adversely affect our working life. Our sincere and serious effort and attitude can improve these conditions. Furniture can be rearranged, noise can be controlled, sufficient light can be set, and the place can be cheered up with pictures, flowers and plants and keeping it nicely clean and maintained. Similarly our home life also plays a very important role in keeping and maintaining good health and wellbeing. Keeping a good relationship with children and other members of the family, practicing satisfying sex life, feeling of loving and getting love can solve many problems of our emotional life. Proper communication is the key to maintain balanced emotional life. Identification of the problem followed by taking initiative and discussing the problem with others play a vital role. We have to understand that communication is both listening and talking. In this reading I found that the three components of stress got my attention the most. Stressors, stress response and medicating factors all become an important part of everyday life. I think dealing with stress can make it easier to live a healthy day-to-day life. Science and technology have brought us leisure which needs an effort of planning for proper use. Mostly we are not aware of it, and as such do not plan for it and fail to enjoy it fully. Often we discover ourselves at loose ends. We need to rethink to priorities our free time activities as it may not be evenly balanced and it may need to bring more variety and activity in our leisure time, to increase our friend circle, do more exercise and cultivate a new interest. We need to develop a positive outlook and attitude towards leisure to reap more benefits from physical activities so that we may have a healthy, balanced lifestyle and a sense of well-being. Everybody's self- esteem and outlook have influence on lifestyle. A healthy and balanced outlook based on our belief and expectations concentrating on our good points, and not holding unnecessary low opinion of ourselves may be a good start to improve our self- confidence. Terms: Stress, Depression, Anxiety, Stressor, Stress response, medicating factors, Digestive disorders, Health, Well-being.

My understanding of health and well-being has improved slightly since reading this chapter. I already knew that psychology plays a huge part on living a healthy lifestyle. If we were depressed and unmotivated by our brain our bodies would show the results of this unhappiness. Health psychology is just another branch of psychology that most psychologist spend their lives teaching or researching about. Although some may not show it as much as others, we as humans do care of our bodies and care about how we look. I know when I look at myself I want to be content about my body because a healthy body increases the chances of living a happier and longer life. Body mass index is a good way to keep track of how much weight a person should put on, although it is not something to necessarily live by. Most people are technically overweight according the their BMI, but are actually healthy and just have a lot of muscle weight. Before I got into college, I spent time working out my senior year because in my classes I literally did nothing so I had all this free time to work out, and that is exactly what I did. As a young child I was very overweight, but during my junior high years I lost an extreme amount of weight by working out, biking, swimming, and just being active. I weighed 135 as a freshmen in high school and now as a sophomore in college I weigh 170. My BMI says I should weigh around 155 pounds, but I haven't weighed that since sophomore year of high school. I played football and swam for the swim team for about 7 years. In these sports it requires a lot of food intake and water to stay fit in. I lifted a lot for football and did a lot of cardio for swimming, so my muscle weight outweighs my fat weight. Also according to my genetics (being mexican) I am supposed to be short and a little chubby. I am in very decent shape, but was at my physical peak during freshmen and sophomore year of high school. Working out did not only made me feel amazing about myself, it also strengthened my immune system and gave me a better outlook on life. It got rid of any pain or anger built up inside of me. Near the end of sophomore year I had developed mono, and this prohibited me from really doing anything physical or extraneous. I was lazy for months and drank so much water. I eventually gained too much weight and had lost the workout ethic I had gained the past two years before. Eventually near the middle of my junior year of high school I finally got my workout ethic back. The only problem was that during my off time, I had been exposed to a lot of food and vacation time. All I did was eat, and I gained weight a lot faster than usual. I got to the point where I was unhappy with my physical appearance again, so I did a hard 4 months of working out and eventually got back down to 170. This was about the limit I could reach to being back to normal, so Instead of obsessing to getting back to 155 five, I just decided working out and staying active will be a better compromise. The one thing I promised to myself is that I would never resort to starving myself or eating and making myself puke. These “techniques” are known as anorexia and bulimia. I never hated myself to the point where I made myself sick and distraught, I kept working and working until I was content with my appearance. The only thing I would admit to have fallen victim to is binge-eating because I love food. I was raised in a house hold where all we did was eat when we were bored. We originally lived in Orlando, Florida and there were fast restaurants around every corner. Moving to Iowa actually helped my family develop a happy and healthy lifestyle. One thing that I promised myself younger, growing up in high school, was to be less stressed. I had gotten to a point where I was nothing but pissed off and hated getting involved with people, so I had decided to finally not things so seriously and change my lifestyle. The stressors in my life were mainly girls or friends who were not actually friends. I would get caught in a web of lies and ended up hurting people around me for being the way I was. It was becoming a daily hassle to be who I used to be, so I just decided to better my life. I started caring less about what people thought, started listening to music, learned to cut the bad fruit off the tree, and just care about myself and family. Of course I kept my morals and politeness, but I kept stress out of my life as much as I possibly could. I hungout with better people, handled things differently, and didn't obsess over things that didn't even matter in the first place. I started developing a Type B behavioral pattern, which is being easy going and relaxed kind of guy. This has helped me develop into the caring and genuine guy I am today. I am non-judgmental to people when I meet strangers, and love to help people out when I am able to. The one thing that definitely helped me turn my life around was working out and listening to music. It felt as if I entered another dimension and nothing else mattered. By the time I leave the gym I feel like a better person than when I walked into the gym. It's a truly tremendous feeling. The most memorable thing about this read was how people can't overcome some of these obstacles physical obstacles and end up making their lives less of what it could be. Smoking is one thing that I wish I could get people all around the world to get off because its the devil's juice, but that is something that is not gonna happen for a really long time. I will raise my offspring to know better than that and avoid smoking at all costs because it is such a dangerous road to head down. Living a healthy lifestyle is important to having a successful legacy for future generations to hear about.

terms: health psychology, well-being, BMI, anorexia, bulimia, binge-eating disorder, stress, stressor, daily hassles, immune system, type B behavior pattern,

I understand what can make me stressed. The things that make me stressed are called stressors. Thing that are stressors for me are homework especially if I put off something to the end. This would be a daily hassle. The stress makes it bad. I want to do well on it, but I also need to get it done in time. It is easy to put off homework, but then the stress is not fun. The other stress is a major life stressor. This is something that could be someone gets hurt badly. I do not have a lot of major life stressors. I also understand what happens to the body when it is stressed. You are able to get sick easier. Your immune system is not the same so you get sick. You also can have your body be ready to stay or leave. This is fight or flight. I have had this happen to me. It happens when I am playing something and I am really focused on it I will look down and I am bleeding. I have not noticed because I was so focused on what I was doing. I also understand what to do to get rid of stress. These things can be going and doing something you like to do. For me this would be going and playing ultimate. Also another thing is having people to help you. This person is my dad. I talk to my dad about anything. I’ll call him and he will help me through what I need help with.

The information will help me with ways to not have a life with a lot of stress. The chapter gave a lot of ways that you couldn’t have stress. You can talk to someone. You can go do something that you like. Even what you eat can help you not have stress.

I was interested in the things that can help you to not have stress. These things are very helpful. The book gave good things like’ “Learn to cope”, “Build a strong support network”, and “Consider your spiritual life”. (Page 376 and 377) These are things that I do and will hopefully continue to do because they will help.

Something that was kind of surprising was that if you have a good attitude you will have good health. That is surprising you can make yourself sick by not being happy. It something that is in our control, usually when we get sick we cannot control it. This is something that we can control so it will help. It is surprising that something like your attitude can affect your health.

Stress, stressors, immune system, fight or flight, daily hassle, major life stressor

Chapter 10 was about health and well-being. The first thing that was talked about in the chapter was what actually effects our health. Before I even started reading, I looked at the caption and I tried to come up with all of the different things that I could think of that might effect our health. I thought of obesity rates and how those have shot up in America recently especially with all of the fast food places, I thought of environmental problems, I also thought of diseases that are harmful to the body, and I thought of genetics. The first thing that I learned in this chapter was what well-being actually was. Well-being is a positive state that includes striving for optimal health and life satisfaction. Our well-being is very important because it makes us feel good about ourselves and it makes us want to take care of our bodies. The second thing that I learned in this chapter was that there is actually a health psychology and I never knew that there was a specific psychology for our health. Health psychology is a field of study that integrates research on health and the psychology behind it, it involves the application of psychological principals to promoting health and well-being. The most memorable topic that I learned about was obesity because I just thought it was really interesting to learn about because it has become such a huge thing in the last few years. Obesity has become to big in todays society because a lot of people don't get the proper education on eating healthy and the stuff that they put into their bodies is not good for us. Obesity can be measured by the Body Mass Index otherwise known as the BMI chart. This chart puts you in a range that is taken by your height and weight. Even if you are in the overweight category it doesn't necessarily mean that you are unhealthy it is just suggesting that you could lose a little bit of weight to become your optimal well-being. The main cause of obesity is overeating. Overeating can come from a lot of things but the main thing associated with overeating is portion sizes. If you go to McDonalds and get some french fries and a cheeseburger, you are technically eating more than just one serving. A medium fry is probably more like 2.5 servings and not just 1. Another thing that I thought was interesting was the different eating disorders. There are lots of different types of eating disorders, but the main ones are anorexia, bulimia, and bing-eating. Each of these are very serious conditions that should not be taken lightly and they are happening more and more frequently because of todays society and girls especially always striving for the “perfect” body. One thing that I thought was really important in this chapter was when they talked about stress and how that effects our health. I never really knew how much stress actually can harm our well-being. I am always stressed out and its not a very good thing to have, but a lot of people get stressed or have stressful things in their lives. I didn't know that there are different types of stress, I just thought it was all the same thing. The types of stress are stressors, stress responses, major life stressors, and daily hassles. With all of these different types of stress we have a general adaptation syndrome also known as GAS. This is a consistent pattern of physical responses to stress that consists of three different stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. The information from this chapter can help in my day to day life because it taught me that there are ways to prevent some of these problems and that there are things that I can do to help with overeating and that you shouldn't diet too much because it can cause eating disorders and that there are things that I can do to help with my stress and try to prevent some of the major stressors in my life.

Some psychological terms that I used were well-being, obesity, psychology, genetics, BMI, overeating, eating disorders, anorexia, bulimia, binge- eating, stress, stressors, stress responses, major life stressors, daily hassles, GAS.

Since reading this chapter, my viewpoint on health and well-being has expanded. Before reading this chapter, I was aware of the basic concepts of health. I knew about body mass index, eating disorders, the immune system, obesity… But I was not aware that there was such a thing called health psychology. After reading the definition, I knew it existed, but I didn’t know there was a name too it. I have never fully realized how much psychology is apart of my daily life. It’s surprising to say the least. After reading this chapter, I believe it can help me greatly in my day to day life. The part I found to be most beneficial was the section over stress. As a college student, I experience stress on a daily basis. I am constantly worried about homework, finances, and my social life. It’s like a never ending cycle. Currently, the biggest stressor in my life would be obtaining good grades while working enough to pay my bills. I constantly worry about doing great on my assignments and passing my classes. I’m paying all of this money to attend college, so I can’t let it go to waste. I know how easy it is to fall behind in a class and I’m constantly worried that will happen to me. Because of this, I am always paying attention in class and doing my homework, which would be considered stress responses. I know it’s not healthy to stress myself out over simple daily hassles, but I can’t help it. I’m so determined to achieve great things, how can I not worry? After reading this chapter, I think I’ll try to tell myself to relax and not worry so much. I need to understand that I’m not perfect.
The topic that was most interesting to me was eating disorders. I have a friend who was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. I know how difficult it is to have an eating disorder. She has improved since she was first diagnosed, but it’s still a struggle for her. Whenever we were out, she would always say how hungry she was, but when I would offer her food, she would refuse it saying she was no longer hungry. I didn’t think anything of it at first. I mean, I was in high school after all. The last thing I’m going to think of is eating disorders. After a few months, I started to catch onto her. At first I thought she had bulimia nervosa. She would always go to the bathroom after we had eaten. I soon realized that she was going into the bathroom to yell at herself for eating. She was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa a month later and began therapy. Reading about this in our textbook made me think back to my friend and her struggle. When reading about it, an eating disorder doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but once you've experienced it personally, it takes on a whole new meaning.

The most memorable thing I read about was body image. I know many people who have struggled with their body weight, and so have I. I was surprised too see that in some countries being obese is seen in a positive light. There’s places where if you're obese then you’re considered to be wealthy and sophisticated. Here in America, the complete opposite can be said. We look at thinner people to more attractive and pleasant. You don’t see many large people in advertisements. Many models are forced to comply to almost impossible body figures. It’s crazy to think how different these perspectives can be.
Psychological terms I used were health psychology, well-being, body mass index, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, stress, stressor, stress responses, daily hassles, and immune system.

My understanding of health and wellness has broadened after the reading of this chapter. I have learned that there are several contributing factors towards both health and well-being. Health, in simple terms is described as how prone you are towards sickness and disease at a specific time. In the past 3-4 decades, there has been more factors that are considered influential to one’s health. Psychology, Genetics, and Social factors are the three factors towards health. Psychology, in these terms meaning the healthiness of the mind, is made up by factors such as stress, companionship, etc. Genetics is one’s biology. This means the genes passed down from your parents and grandparents. Biology is considered to have a large effect on obesity, which has globally doubled since the 1980’s. Social factors can easily be defined by how you are doing in your social environment, with friends, loved ones, job, etc.

I feel what I have read and learned from this chapter can be used in my day to day life. I learned that there are many factors that can contribute to my health and wellness. I know that if I am conscious of these influences, then I will be able to adapt and move on to live a healthier better life. Though it is all up to motivation, which was described in the previous chapter. I also would have to be motivated to live by what I had learned. Knowledge isn’t key without action in this case.

I found the section about obesity and BMI to be the most interesting and memorable portion of this chapter. I feel it is very relatable to read about due to the normality of it now. Not only is obesity rising, but one in twenty Americans will be diagnosed with extreme obesity. That is having a BMI over forty. Health problems are seen to exist when the BMI is measured at thirty-five. I also thought it was weird and interesting on how the obesity of minority females has doubled since the eighties. I wish there was explanation for this, cause I find it odd that only certain ethnic groups suffer from more intense weight gain. Maybe this correlation can be attributed to genetics. Whatever it may be I thought it was an interesting chapter and I learned a lot.
Psychological Terms: Health, Wellness, Well-Being, Psychology, Genetics, Social Factors, Genes, BMI, Mind, Stress, Biology, Obesity, Conscious, Motivation

I came into this chapter thinking I knew all I needed to know about health and well being, however my understanding of the subject really has broadened after reading it. Something that has really stuck with me was the section on positive psychology. According to the book studies have shown that positive emotions/attitudes and well-being are linked to good physical health. As someone who has struggled with an eating disorder, I know the importance of positive thinking and how it affects how we treat our bodies and in turn how healthy we are. Even though I had an idea of this prior to the reading, I know that is scientifically proven that a good mental state goes hand in hand with good physical health. So in my day-to-day life I can try keep in mind to maintain a positive attitude and healthy social supports because I know for sure that it will help me stay healthier longer.

Something that really interested me in this chapter was the section on different personality types and their effects on our health. I learned a lot in this section about how different types of people respond to stress individually and that certain personality traits are closely linked to health problems. Originally studies were done generalizing personalities into two categories – type A and type B behavior patterns. Type A behavior patterns are people who are competitive, achievement oriented, aggressive, impatient and time-pressed/restless. This personality type was linked to serious heart disease among adult men. While, according to the book studies have shown that type B personalities are usually healthier and happier. Type B behavior patterns are occur in people who are generally more relaxed and easy going. Latter studies have shown that the personalities linked to poor health are more specific than just “Type A”. This personality trait or emotion is hostility and according to our book is proven to be connected to early death due to heart problems.

The section on spirituality being connected to physical health and well-being was particularly memorable to me. I don’t identify myself as a religious person, but I do like to think that there is more to live than just existing and I have found that this feeling of meaningful living and purpose has helped my health. In this section, though it talked about how different religions and their practices generally promote healthy living (in diets and lifestyle choices) and provide places for people to build strong social support networks all of which help to maintain a healthy physical state. Now all of this seems to make sense to me, but while reading this, a question came to my mind – “I wonder, though if there are aspects of religion that can negatively effect a persons well being?” My grandfather is a strict Christian and has serious heart problems. He also is very opinionated and angry that not everyone agrees with his beliefs which he believes to be the “right and only” way to live life. These strong beliefs have led to discussions/arguments that cause his blood pressure to be unstable and he has suffered two heart attacks. I wonder if he would have these problems if he wasn’t religious or if they are more personality oriented.

Psychology Terms: positive psychology, positive attitude, social support, personality types, Type A behavior patterns, Type B behavior patterns, spirituality

On the whole, I'd have to say that my understanding of health and well-being has changed very little with the reading of this chapter. Being that I myself am well within the realm of obesity, I've already taken pains to look into how my weight adversely affects my health. In regards to heredity, my family is genetically predisposed towards higher chances of heart disease, so it pays to know what I'm getting myself into when eating the extra corn dog or two. It never hurts to have a refresher though, and to get a grasp on some of the terminology. For example, it has become apparent to me that I possess a Type-B behavior pattern much to my enjoyment, as I am much more laid back and not prone to engage in any sort of hostility if it can at all be avoided. I tend to overeat but I want to be clear that I'm not a stress eater. Though I suffer from the stress of college as much as anyone else, I don't consume excessive amounts of food because I'm stressed or depressed. I do it because it's delicious.

While we're on the subject of eating, one thing that had stuck out to me in the reading is the wide gap between men and women on the subject of obesity. Though it isn't really mentioned in the reading, men on average tend to be much more comfortable with their bodies than women, as is evidenced by the greater number of people afflicted with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa being young women. It's a crying shame that women continue to be subjected to an outrageous standard of beauty only achievable for about .8 percent of women without the use of photoshop, surgery, or gratuitous amounts of makeup. Talk about psychological stress.

Another discussed topic that interested me was the idea that stressors can compromise one's immune system. This is a concept that saw a great deal of observation in my family growing up. A wonderful comparison would be my brother and I. As stated before, I lean more toward Type-B behavior, whilst my brother was more acquainted with Type-A behavior. In our youth he was a great deal more angry, moody and defensive. He also had trouble making friends. All and all, he was, and sometimes still is, a very stressed out individual. Incidentally he always contracted the worst of the illnesses between us. He was sick twice as often for twice as long, and sometimes twice as severe. Now of course correlation doesn't always equal causation, but I think it's worth noting.

The keywords are: well-being, obesity, heredity, Type-B behavior pattern, stress, stress eater, eating disorders, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, stressors, immune system and Type-A behavior pattern.

After reading this chapter, my understanding of health and well-being changed slightly but nothing too extreme. The part that changed my understanding the most was that there are just so many factors that affect our overall health. I understood that mental health plays a great role in physical health but not to the extent that I learned about in the chapter. I think that the genes are interesting. We inherit the genes from both mom and dad. These genes influence some parts of our health and well-being. For an example, if your parents on more on the obese side, then their child will most likely or close to being obese.
Well this information has taught me a lot about the different eating disorders. I have no entered into college, so of course being a girl, I’m worried on gaining the “freshman 15”. However, I would never get so low as to obtaining an eating disorder. Those are so dangerous to the body. An example of an eating disorder is bulimia. People with bulimia tends to being afraid of getting fat. They tend to diet, binge eat, and try to stay skinny.
I thought it was interesting to read that marriage was a good part of one’s health. It gives us health advantages such as assisting in meetings the demand of another individuals. The significant other also is there to encourage you such as to eat healthier.
There are different responses to stress. The immune system is one of the places that is greatly affected by stress. The white blood cell count decreases when someone is stressed. Because the white blood cell count is low, the person becomes more susceptible to becoming sick. Another interesting or memorable thing that I read about was the BMI scale. The BMI or body mass index scale, tells us if one is obese, overweight, normal, etc. I did a little research because I was curious to see where I fit in. Turns out that I have to the perfect body weight for my height! That is always exciting to find out!
Psychology Terms: bulimia, genes, metal health, physical health, eating disorders, health, well-being, stress, immune system, Body mass index.

Before reading this chapter, I always believed that health meant whether you were sick or not. I also thought it dealt with whether people smoked or chewed tobacco. I took a health class when I was in seventh grade and we learned the basics about being healthy and not to participate in activities that could affect our health. My freshman year of high school I took another health class that dealt with how people should participate in healthy behaviors. We also learned about addictions people had and those addictions affected people around them.

After reading the chapter, I learned there is more to health and well-being than people realize. Our book defines well-being as a positive state that involves striving for optimal health and life satisfaction. In order for us to achieve optimal health and life satisfaction, I believe we need to be motivated to achieve it There is a difference between saying you will start making healthier choices and actually doing it. I know this from experience because I tell myself I will work out more or go to the WRC more but I never do. I always find some excuse not to go and I know that I need to be motivated to do it. One area of the chapter talks about obesity and how it can affect not only the person who is obese, but other family members as well. Genetics plays a part in obesity, but the book mentions a great point. In the book. if obesity runs in the family, then a person can become obese. However, the environment actually determines whether that person will become obese. I really like this point for a few reasons. First of all, just because one of your family members is obese, does not mean you will be, but you can be, If you follow healthy guidelines and exercise on a regular basis, the chances of you being obese is lower. If, by chance, you decide not to follow healthy guidelines and do exactly as that family member, then you have a higher chance of being obese. I believe that in order for someone to change their lifestyle, they have to want it. Family members may encourage them to work out more, eat healthier, or stop unhealthy habits such smoking, chewing tobacco, or drinking, but it is up to the person to make the final call. If a person is forced to do something, they will probably not try as hard and give up easily saying they can’t do it. However, if they are really determined to change their ways, then they may have better results.

I think that this information will help me make better choices on a day-to-day basis. I want to stay healthy and not have to worry about the Freshman 15. One thing I realized that was hard is trying to find healthy food to eat in the dining center. With so many choices, I usually go for the food that looks really good. I forget about how it was made, like if it was fried or it there is a lot of grease on it. I guess with having so many options, I want to try everything because I didn’t have options in high school. I have learned that smoking and drug are not good for us. I learned this in my D.A.R.E. program at school when I was in fifth and eighth grade. I know that I will never smoke not only because of the risks that come along with it, but also because I hate the smell of smoke. When someone walks by me that recently had a cigarette, I try not to breathe in until I am far away from them. I know that it is their choice to smoke, but I also have a choice not to deal with second hand smoke. With the risks that come along with smoking I am surprised how some people haven’t developed major problems yet. My grandparents have smoked all their life and I haven’t noticed any complications they have. I know that they will continue to smoke and there is nothing we can do to stop them. I also know that if I am stressed out, I may have a better chance of getting sick. I need to deal with stress effectively so I do not get sick.

The topic from the chapter that was most interesting to me was on obesity. I found this topic interesting because the number of people who are obese is increasing year after year. I have seen some children who are younger than I am and they are overweight. I know that genetics can play a part in whether children can be obese, but the environment is the determining factor. Parents also play a part. Parents who set healthy guidelines for their children and interact with them can decrease the chance of them becoming obese.

One part of the chapter that I thought was most memorable was the opener. I do not believe that just because someone is obese makes them unfit for a foster parent. Good qualities are not based on how a person looks on the outside. They are determined from the inside. Even though a person may be obese, they may change their habits in order to be the best foster parent for their adopted child. In order for us to live a healthy and satisfactory life, we need to be motivated to do so.

Terms: Health, well-being, motivation

This summer I took personal wellness, and I have learned a lot from that class. I really did not think that that class would benefit me like it did. Although coming back to college, I went back into my normal schedule, but a little more aware. I do really need to get healthier, but it is hard to do that in college. Reading this chapter was a great reminder to get back that mindset that I had over the summer while doing personal wellness. So for the most part this chapter was a small review of what I learned in the past, not just this summer. My high school kept gym and health classes at a priority, and so I have been taught a lot of this information over and over. Not that this is a bad thing, it is a great thing, because you only have one life and one body and you need to take care of it as best as you can. One thing I have learned in this chapter is that having a positive mind set is extremely important to keeping or improving your health. You would think this would be common knowledge, but sometimes you forget that your mind set is what helps you to stay motivated or help with stress. I definitely would not be able to get healthy if I had a negative mind set all the time. This year I have had more of a mediocre positive mind, I am typically not a very negative person. When it comes to being healthy I need to be more positive and that will help with motivation to get up and move and eat better. I thought the little section on the well-being of Americans was interesting. I am glad I live in a higher well-being area, and I already see the benefits of how I was raise and how I am living my life. I do not have a high level of stress, (I took that quiz also) I know the quiz results are impacted on where my environment it.
The terms I used were: well-being, stress, positive psychology.

After reading this chapter I think that my opinion of health and well being became better defined. I feel as though I have grown up in a society that has improved on its education on a healthy life style, that being said I feel as though I am relatively aware of what a healthy lifestyle consists of. However, this chapter has definitely opened my eyes and helped me to learn even more about a healthy lifestyle and the benefits that a healthy lifestyle can have on my life and happiness. For instance, I really was unaware that genetics played such a major role in a lot of our makeup. This chapter was also a big eye opener on how the choices we make for our lifestyles which can cause or prevent chronic diseases. I think that this has helped me in my everyday life because it helps to keep focused. I think that this chapter has helped me to realize that every choice I make today and when I'm young can and will greatly impact the health for the duration of my life.

The topic that I find most interesting would be the topic of obesity. I found this topic the most interesting because it went into a lot of detail about the disease, how it comes about and the reason that some people tend to gain more weight than others. For instance, genetics was talked about quite a bit under this topic. It said that obesity tends to run in families, and therefore is genetic. Of coarse we all make choice on the foods we choose to eat and how active we are but there was a study that was done that about twins that showed when given an extra 1,000 calories for a 100 days. As the twin pairs showed gain close to the same amount of weight, however the different sets of twins gained dramatically different amounts of weight. This proves that genes play a huge role in ones weight makeup.

The topic that I found most memorable and interesting in was the story from the very beginning of this chapter. In this story about a man who was a happily married adoptive father and who was certified by the state to be a foster parent. However, when he tries to adopt the child of one of his friends who was unable to care for the child. Much to his surprise the judge said no. The reason? The man was too obese. The judge ruled that because of his obesity, he was likely to obtain a chronic disease and die at young age. When later asked, the judge said that he had to keep in mind the best interest of the child. The case was later appealed, and the judge reversed his initial order when Gary lost over 200 pounds after having gastric bypass surgery. This was a very shocking story because it seems very odd to not allow someone to become a parent due to their weight. However, I think that it is also a reflection on how our society normalizes obesity. We rarely view it as a chronic disease that potentially lead to other chronic conditions, or even death. Where as I think it is a little to dramatic to not let someone be a parent because of their weight, I think we as a society need to be more conscious of weight and how it affects our health.

Psychological Terms: Chronic illness, genetics, obesity, Healthy lifestyle

Before reading this chapter I always considered health and well-being to be more of a physical aspect. If you were “healthy” then you were a stereotypical thin or athletic person in my mind. I kind of associated well-being with the same stereotype, but in more the sense of, if they are healthy then they must be well. Since reading I now understand that there is more to being healthy than being thin and having a six-pack. Being healthy is influenced by many different things including biology, psychology, and social factors. I have also learned that well-being is a positive state in which we feel our best. However, to reach this state of well-being we need to strive for optimal health and life satisfaction. In the book the biopsychosocial model is shown. This model illustrates how each of the factors ties into one another. When one area is going well, the other areas tend to go well. However, when one area goes bad, the other areas can also go bad. This in turn can either cause a cycle of events that is healthy or unhealthy. Another part to being healthy is a person's BMI or body mass index. Depending on your height there is a certain weight category that you should fall within. However, this is not completely accurate. I have a friend who is very short but has an extreme amount of muscle. This in turn causes him to weigh over what is considered optimal when in fact he is an extremely healthy person.
The most interesting part within the reading for me was in the restrictive dieting section. It says within there that body weight is regulated around a set point determined mainly by genetic influence. I found this interesting because it now makes sense why some people can’t seem to lose weight and others can’t seem to put any on. For example, my brother was adopted and has eaten like a pig his whole life, and yet he is as skinny as could be. On the other hand, I was not adopted and I have always been overweight and weight loss has been very difficult. It was not until I joined cross country that I started to lose weight. However, cross country ended last year for me and I haven’t ran a lot since then. I have now regained about ten pounds in the span of a year, but the weight gain has stopped. This shows how my body weight is regulated at around 215 pounds, whereas my brothers is regulated at around 110 pounds. It makes sense though, his biological parents were both very thin, whereas mine were both quite overweight when I was born. This just goes to show the role genetics can play.
Something I found surprising within the reading was the fact that extreme obesity was nearly unheard of in the 1960’s and now 1 in 20 Americans can be classified as that. I found this interesting because it shows the change within society over time. We have fallen into more sedentary and laid back lifestyles, plus we have turned to fast food vendors for a quick bite. Back in the 60’s fast food vendors were less prevalent and people were much more active. It’s amazing how in around 50 years this has changed.

Key Terms: Health, Well-Being, Biopsychosocial Model, Biology, Psychology, Social, Optimal Health, Life Satisfaction, Unhealthy, BMI, Restrictive Dieting, Genetics

Chapter 10
After reading this chapter, my understanding of health and well-being has greatly improved. I had little knowledge of Body Mass Index (BMI) before reading this chapter, and now have a much better understanding of it. Learning about obesity and its causes was very interesting to me. I learned that genetics can have an influential part in obesity running in the family. Another cause of obesity could be overeating. Even though people assume that obese people are overweight because they are extremely lazy, the reality of the matter is that most obese people try to use diets to lose the weight, but diets alone do not keep off weight permanently. According to studies, people who lose weight with diets tend to regain the weight and some of the time they gain more than they originally lost. Something else I learned that I thought was very interesting was about the eating disorders. Over the years I have heard about these disorders, and have even had friends with some of them. Although, I never truly understood why people had these disorders and how they really work. One example of an eating disorder would be anorexia nervosa. These individuals have a fear of become fat, so they limit how much they eat. Because of this, they take in less nutrients and as a result, they have a much lower body weight that can be incredibly unhealthy. Many believed that race, ethnicity, and social class had something to do with having this disorder, but that is not the case. Another type of disorder is bulimia nervosa. This is when the person switches between binge eating, dieting, and purging. People with this disorder eat a lot (binge) and then worry about becoming fat so they either vomit it back up or abuse laxatives. In some cases they can excessively exercise after binge eating as well. It is more common for men to have this disorder than for them to have anorexia nervosa, but overall, more women have these disorders. Another disorder would be binge-eating. This type of eating disorder is when at least once a week, the person binges but does not purge. It recently became recognized as an eating disorder.
From reading this chapter, I have learned much about staying healthy. I have always thought smoking was bad and I intend on never smoking because of all the negative effects it has on us and the people around. Eating healthy has also been one of my goals. Although it is a very hard thing to do since most of the unhealthy food tastes so good, I intend on trying my hardest to eat healthy because I know it will be good for me in the long-run. Eating the right types of foods and the right portions of it will greatly benefit the goal of living healthy. I am a very active person and I go to the gym every day, so staying active is also important to me. Also staying stress free or trying to reduce the amount of stress taken in is a good way to live. Stress can be very bad for you and can cause things like insomnia.
Key Terms: health, well-being, BMI, obesity, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating, stress

My understanding of health and well-being has changed since reading this chapter. I used to think of health as disease and sickness. I was surprised to learn that my attitude and behavior affect my health also. I think the information from this chapter can help me in my day-to-day life by helping me realize all the aspects that I encounter that truly affect my well-being. I think just by being aware, will help me realize what I can do to become extremely healthy, not just from disease and sickness.

The most interesting topics to me included the eating disorders. Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by excessive fear of becoming fat and therefore restricting energy intake to obtain a significantly low body weight. This interested me a lot because one of my good friends suffered from anorexia, although she was smaller than anyone else, she still believed she was big and didn’t have a “summer bod”. She never ate at our cheer dinners, and would always go on a 6 mile run after cheer or dance practice. My friend started this as a freshman, and is now a junior in high school. Another eating disorder is Bulimia nervosa. I also have a good friend that suffered from this eating disorder. She started this when she was about 17years old. She didn’t tell us about it at all, and I don’t think she knows we know to this day. But we’ve caught her in the act, and evidence on Tumblr, because she thought nobody she knew followed her. She wrote “wow, my mouth tastes like puke, I wonder why”. Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by dieting, binge eating and purging. My friend was overweight and always discussed how she wanted to lose weight, but then didn’t like to work out because she got tired when she did so. She ate all the time, anything and everything. She would tell herself that I was healthy, and that she could have an unhealthy snack. She made herself vomit when she was home alone. My aunt also suffers from bulimia, during our family holiday meals; she will excuse herself early, go to the restroom, and make herself vomit. She doesn’t eat a lot, but drinks too much, way more than what a 45 year old woman should. Another eating disorder is binge-eating disorder where it is characterized by binge eating that causes significant distress.

The most surprising thing I learned while reading this chapter was about the types of stressors. First off, a stressor is an environmental event or stimulus that threatens and organism. The two categories are major life stressors and daily hassles. The major life stressors are large disruptions that are unpredictable catastrophic events that affect the central areas of people’s lives. Daily hassles are everyday irritations that cause small disruptions, the effects of which can add up to large impact on health. Not that these physical things were surprising to me, just that there was more to them than what I had originally thought surprised me. The littlest things can stress us out sometimes when they shouldn’t; it should be more of the larger events that do so. Going along with stress, I was surprised to learn that personality influences how stress affects us. Type A behavior pattern is characterized by competitiveness, achievement orientation, aggressiveness hostility, restlessness, impatience with others, and inability to relax. Type B behavior pattern is characterized by being noncompetitive, relaxed, easygoing, and accommodating. To be completely honest, I would have to say that I am probably and most likely a Type A person. And it makes sense the heart disease is common in men that are Type A behavioral wise. Aggression and competitiveness can get the heart going and will raise the blood pressure. That concept all makes sense to me, but I never really thought about it until they discussed this study that had been done.

Terms: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, eating disorder, well-being, stressor, major life stressors, daily hassles, Type A behavior pattern, Type B behavior pattern.

I have personally always been very into my own health and well-being. I personally try to eat right and workout four days per week and the rest of my family is mostly as fit as I am. I didn’t realize before reading this chapter how large of an influence genetics is based on our weight. I come from a large family of six kids and two parents who are still happily married and I just saw it as normal that we were all basically the same size and how other families were the same size, I personally saw it as what was available in the house to eat. Even though I know I do some things good with my health I didn’t realize how largely stress can influence health. I have a very stressful life currently with the most difficult semester of classes I have had in three years of college, a stressful major and stress in my relationship. This year I have never been this sick compared to any other year and now I know I can relate this to the Exhaustion stage. I get myself so stressed when the stress is finally relieved I become sick. I know from reading this chapter that I need to find a better way to deal with my stresses if it means eliminating my stresses to the best of my ability or just getting away from everything for a short period of time and coming back fresh (thanksgiving break can’t come soon enough), I need to do something to better this aspect of my health. I have always been interested in the fight or flight response because it is festinating how the human body can make itself basically superhuman for a very short period of time. People have been own to remove objects hundreds of pounds bigger than they are in this response along with fighting off attackers with ease. Some people who have unfortunately been in a true fight or flight phase remember it as a black out and no control over the body and have little memory of what happens. From reading more on the fight or flight response I didn’t realize how vulnerable the human body was to infection or disease while in this phase because the human body takes all its resources to fighting or running away. The last part of the chapter that seemed to be closely linked to me was the personality traits of Type A people and type B people. When I read about these two types I was clear stand out in one of these two. I was clearly type A because I am a competitive guy who when a time is set has to stick to this time. These are mainly the only traits I have within type A but I feel they are enough to make me this type which I feel can link my stress to this. I feel those who are type B have less stress in their life because they don’t let as many things become a stressor unlike us type A people. I feel if I work on my patience this will help and overall maybe I won’t die of a heart condition in the very distant future.
Terms- type A- type B- fight or flight- resistance stage- exhaustion stage-stress

I used to think that health and well-being just meant not getting sick but after I read this chapter it is much more than that. The biopsychosocial model does a nice job of showing all of the things that affect our health and well-being. The psychological factors are thoughts, actions, and stress. The social conditions are family relationships, environments, and cultural influences. The biological characteristics are genetic predispositions, brain and nervous system development, and ability to be exposed to germs. All of these affect our health and well-being and it can also determine how our body will handle itself when it is introduced to an illness. I think this can help me as I grow because I can look at my family’s record of illness and I can learn from that.
The topic I found the most interesting was the story how the man quit smoking. He was supposed to pick his kids up from the library and it was raining when he realized he didn’t have any cigarettes. He thought he could run to the store quick, buy some, and get back before his kids got “too wet”. The thought that he was going to put cigarettes before his kids worried him enough that he stopped smoking right there. I just find it interesting how an addiction can almost completely make a person forget what is really important in their life. I think I also found this topic to be the most surprising and memorable part of the chapter I read.

Biology, psychology and social factors have influence on health. Psychology a field that integrates research on health and on psychology; it involves the application of psychological principles to promoting health and well-being. The Biopsychosocial model is a general idea of all the influences on health. Biological characteristics are genetic predispositions, exposure to germs, brain and other nervous system developments.The psychological factors are the thoughts, actions, lifestyles, stress and health beliefs. The Social conditions involve environments, cultural influences, family relationships, and social support. All of these different factors are what shape our well being of health.
Stress has a negative effect on one health. I personally believe that is true. Especially around finals week when I tend to over stress, my face tends to break out and I become restless. This chapter has helped me detect what kinds of things cause me stress and how I should deal with it.
The most interesting topic was that there are different types of stressors. I make some problems bigger than what they really are. There are two major different types of stressors major life stressors and daily hassles. Major life stressors are large disruptions, especially unpredictable and uncontrollable catastrophic events, that affect central areas of people’s lives. They can be something we choose to do or something completely out of our control. While daily hassles are everyday irritations that cause small disruptions, the effects of which can add up to a large impact on health.
The most memorable thing I learned when reading this chapter is that marriage can be good for your health. Although every marriage is not guaranteed good health. According to our book marriage gives many health advantages, marital partners can help each other when dealing with stress, assisting in meeting life’s demands, and encouraging each others helpful behavior. I personally think giving someone all of your love and vowing to spend the rest of your life with them is an amazing thing. I have been in a relationship for about 4 years and I feel a sigh of relief when I vent to him.

After reading this chapter my understanding of health and well-being has changed. Before reading this chapter, I always thought that health was about your body physically. For example if you were sick or not. But after reading, I have learned that health is emotional, mental, and also physical. It’s more about how you take care of yourself with your relationships, how you handle stress, how to keep a positive attitude, and how factors influence our body. I also learned that your well-being is interconnected with your health and how you take care of yourself affects your health and well-being.
The information in this chapter can help my day-to-day life. I have learned some ideas to help me stay healthy. For example there are eleven main strategies to help but there are seven that relate to me. These seven are to eat natural foods, watch portion sizes, keep active, learn to relax, learn to cope, try to build a strong support network, and try some happiness exercises. After reading about these strategies I have tried to do some of these, for example I have been trying to watch how much I eat and what food I eat. I have also tried to learn how to relax when I get stressed and how to cope with it. The last one about how to do happiness exercises I have been doing Pilates and that has helped me relax and get a good exercise, it also makes me happy to go and know that I am getting a good workout. This chapter has also opened my eyes about stress and how to handle it every day, especially during school. This information can also help with maintaining happiness and how to keep your body in shape.
The most interesting topics that I read were about stress and the different stressors that happen in daily life. I thought that this was interesting because I get stressed out very easily and after reading this chapter I have learned about why and how I get stressed. In the book there was a try it yourself about what stress level you have. To do it you had to go through some of the life changes that you have gone through in the past twelve months and then you add up the life change units from those events. After adding up these units there are three categories that you fit into and those categories tell you about experiences in illness and mental health problems from the stress. I fit into the second category that was from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and ninety nine units. This category says that about one of every two people are likely to have a serious health change. This opened up my eyes of how much stress I have in my life, especially from the change I am going through with college and meeting new people. I also learned about the many stressors in my life. The major life stressor that is going on in my life right now is the starting of college and my daily hassles are my homework and making connections with people.
The most surprising thing that I read was about the story of Gary Stocklaufer and how he and his wife got declined for adopting there foster child because he was obese. This caught my attention because parents should not have to worry about their weight, they should only have to worry about if they are good enough parents and can support a child. Being declined about adopting a child because your obese is not right and there should be some talk about how being obese should not matter. I also think that the judge who declined him was not right and shouldn’t have even said that. I think that obesity is a topic to talk about but it shouldn’t matter if you’re trying to help a child get in a better home.
Psychological Terms: Health, Well-being, Stress, Stressors, Major life stressor, Daily Hassles, and Obesity.

Out of all the chapters so far this is the one I have learned the least in. This doesn’t mean I didn’t learn anything it just means I didn’t learn as much in this chapter compared to the amount I learned in other chapters. In high school we were required to take three health classes. Many of the topics such as well-being, body mass index, smoking, stressors, and the immune system I have already studied pretty extensively. This being said, I didn’t know much about these health issues from a psychology standpoint. Fight or flight response is a widely known response but I wasn’t aware of the tend and befriend response. This is the females tendency to respond to stressors by protecting and caring for their offspring and forming social alliances. What changed the most after reading the chapter was my understanding for how much the mind affects the body's well-being. Health psychology is a field that integrates research on health and psychology. It involves the application of psychological principles to promoting health and well-being. With this I am also now aware of positive psychology. This is the study of the strengths and virtues that allow people and communities to thrive. I knew that there was an old saying that laughter is the best medicine but I didn’t know there was actually proven health benefits of positivity.

The part that I found most interesting in this chapter was about how coping mediates the effects of stressors. We use primary appraisals to decide whether stimuli are stressful, benign, or irrelevant. We then use secondary appraisals to consider how to cope with the stressor. I find this interesting because for a few years now I have delt with an anxiety problem. I have had to work hard to deal with this elevated stress. The first is emotion-focused coping which is a type of coping in which people try to prevent having an emotional response to a stressor. These strategies include avoidance, minimizing the problem, trying to distance ourselves from the problem, or engaging in self destructive activities. Before recognizing my anxiety issues this is usually how I would deal with the stress I was feeling. Over the last few years I have had to shift to problem-solving coping. This is a type of coping in which people take direct steps to confront or minimize a stressor. This is much harder to do but is better for your well-being in the long run.

The most memorable part of this chapter for me was about how personality influences how stress affects us. There are two types of behavior patterns, type A and type B. A type A behavior pattern is personality traits characterized by competitiveness, achievement orientation, aggressiveness, hostility, restlessness, impatience with others, and an inability to relax. Type B behavior pattern is personality traits characterized by being noncompetitive, relaxed, easygoing, and accommodating. After reading this chapter I realized that I am a more type B personality.

This information from this chapter will most definitely affect my day to day life. I realized that I need to have a more positive attitude and that dealing with stress the right way is important for my well-being. I know that I need to deal with stressors by problem solving and not through emotional suppression. I didn’t realize before reading this chapter how I need to change my coping mechanisms so I can be healthier.

Psych terms: well-being, coping, positive attitude, stressor, Type A behavioral pattern, type B behavioral pattern, personality, primary appraisals, secondary appraisals, emotion-focused coping, problem-solving coping, body mass index, Fight or flight response, tend and befriend response, Health psychology, positive psychology

My overall knowledge of health and well-being and what it means has definitely changed a lot after reading chapter ten. I now know all the different aspects that goes into being healthy and living a fulfilling life. Being well off and healthy doesn’t just come from physical aspects. Our attitudes, emotional and mental health all affects us as well. I’ve never really thought about how all these factors can affect how I live, but I’ve never really had to. I have always a fairly stress-free day-to-day life, but I have also learned how to cope with things well when they do happen. I believe that even through all the stress people go through, we still have a choice of how we handle it and how we want our attitude to be. After this reading I think it will be easier for me to help someone who is going through a hard time because I understand it a lot better.
I thought it was very surprising how approximately one to two percent of women in high school and college meet the criteria for bulimia nervosa. There could be girls in your high school who are going to the bathroom to make themselves vomit because they are worried about their self-image and how they appear physically to society. We can be so closely related to something like that and have no idea about it. It’s sad to hear people go through this, but to then know that they did or are going through it alone makes it even harder. That has to be such a big stress and burden in their life, so their health and well-being will definitely be hindered by that.
The most interesting thing I read was about how stress affects our overall health. There are major life stressors and daily hassles that cause us to have stress responses. Even if the stress is as small as waking up late for class, it still has an affect on our mood and how we act for the next couple of hours or even the rest of the day. Or there can be a major life change that seems to just throw your life upside down. I can’t say I’ve had too many of these happen, at least not recently. I know of a few events that were very stressful on my family, but I have very vague memories of these events because I was still under the age of ten. Everyone responds to all types of stresses differently, and they all affect us differently. If the stresses of life become too much for someone it can take a huge toll on their mental and emotional health. It’s sad to see, but there are ways that they can help themselves to get through it.

Psych Terms: Major life stressors, daily hassles, stress responses, bulimia nervosa, attitude, emotional health, mental health, well-being, health, cope, stress

Health and well-being is a topic that I feel like everyone has a different understanding on. Health is more overall and physical being where well-being is emotional and mental along with health. I think it is filled with very valid information and how to take care of yourself by not smoking, staying fit, etc but how to also take care of yourself mentally. I think that is something that is highly needed as a reminder in today’s society with the stress levels we encounter with everything going on in our lives and the world. It is a good reminder to stay positive for your mental health and do positive things like eating well and working out to your physical health to keep up with the day to day life.
As a college student, I found the section on stress the most interesting, I’ve encountered a lot more stress and frustrations throughout the whole calendar year, more than I ever expected. So after reading the hostile personalities and depression section, I reflected a little bit and realized people I’ve been surrounded by have had higher stress levels as well and stress really does eventually bring out the worst in people. I found the Type A and B behavior patterns interesting, thinking of people I know there are definitely either type a and type b. I would consider myself a type A, I can relate to those traits especially when I’m under stressed or feeling down. I’ve always been very competitive, hyper so I can’t relax and typically I am a more aggressive person and the not so pleasant moods like anger or stress bring that side out of me which makes for even more stress. I didn’t know something as small as those behaviors could typically lead to more heart problems which is interesting. The appraisals were something I feel like happens on a daily basis for most of us. I think primary appraisals are something that you decide without truly putting a lot of thought into or you do without realizing it. I stress easily so maybe I’m not a good example so I probably face the secondary appraisals more often. Reading the individual differences in coping and involving the family, I feel like is a relatable topic. I find myself more as an individual, I thought the idea of resilience was a good thing to keep in mind since I have experienced that in multiple situations that come to mind, seeing it could possibly be taught is interesting since how you cope with things just seems like it is something you know to do and can’t explain why.
I found the positivity section of the chapter the most memorable. I’ve always been a very firm believer that seeing the positive to situation and staying optimistic can improve your well-being and keep you sane in most situations. It is emotionally and mentally draining to be surrounded by so much negativity in the world, when just having a positive attitude and realizing everything happens for some reason can give you a peace of mind for that time. So I started thinking about the question “Can a positive attitude keep us healthy?” for a little bit and I realized I think it can, it makes a huge difference. I was really surprised looking at the well-being figure in the US seeing that most states in the midwest had a higher well-being compared to states that tend to be warmer or like Nevada and Florida, places high in tourism with more to do were lower. I was looking at colleges both in Nevada and Florida, thinking it would solve all my problems and be somewhere new where winter didn’t exist but seeing this graph overall that is not the case. Considering Iowa has a higher well-being, I think I made the right choice staying here in the long run. I was reading the lists in that section about the strategies to keep us stay healthy and I’ve made some of those changes, including portion control, staying active, taking time to relax and considered my spiritual life and it has overall improved my life and changed me to a more optimistic person. I feel like this chapter was a good reminder to keep in mind as we approach winter, holidays and the last half of the semester when stress levels rise, it is a good way to know why we act the way we do in these times.
Terms used- Type A behavior, Type B behavior, primary appraisals, secondary appraisals, stress, well-being, health, positivity

Throughout this chapter I learned many new things that I didn’t have much knowledge on before. I always knew that in order to live a happier lifestyle, making good decisions based on your health is always the first step. I always thought of health simply as eating healthy, exercising, washing your hands and so on. I know realize from reading this chapter that psychological and social factors play just as big of a role in our health. It wasn’t until around 3 decades ago that we started realizing the importance of health psychology which integrates research on health and on psychology. The start of health psychology made psychologists, physicians, and other health professionals appreciate the importance of lifestyle factors into our physical health. The biopsychosocial model is a great representation illustrating how health and illness result from a combination of biological, psychological, and social factors. My understanding of obesity has also changed after reading about it more. I now understand that there are many more factors that go into obesity than just overeating and a lack of exercise. I never understood how big of an impact genetic factors can play into someone’s Chances of becoming obese. A statement from the book that I thought was very true is genetics determine whether a person can become obese, but environment determines whether that person will become obese. Exercise was also a topic that I learned more about and how it effects the body in such a tremendous way. Physical exercise helps control appetite, increase metabolism, and burn calories, likewise, we exercise to stay in good shape and feel good about ourselves. Exercising makes us feel good because we know it is good for us while it also enhances the growth of new neurons and neural connections in the production of synaptic connections. Exercise can actually increase our memory and improve our cognition. The effect of stress on our bodies was also discussed in the chapter. Stress is a very intriguing topic because while stress can be very harmful to our bodies, a little stress is actually good for us. The definition of stress is the set of behavioral, mental, and physical processes that occur as we attempt to deal with an environmental event or stimulus that we perceive as threatening. There are actually two different types of stress which are categorized. The first is major life stressors and the second is daily hassles. Major life stressors are changes or disruptions that strain central areas of people’s lives. An example of a major life stressor would be something like a catastrophic event. On the other hand, daily hassles are stressors that are small, day-to-day irritations and annoyances. An example of this would be dealing with difficult or annoying people. The result of stress was something that surprised me very much. I never had any idea how impactful it could be on a person’s health. An effect of long-term stress makes the body less capable of warding off foreign substances. When we experience high stress levels for a long time, the function of the immune system is impaired, and the probability and severity of poor health increases. Too much stress can be an awful thing to the body and decrease your health as well as leading to anxiety or severe depression. I thought the last section in the chapter was very interesting because it talked about the importance of having a positive attitude in order to maintain a healthy the positive psychology movement encouraged the scientific study of qualities such as faith, values, creativity, courage, and hope. People with a positive attitude show enhanced immune system functioning and live longer than their less positive peers. They have fewer illnesses after exposure to cold germs and flu viruses as well. From this chapter I definitely learned how to stay healthier both physically and psychologically. They are both of equal importance in the equation of a healthy lifestyle. At the end of section 4, it even gives a list of strategies that can help us stay healthy. They vary from talking about diet and nutrition, to drugs and alcohol, exercising, relaxing, practicing safe sex, having a good network of family and friends, and incorporating spiritual beliefs into our lives.
Terms: biopsychosocial model, obesity, neurons, stress, major life stressors, daily hassles, psychological movement

I learned a lot about health and our well being from reading this chapter. I learned that not only is it a biological thing there also is a physiological factor in our health. I have always been the type of person to work out, eat super healthy, drink plenty of water etc. but after reading I learned that thinks such a small as our attitude can have an effect on our health. Attitude and having a healthy lifestyle though are closely connected, the more active and workouts we do the more “happy” neurotransmitters are released. So the person who works out and eats healthy is going to have a happier brain, which makes their health and well being better. I also learned a lot about the role stress plays on the body in such a negative way. Stress is something that nobody can avoid yet it has such a negative affect on us, especially if prolonged. And there is no way to measure your stress levels to know how it is effecting you, since for every person it is different and plays a different role in your body. Another important aspect of health and well-being is your social life. Being able to go out with friends and family and laugh and have a good time is very important to our health as well as our mental well being. If we are out having a good time it is good for us compared to always staying at home sitting on the couch alone reading a book or watching TV. Genetics also play a role in our health and well being. One may have a genetic predisposition to obesity, depression, or alcoholism that they can fall susceptible to without even making the conscious choice.
The most memorable thing I read about in the chapter was the Body Mass Index Chart. I completely disagree with this categorization of height and weight and think that it leads too much more stress and unhappiness in people’s life. According to the chart I am almost overweight but I know that when I look in the mirror I am nowhere close to over weight. I also muscle tone making me a healthier person than the same person with my height and weight but is mostly body fat. I think that this chart is something that shouldn’t be used because there are so many factors in a person’s body makeup that affect their weight.
The most interesting thing I read in the chapter was about eating disorders. They were always something that I had heard about in school and learned they were a bad thing but I never though too much into them until reading this chapter. Eating disorders are becoming more common now, due to medias interpretation of the perfect body in my opinion. And theses disorders have such an effect on the body. If one is starving, annexure, themselves then they aren’t getting the nutrients they need to be healthy and develop correctly. Especially since young and developing girls and young adults are they main population with these disorders. Our body and brain is still developing in such a basic way that we need all the nutrients we can get. There is also binge eating which is bad because you are on a calorie overload which leads to a weight gain in an unhealthy way. Also bulimia nervosa, throwing up what you have just binge eaten, another very unhealthy disorder. All of theses have negative health effects and well as social effects.

Biological, physiological, neurotransmitters, genetic predisposition, stress, Body Mass Index Chart, anorexia, binge eating, bulimia nervosa

Reading chapter 10 in our textbook I have grasped a better understanding and well being of my self. Well- being is when we have a feeling of completing your optimal health and life satisfactions. I understand if you want to have full satisfaction with your life you need to first be healthy with your self and then that will drive you to your satisfactions and things that make you feel better about your self that can be completed. There are many factors that go into making your self to reach the top pedestal of your well-being. Many of these factors are to quit smoking if you are this can improve your over all health, having no stress which is a behavioral mental and physical process occurring when events match or exceed the organism’s ability to respond in a healthy way. Having no stress in your life will help improve not only your physical state but also your mental state. There are two types of stress that are brought to us, major life stressors and daily hassles. If we tackle those to and control them our lives will be much happier. Other factors can be drinking little alcohol if you drink it at all, keeping active and fit, practicing safe sex so one doesn’t have the chance to develop a STD, learning to relax, learning to cope, building a strong support bond between your family and others, and being happy. If we meet these factors and requirements to be an over all good person our well-being and satisfactions will be met as well. I think from reading this chapter its help me understand my life a little bit better what I need to work on and weaknesses I need to fix so I can be happy. I am now exercising more and leaning to control my stress levels. Also id love to give back to my community when I get older just to give back from what they gave me when I was growing up back at home. This would give me a good sensation for my over all well-being. The topic I found most interesting Genetic influence where if your family is obese and you grew up with them that way your most likely to end up in the same footsteps as them. The most memorable thing I read was the bio psychosocial model to determine how your personality behavior and thoughts effect your over all health.

Terms: Stress, stressor, satisfaction, well-being, bio psychosocial, genetic influence

Health and well-being have been under much scrutiny in the recent years. What well-being actually means is to be in a positive state which we feel our best. To be in this state we must strive for optimal health and life satisfaction. Although there might have been a few facts I didn’t know about these subjects, for the most part this information has been drilled into us for quite some time. The surprising thing is that so many people know how to live healthy but yet so many people ignore what they know. The obesity rate in the United States has more than doubled in the last 3o years.
One of the most interesting topics to me in this chapter was the part that talked about how body weight is socially contagious. One study found that close friends of the same gender usually tend to be around the same body weight, even in they don’t live close together. According to the book, this is due to an implicit agreement on a body weight that is acceptable. This brings two things to my mind. First of all, if we are trying to lose weight, would it be more effective if we did it with our friends? I think yes, which is why this information can be useful in our everyday lives. Secondly, I think that our friends affect our diet which has a large part to do in our body weights. Maybe instead of some unconscious justifying of our weights in our head, its because our friends dictate what, when and where we eat.
Health, well-being, body weight, obesity

Honestly, I think it has changed very little. I have been taught healthy habits throughout grade school in various classes that I have taken or speakers that were brought in. They covered a lot of the basic eat healthy, get active, don’t smoke/do drugs aspects of being a healthy individual. From that perspective, the chapter didn’t teach me a whole lot. What was interesting was the stress related sickness part. I knew stress could cause people to be less healthy, but I did not know that it could lead to major organ failure. I consider myself to be a very stressed person generally. I like to work, I like to be challenged, I like to be busy, and I like to drink gallons of coffee. Through these things I keep myself at a slightly higher than healthy level of stress on a day to day basis. I’d be willing to bet that most of my Monday-Friday weeks are spent in the resistance portion of General adaptation syndrome. I tend to work as fast and hard as I can Monday-Friday and then I crash on the weekends. I rarely have the want or energy to do much besides eat and sleep. I also tend to get headaches on the weekends (non-alcohol related) which leads me to believe that my body is exhibiting signs of the exhaustion stage. It’s interesting to me to think that I may actually have unhealthy levels of stress. I’ve never actually given my routine much consideration because I am happy with it. I enjoy the high levels of stress throughout the week as well as the low levels of activity on the weekends, so it never occurred to me that it may be unhealthy.

The most interesting section was the section on coping and the different ways people cope with stress. I like to eat. I eat quickly and in large amounts once or twice a day on average. This is extremely unhealthy, but I rarely have time to eat and it seems like such a waste of time to eat tree plus times a day and to take time doing it. Again, I never realized that this could be a method that I use to cope with stress.

Terms: cope, stress, health, resistance, general adaptation syndrome, exhaustion

After reading this chapter a few things changed about my thinking of health. Every time I heard the word health I would think if someone is in shape not about their mental health as much. Since reading this chapter I now know that mental health can play a big role physical health. In the book they gave an example of a man who lost his daughter, his house, and his job in a short period of time. All these things effected his mental health which led to insomnia, dizziness, and loss of appetite which will affect his physical health. This can help me in everyday life by not sweating the little things so I have good mental health and physical health. The most interesting thing I read was that exercising includes stress reduction and weight control of all ages. Individuals who are physically fit have lower cardiovascular and subjective responses to psychological stress than people who are not physically fit. If you are physically fit and have less stress then you can have better mental health. The most memorable thing to me was social support like comfort, recognition, approval, and even financial assistance can have an important impact on the development and reduction of stress symptoms. If you have supportive friends and relatives you can be less stressful and have a better mental and physical health. Terms used: Mental health, physical health, stress, social support.

My understanding of health has significantly changed since reading this chapter. I always thought of health as purely a physical state. I think that understanding health psychology is important for over all well-being. For example, when I learned that exercise has cognitive benefits, such as enhanced memory and mood, it made me consider exercise as an important factor for my daily routine. However, when I only thought of exercise as a way to maintain or lose weight, I wasn’t as motivated to exercise.
Another important issue I learned from this chapter is stress. Stress seems like a common thing amount college students, but I didn’t realize how much it can affect the physical body. I took the student stress scale in the body and scored 302…Yikes!! I knew that I had a lot of stressors in my life, such has bad professors, difficult classes, health problems, and struggles with extended family, but I didn’t realize what damage the stressors could do to my body. What really interested me was the stress responses. The general adaptation syndrome was really eye-opening, especially the resistance and exhaustion stages. Does everyone have different amounts of time their body can be in the resistance stage before it can be exhausted? I look at my dad, who has a very stressful job, on top of struggles with his family and being a volunteer fire fighter. When he gets sick, he is really miserable for at least four or five days. However, he only gets sick once or maybe twice a year. I thought that is it possible for his exhaustion stage to be when he sleeps, but he doesn’t sleep well. Whenever I’m home, I’m up later than everyone else, but my dad is always in the living room trying to zone out in front of the TV. Is he finding a way to cope with his stress by watching TV? This chapter has caused me to think of situation like these a lot.
I find it interesting that I can’t really put myself in a Type A or Type B behavior pattern. I am a very competitive person, at times I can be restless and I am achievement oriented. However, I am not a hostile person. In the case of flight or fight, I always choose flight. I don’t like to confront people, and it takes a lot for something to actually bother me. Maybe, that is how my dad handles his stress. He is definitely a Type B personality. Even though he runs a business, he never yells at anyone, he is always calm even when I can tell something is really bothering him, and he is only competitive when it comes to defending an issue of morals. He also is not achievement oriented. He was never in sports, fine arts, or even did well in school. All he wanted to do was work. After looking at this, it makes sense why my dad appears to handle stress a lot better than I do.
I think the most memorable thing from this chapter will be the coping mechanisms. I think that I prefer the emotion-focused coping initially, followed by the problem-focused coping. When I’m faced with a difficult stressor I try to keep myself from getting anxious by convincing myself that I can handle it, and it’s not a big deal. After I think that I can handle it, I figure out how I will handle it. However, there are sometimes I’m convinced I’ll just live a simple life out in the country and avoid all the stressors in the world.

Psychological Terms: health psychology, well-being, stress, stressor, stress response, GAS, fight-or-flight, Type A behavior pattern, Type B behavior pattern, emotion-focused coping, problem-focused coping.

Before reading this, my understanding of health and well being was simply that if you ate healthy and did some form of exercise often, than you were considered healthy. I learned that there is so much more to it than eating and exercise. Behavior and attitude also have something to do with health. Positive behaviors and attitudes can lead you to a healthy life. Being stressed out can have a major impact on your body. Stress can lead to major health risks because your body has been raising the responses in your immune system for so long they become exhausted and you aren’t able to fight off diseases. I now know being healthy doesn’t just mean being disease free, exercising, and eating well.

The most interesting topic is this reading was about obesity and its genetic influence. I wasn’t aware that obesity was genetic. I just thought if you were obese you were obese. I learned that it runs in families. There was a study of twins that showed strong evidence of the genetic control of body weight. Identical twins tend to have similar body weight whether raised together or apart. I have identical 3mon old twin brothers, so it will be interesting to watch them grow and see how their body weight compares. I learned that genetics determines whether a person can become obese, but environment determines whether that person will become obese.

The most memorable thing from chapter 10 was Figure 10.20 on page 373. It was about the Well- being in the USA. 2009 data from Gallup’s Well-Being Index showed peoples satisfaction with their lives. Each day 500 people in the United States were surveyed about their lives, emotional health, work, environment, physical health, healthy behaviors, and access to food and shelter. The data revealed a great pattern of people’s satisfaction with their lives. I was happy to see that IA had a higher well being.
TERMS: Health, Well Being, Behavior, Stress, Immune System, Disease, Obesity, emotional health, Enviornment

My understanding of health and well-being has changed since reading this chapter because I didn’t realize all of the different factors that contribute to being healthy. I knew stress is something that really affects us, but I didn’t think about it affecting our health a whole lot. After thinking about it I know that stress has affected my own health in many different ways. Since this semester started I have been extremely busy with my major. I barely have time for myself anymore and I have been going to bed very late because I always am staying up late to study. I haven’t been making time to exercise like I should and I am tired all the time. Since I am staying up late to study, I am using my time in between classes to nap because I am so tired. I think the information in this chapter can help me in my day-to-day life because I can use some of the ways they listed to decrease my stress level and coping with the stressors. I think the biggest way I cope is with emotion-focused coping. I try to forget about what stresses me out and sleep it off, which actually makes me more stressed because I could be using that time to get homework done. Keeping a positive attitude through positive psychology while making through this tough semester will help me to keep my head up and will help my well-being. The most interesting topic that I read about was the genetic influence of obesity. I found it very interesting that children who were adopted still had the BMI of their biological parents instead of their adoptive parents. This is very surprising to me because you would think that the eating habits that the children grow up around would determine their BMI. The most memorable part of this reading was learning my own stress using the student stress scale.

Psychological terms: stress, stressors, emotion-focused coping, positive psychology, BMI (body mass index), genetic influence

In the biopsychosocial model health and illness are caused by three factors that affect each other: psychological factors such as thoughts, lifestyles, and stress; social conditions such as environments, cultural influences, and relationships; and biological characteristics such as genetics, exposure to germs, and bodily development. These three factors influence our health and well-being. The book goes over main topics of obesity and other eating disorders, smoking, and stress and how they negatively influence our well-being. In each topic it tells us how these topics can be avoided and treated, and also the book goes over how having a positive attitude can keep us healthy.
This chapter challenges me to live better than I already am. My understanding has not really changed in a shifting aspect but more of a “broadening my horizon” kind of view. I eat often, and I know that will catch up to me if I continue to stay inactive. I realize that I need to exercise more not just for my physical health but for my mental health as well. The chapter goes over how exercise and not only control an appetite and help burn calories but also can enhance our positive mental state. Not only that, I am the 1 in 5 Americans that has a smoking habit. I have been battling with quitting smoking for a couple of months now. Thankfully I’ve gradually cut down tremendously, but still I struggle with wanting cigarettes. Although I have known about the health risks for my entire life, social influences has helped create my addiction. I started because I wanted to impress my friends who were already smokers. Soon I found out that they were relaxing and helped me cope with a long, stressful day. As I continued to smoke I realized the problems it created for me. I started to smoke because I needed the nicotine and without it I would contract a headache. Also I became more agitated when I needed one. I didn’t like the lifestyle that the addiction brought to me so I decided to quit, but it’s easier said than done. I’ve tried to quit twice now, but doing it “cold turkey,” as the book puts it, is not as easy as I had planned. Subtly cutting down by smoking less has helped a lot and I can now go multiple days without smoking if I wanted to. I still have a while to go before I’m done for good, but it feels better that it’s not as big of an addiction in my life as it once was.
The most memorable thing from this chapter was the how marriage and spirituality can both contribute to a better health. Now, this makes sense and isn’t a very big surprise to me, but I like that there are studies done to support these theories. I come from a very religious family, and for a while I’ve wondered if I really believed in God or if I just believed because that’s what I grew up doing. I have found a lot more peace and happiness when I live more of a christian life than when I didn’t. Religion and God have a special place in my heart and I’ve figured that out on my own, though it’s very nice to find that it also has positive effects on health also. My family is also full of strong marriages, and although I know it can be difficult, I can’t wait until I myself get married. The intimate and supportive relationship can greatly influence people’s lives and how they live day-to-day. I’m very excited to marry my best friend and spend the rest of my life with her, but I know I have to wait for now. It makes me happy and creates hope, though, that marriage can be good for our health.

Terms: biopsychosocial model, psychological factors, social conditions, biological characteristics, obesity, health, well-being, influence, attitude

When I think of health and well being I think of someone who is in good physical shape, skinny or not. After reading Chapter ten Health and Well-Being, I have learned that not only does physical activity affect our health and well-being, but also stress, biology, and psychology can affect our health as well. The biopsychosocial model in chapter ten, section 1 shows what affects and influences our health. In the model there are three categories, psychological factors, social conditions and biological characteristics. Each one of these categories has an affect on our health. This model was very interesting to me. Although the model shows what can make a person happy, if these categories play a negative affect in a persons life then they can also develop an illness from them. For example, the biological characteristics can be passed down from parents to offspring. The parents could have an illness or each can be a carrier of one, and the illness can be passed to the offspring affecting their health. An example of this could be sickle cell. Two parents may be carriers of the gene sickle cell but they do not show that they have the awful trait. Once they produce an offspring the kid may receive both genes from the parent and have the trait sickle cell. What had surprised me the most in this chapter was that marriage could be good for a person’s health. After reading the title to this topic I was surprised and questioned how this could be true. After reading about this topic, it made a lot more sense. Marriage is the longest and most intimate relationship that two people can have. The book tells us how in marriage one person out of the couple is not dealing with stress alone. They have someone there that can help them cope with the stress. Not only do they help with the coping of stress but also in a marriage if someone is trying to change their physical appearance, they will have someone to support and encourage them throughout the process. I guess it really is important to find the right one to marry.

Terms: Stress, Marriage, well being, health, illness, psychological, social biological.

I never knew of all of the factors associated with health and well-being. I thought that if you ate properly, then you were consider to be healthy. Now I know that’s not true and that your health depends on a lot more than just what you eat. Behaviors and attitudes also play a role in if you are healthy or not. Small changes in behavior, as well as changes in attitude, can get you back on track to live a healthy life. Psychologist have found that personality and thoughts also impact our health in one way or another. An example that was shared in the book was the impact of high anxiety. A person with high anxiety is more likely to stress out about a test which can lead to a larger consumption of food. The eating of more food can lead to weight gain which ultimately leads to a decrease in health. The reading show me many things that I should think about when I consider my health. I learned a lot about stress and how it can affect a person’s health. If a person has a significantly high amount of stress for a long time, the person’s immune system could start to shut down, which could lead to illness and diseases that could be extremely harmful to the person’s health.
The most interesting part was about disorder eating. It has become one of the most serious problem that could lead to fatal consequences. The wrong diet can have harmful physiological and psychological outcomes. For some individuals, chronic dieting may promote the development of clinical eating disorders. The most common are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder. There are a lot of girls who torments themselves to death with these disorders but it’s not just girls, guys go through it too. They have excessive fear of becoming fat and therefore restrict energy intake to obtain a significantly low body weight. Measuring of thinness and abnormal obsession with food and body weight, are all characteristics of anorexia. According to chapter this dangerous disorder causes a number of serious health problems like a loss of bone density and heart disease. More than 15% of those with anorexia literally starve themselves to death. Another psychological disorder linked to eating is bulimia nervosa. People who are regularly binge eat, feel their eating is out of control and engaged in behavior such as self-induced vomiting, excessive exercise and abuse of laxatives. This eating disorder is associated with serious health problems like dental and cardiac disorders which may lead to fatal consequences. Another common eating problems is binge-eating disorder. Individuals who eat very quickly, even if they are not hungry, then feel guilt and embarrassment in other words eating causes significant distress. Those people have binge-eating disorder. These disorders have become significant global problem, everyday more and more people are struggling because of these psychological diseases.
The most memorable thing I learned in this chapter was when the book said to ignore the maxim “no pain, no gain”. I have never liked this saying because if you hurt yourself while trying to be healthy, how is that keeping you healthy? It is causing more damage than good. You should be comfortable in the skin you’re in skin. You have to love yourself first. The book supports this by saying that pain may deter one from exercising over the long run. It encouraged moderate exercise that will not leave you breathless then to gradually integrate yourself into more intense workouts. It encouraged doing simple things such as walking or biking places rather than driving. I can use this information to better my life style and stop my friends from working out so hard to the point they hurt themselves. I was also happy that the book discouraged smoking because I feel it is something most people try to ignore, so it’s slapping the facts in the readers faces made me happy.
Key Terms: Stress, Well-being, immune system, behaviors, attitudes, Health, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating, anorexia nervosa

Terms: Healthy, biopsychosocial model, biological, social, stress

After reading my understanding of health and well being was only changed a little because I was fully aware that mental health and physical health are closely related and effected. After reading it made me more award how significant they really were. I was very interesting that this whole chapter focused on health psychology because I think a healthy mind creates a healthy body and body image. Its really inspiring that people are able to prolong their lives by eating better, coping with stress and over all being a healthier person. I found this chapter to be very easy to connect with because I tend to think I am a stupid health nut and to see how the mind actually effect how you are psychically will be very helpful in my daily life.
I was not aware that that obesity was was generic and I find that to be very surprising and memorable I always know that eating disorders genetic but it never even crossed my mind that obesity was as well. The book said that if you are in a family of bigger people and you have friends that are bigger it is more likely you will become bigger. I see this all around me all the time. I tend to see that as a family they tend to all be obese, I just never thought there was a genetic reason. Being obese also creates a various list os psychological problems like depression, anxiety and lower self esteem and it wont stop the cycle of obesity but keep adding on to it.
I think that the information about stress from the chapter will help me in my day to day life. I have always been aware that stress has a negtive impact, from the telling of my doctors and parents but knowing the why behind it is very interesting and helpful. Stress is a behavioral, mental, and psychical processes occurring when event match or exceed the organism's ability to responding a healthy way. I always try to stay out of situations that would cause stressors or stimulus that threaten me but in life they tend to apear. For example my junior year of high school when I was trying out for show choir that stress in between tryouts and seeing what group you made was un avoidable but I had to cope with it and figure out how to respond to the stress. I also tend to in general stress myself out quite a bit over things that are not that big of deal. College has brought a lot of daily hassles; or everyday irrations that cause small disruptions in my life that are very easy to handle but when I have a huge test or something bad that I need to fix in my life. I tend to notice when those situations are fixed or done with I get sick. I have an immune system disorder but the stress suppresses it even more and it is just a downward fall from there for me. I can learn how to cope with it in bigger situations because it does effect me all around in my health, personality and everyday life. A way in the book that it says to deal with is figure out if it is a primary appraisal, figuring out how important it is and if it is stress full or not. This method will help me loads.

Psychological health, obesity, stressor, stress response, stress, daily hassles, Immune system, Primary appraisal

I learned a lot more about health and well-being after reading this chapter. My notion of health was being in fit body shape in a way but i realized that it has a lot more to do with than just fitness. The Information about stress can help me in my day to day life because everyone faces stress during their college lives and you have to learn how to deal with it. Behavior and attitude contribute towards your health as well which was a weird thought for me since i had such a different understanding of the word stress.The biopsychosocial model shows how health and illness occur from a combination of mental, physical and social factors.
Stress was also the most interesting part i read because it was intriguing to learn about. Stressors come in two forms. There are major life stressors such as marriage which can cause a lot of stress or daily stress and annoyances that happen everyday. stress can also be from positive experiences.
the most surprising thing to me is that Obese people are not allowed to adopt because of their weight. it is discrimination to people for not being able to adopt just because they are overweight.
Terms: Stress, Major-life Stress, stressors, biopsychosocial model