| Health
and Social Behavior, Fall, 2007 |
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David
J. McKirnan |
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This site is being updated for Fall 2009. |
Health and Social Behavior is a graduate course addressing theory and research on social and psychological factors in health and health behavior. The focus will be theories and data from clinical & social psychology and public health, addressing health- or prevention-related behavior, stress and coping, design and evaluation of behavioral interventions, and community or policy-level issues.
The major evaluation for the course will be a PHS-style grant proposal presenting an empirically testable model of a health behavior or intervention. Students are strongly advised to articulate this project with their other (MA, Prelim, Ph.D.) work. A general topic list is given here. We will not address all of these in depth. The target behaviors & theories we address will be guided by student (and instructor!) interests (as may the class meeting time). |
Course Schedule (click on links to go to a given week) |
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| Week 1 | Introductions, student goals & projects | |
| Week 2 | Overview: How theories work | |
| Week 3 | Overview
of Health behavior & behavioral medicine concepts
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| Week 4 | Basic attitude theory, self-regulation | |
| Week 5 | Self-regulation, Self-Efficacy and the Health Belief model. | |
| Week 6 | General Social-Cognitive / Affective Models: Cognitive representations of health and illness, Protection Motivation Theory | |
| Week 7 | Judgments
of vulnerability: Perceived threat, motivated risk perception, realistic & unrealistic optimism. |
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| Week 8 | Self-awareness,
"Automaticity", and Cognitive Escape.
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| Week 10 | Socio-economic
Status and Health.
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| Week 11 | SES, Race and Health.
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| Weel 12 | Overview of Psychoimmunology. | |
| Week 13 | Psychoimmunology 2: Effects and interventions | |
| Week 14 | Policy, Economic and Political Influences on Health | |
| Week 15 | Spirituality, Happiness, Mindfulness, Well-Being and Health | |
Paper outline here. |
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Weekly
topics & readings.
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Introductions, student goals and projects, overall framework of Health Psychology This first week we will spend discussing the course and articulating student goals. So, for your "reaction" paper please describe your interests in Health Behavior, particularly vis-a-vis theories or bodies of empirical work you are particularly interested in. I will try to adjust the schedule to meet everyone's interests. To kick off we will have readings at two extremes, just to illustrate the range of issues we will adress and to get you all thinking. The first is on social networks and obesity (the paper that has been all over the news recently), and two others taking much more of a neuro-biological look at behavior, one a review of "Social neuroscience" and another on histocompatability, mating and romantic faithfulness (and you thought love was an emotion...). |
Primary
Christakis, N. A., & Fowler, J. H. (2007). The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years. N Engl J Med, 357(4), 370-379. Link
Barabasi, A.-L. (2007). Network Medicine -- From Obesity to the "Diseasome". N Engl J Med, 357(4), 404-407. Link
Cacioppo, J. T., Amaral, D. G., Blanchard, J. J., Cameron, J. L., Sue Carter, C., Crews, D., et al. (2007). Social Neuroscience: Progress and Implications for Mental Health. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2(2), 99-123. Link
Garver-Apgar, C. E., Gangestad, S. W., Thornhill, R., Miller, R. D., & Olp, J. J. (2006). Major Histocompatibility Complex Alleles, Sexual Responsivity, and Unfaithfulness in Romantic Couples. Psychological Science, 17(10), 830-835. Link
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Discussion
of grant proposal assignment.
Defining the research phenomena Contrast spaces, defining research questions, counterfactuals. What is explained in social science: structural presuppositions in explanations, “counterfactuals” and explanations. Decisions about research strategies: testing theories, using theory to test applications. Criteria for causation: covariation, changeability, etc. The importance of construct validity. Boundary conditions in research; the nature & importance of moderator effects in data & theory. Non-linear models of social & behavioral change The
first two readings are pdf copies of Xerox copies – they may be a little
difficult to read. Let me know if they are too rough. The
first reading can be dense -- if you can put in some time on it, it
is very rewarding. The White paper is a nice historical overview
of concepts of "cause", whereas the Cook & Campbell paper
is a nice fast read applying these concepts to psychology. Not
here are structural modelling perspectives, which we can discuss in
class. |
| Primary Garfinkel,
A. (1981). Forms of Explanation: Rethinking the Questions
in Social Theory. McGuire, W.J. (1983). A Contextualist theory of knowledge: Its implications
for innovation and reform in psychological research. In L. Berkowitz
(Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 16, 1-47, White, P.A. (1990). Ideas About Causation in Philosophy and Psychology. Psychological Bulletin, 1990, Vol. 108, No. 1, 3-18. Link Cook,
T.D. & Campbell, D.T. (1979). Quasi-experimentation: Design
& Analysis Issues for Field Settings. Houghton Mifflin Co.,
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a nice web- based overview go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causality |
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A lot of
university-based research pertenent to health is funded privately.
The most conspicuous of this is drug research, although many other clinical
trials are private funded. Pre-clinical and efficacy trials for
a new medication can easily cost half a million dollars or more, so
private industry is an important source of funding. However,
this raises some serious reporting and validity issues. This piece
from |
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| Overview
of Health behavior & behavioral medicine concepts These
readings are a little dated but give good overviews of core concepts
and models. We will do more "big picture" stuff as we
go along, particularly on the Psychosocial side. The Krantz article
is limited to CHD, but gives a more recent look at core constructs. |
| Primary readings Breslow, L. (2004). Perspectives: The Third Revolution in Health. Annual Review of Public Health, Preface,Vol. 25, xii - xviii. Link House, J.S., Landis, K.R., & Umberson, D (1988). Social relationships and health. Science, 241, 540-545. Link Baum, A. & Posluszny, D.M. (1999). Health Psychology: Mapping Biobehavioral Contributions to Health and Illness. Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 137-163. Link Krantz, D. S., & McCeney, M. K. (2002). Effects Of Psychological And Social Factors On Organic Disease: A Critical Assessment of Research on Coronary Heart Disease. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 341-369. Link |
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Basic
attitude theory, self-regulation This
is a fairly recent attitude overveiw by Ajzen, who wrote the granddaddy
of attitude thoeries with Marty Fishbein at UIUC. We will spend
a lot of time late on more sophisticated cognitive theories from Social
Psychology, but this is a good review. |
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Primary readings Ajzen, Karoly, P. (1993). Mechanisms of self-regulation: A systems view. Annual Review of Psychology, 44, 23-52. Link Williams, G.C., Rodin, G.C., Ryan, R.M., Grolnick, W./S., & Deci, E.L. (1998). Autonomous regulation and long - term medication adherence in adult outpatients. Health Psychology, 17(3), 269-276. Link Albarracin,
D., Johnson, B. T., Fishbein, M., & Muellerleile, P. A. (2001).
Theories of reasoned action and planned behavior as models of condom
use: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 127(1), 142-161.Link |
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More
on self-regulation, plus Self-Efficacy and the Health Belief model. This
week we have a good self-regulation overview by Carver & Scheier.
This is a little redundant with the Karoly paper, but is more comprehensible.
They also provide a brief overview of Robin Vallacher's Action Identification
theory, Gray's approach-avoidance framework, and some non-linear models.
Also in the general self-regulation frame is Bandura's paper on self-efficacy
and health behavior. This is dated but represents a nice overview of
his perspective, plus some nice health data. The bonus paper is
a monster chapter by Bandura giving his Sermon from the Mount on how
all of behavior works. The Health Belief paper is a big bird's-eye-view
discussion that could be more critical but provides a nice overview.
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| Primary readings Carver,
C.S. & Scheier, M.F. (2000). On the structure of behavioral self-regulation.
In: M. Boekaerts, P. Pintrich & M. Zeidner (Eds)., Handbook on Self-Regulation.
Bandura,
A. (1991). Self-efficacy Mechanism in Physiological Activation and Health-Promoting
Behavior. In J. Madden (Ed.), Neurobiology of Learning, Emotion, and
Affect. Strecher,
V.J., Cahampion, V.L. & Rosenstock, I.M. (1997). The health belief
model and health behavior. In D.S. Gochman (Ed.), Handbook of Health
Behavior Research I: Personal and Social Determinants. |
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Bonus
Reading |
| 2-pager
assignment |
| General
Social-Cognitive / Affective Models: This
week we review three perspectives on how people respond to potential
health threats. Like the Health Belief Model, Cognitive Representations
of Health is less a bounded "theory" than a more general orientation
toward understanding health vis-à-vis "thinking about how people
think". Rogers and others purport to “test” Protection Motivation
as a bounded theory, although it really just marries self-efficacy or
perceived control to perceived vulnerability. Miller ties many of these
perspectives together in her general C-SHIP model. Miller’s model is
not testable per se, nor has it remained in the literature as a specific
theory of health behavior. However, this (somewhat poorly written …
sorry!) review does summarize many perspectives, and provides a strong
and interesting role for negative affect in the health behavior process. Your
(short!!) bonus paper questions whether any of these social-cognitive
models are really testable per se., with a reply by Ajzen.. |
| Primary
readings Wu,
Y., |
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| Bonus
Reading Ajzen,
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Judgments
of vulnerability: Perceived
vulnerability to a health threat is central to protective or risk behavior.
How and when we make such judgments is a core question.
We will read Neil Weinstein's basic perspective on optimistic bias in
risk perceptions, plus two empirical articles that illustrate these
effects. Then read Janet Talor’s classic discussion of how optimism
– realistic or otherwise – may in fact underlie positive mental health
and coping. Following are two papers demonstrating how individual differences
in optimism may in fact not only affect coping, but more direct measures
of health. |
| Primary
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| Arnett,
J. J. (2000). Optimistic bias in adolescent and adult smokers and nonsmokers.
Addictive Behaviors, 25(4), 625-632. Link |
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| Blanton,
H., & Gerrard, M. (1997). Effect of sexual motivation on men's risk
perception for sexually transmitted disease: There must be 50 ways to
justify a lover. Health Psychology, 16(4), 374-379. Link |
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| Taylor, S. & Brown, J.D. (1988). Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health. Psychological Bulletin, 103(2), 193-210. Link |
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| Raikkonen, K., Matthews, K. A., Flory, J. D., Owens, J. F., & Gump, B. B. (1999). Effects of optimism, pessimism, and trait anxiety on ambulatory blood pressure and mood during everyday life. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 76(1), 104-113. Link |
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| Segerstrom,
S. C., Taylor, S. E., Kemeny, M. E., & Fahey, J. L. (1998). Optimism
is associated with mood, coping and immune change in response to stress.
Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 74(6), 1646-1655.
Link |
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| Bonus
Slovic,
P., Fishhoff, B. & Lichtenstein, S. (1982). Facts versus fears:
Understanding perceived risk. In: D. Kahneman, P. Slovic & A. Tversky
(Eds.), Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Smith, T. W., Pope, M. K., Rhodewalt, F., & Poulton, J. L. (1989). Optimism, neuroticism, coping, and symptom reports: An alternative interpretation of the Life Orientation Test. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 56(4), 640-648. Link |
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Some
out of the blue bonus readings on science and empiricism in modern life After
Harry Frankfort wrote the essay On Bullshit
it made its way onto the web, and subsequent semi-fame.
He has recently expanded it into a book-length treatment. He makes
a vital distinction between lying and "bullshit". In
his view lying reflects a respect for and knowledge of the truth (or
at least a possible truth), despite a conscious decision to make a contrary
statement. He describes bullshit as a simple disregard for the
actual or even potential truth value of a statement, or perhaps even
a belief that there is no such thing as "truth". For
I
am also enclosing a nice piece from the New Yorker by Allen Orr on Why Intelligent Design Isn't. FYI and edification. |
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Self-awareness,
"Automaticity", and Cognitive Escape. This
week we review still more basic cognitive-social processes, here the
larger phenomenon of self-awareness. As you have noted, most models
we have discussed assume that people "know what they are doing"
and make conscious decisions about behavior. That assumption may not
always hold. Karoly several weeks ago and Bargh here notes that
much of behavior is relatively “mindless” (that is, “automatic” rather
than “controlled”). Automatic cognitive behavior Of
course there may be times when being “mindful” of our behavior and its
consequences is actually aversive, and we are motivated to escape self-awareness.
Heatherton’s semi-classic article reviews this, as does my humble entry
in the HIV area. Christensen has two papers describing both self-awareness
as it varies by symptom levels, and a self-awareness intervention. Bonus:
A cute paper by our own Len Newman, plus a larger review by Bargh for
those interested in further readings. |
| Primary
readings Bargh,
J. A. and T. L. Chartrand (1999). "The unbearable automaticity
of being." American Psychologist 54(7): 462-479. Link |
| Bonus
Reading
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Two
out of the blue bonus readings on evolutionary perspectives. The
cognitive-social perspective is a little dyspeptic toward the role of
cognition in health behavior. Cognitions are biased, illusory, or simply
irrelevant since so much of behavior is automatic anyway. When
a topic is difficult we may want to escape from what self-awareness
we do have. This gets even worse in an evolutionary frame, where the
core assumption is that many key behaviors -- mate selection, social
organization, eating behaviors – are governed by naturally selected
brain mechanisms that operate wholly outside of conscious awareness.
This assumption has been important to those who stress the continuity
of humans and other primates, and therefore assign no special status
to the distinctive human characteristics of reflexive consciousness
and verbal behavior. Bering
& Shackelford counter this trend
with interesting discussion of the possible role of human consciousness
as a causal factor in evolution. Take a look at this if you need
some reassurance that “mind” may still be important. I am including
an Annual Review paper by Caporael
that provides a general overview of evolutionary
theories applied to Psychology, FYI. In
applying evolutionary theories more directly to health I am including
a Darwinian view of stress reactions I found very interesting by Korte.
He argues that most species divide into “Hawks” and Doves”, each of
which represents a coherent approach to coping with adversity (environmental
pressure, feeding…), and each of which has distinctive consequences
for stress responses and physical health. This gets a little far
afield from our discussion of social cognition (it reviews animal research
and falls into the “unconscious evolutionary mechanism” camp), but is
a very interesting read on possibly naturally selected stress responses. Caporael, L. R. (2001). Evolutionary psychology: Toward a unifying theory and a hybrid science. Annual Review of Psychology Vol 52 2001, 607-628. http://psych annualreviews org/. Korte, S., Koolhaas, J. M., Wingfield, J. C., & McEwen, B. S. (2005). The Darwinian concept of stress: Benefits of allostasis and costs of allostatic load and the trade-offs in health and disease. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 29(1), 3-38. |
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Class cancelled this week. |
| Socio-economic
Status and Health. This week we begin discussing SES and health. Two readings by Nancy Adler describe and explore the famous gradient between SES and health: health increases with every increment in wealth, not just at levels above poverty. Adler describes several potential explanations for this. Gallo
and Matthews discuss the role of negative emotions as a possible mechanism
for SES - Health effects. Later on we will see that negative affect
has direct immune consequences, making this link all the more plausible.
Finally, Shelly Taylor describes mechanisms whereby environmental events
(work, family, stress, etc.) may influence health. Take a look
at her discussion of “allostatic load”: it represents a core construct
in this area. |
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Primary
readings Adler, N. E., Boyce, T., Chesney, M. A., Cohen, S., & et al. (1994). Socioeconomic status and health: The challenge of the gradient. American Psychologist, 49(1), 15-24. Link Adler, N. E., & Snibbe, A. C. (2003). The role of psychosocial
processes in explaining the gradient between socioeconomic status and
health. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 12(4), 119-123.
Link Taylor, S. E., Repetti, R. L., & Seeman, T. (1997). HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY: What is an Unhealthy Environment and How Does It Get Under the Skin? Annual Review of Psychology, 48(1), 411-447. Link |
| SES, Race and Health. This week we continue our discussion of SES and health; we will go over the papers from last week, and compliment them with two papers on race and health. As is obvious, race and SES overlap a lot, so you will see a lot of similarity in discussions. I
am including a number NY Times articles addressing the larger issues
of SES, race and health. NYT has published a good number of interesting
and well researched articles on social class and health – they have
been a national leader in the MSM (Main Stream Media) in raising this
issue. "Class in Finally, some bonus papers. I am including two related pieces from NEJM on the attempt by the Bush administration to ignore SES and racial Disparities in health, by altering a DHHS report in 2004. I have one paper on stress and the metabolic syndrome, since we spent so much time talking about it this week, and a paper by Evans discussing environmental toxins and health in poverty-prone areas. |
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| Primary
readings Krieger,
N. (2003). "Does racism harm health? Did child abuse exist before
1962? On explicit questions, critical science, and current controversies:
An ecosocial perspective." American Journal of Public Health 93(2):
194-199. Link |
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| Bonus
Rosmond,
R. (2005). "Role of stress in the pathogenesis of the metabolic
syndrome." Psychoneuroendocrinology 30(1): 1-10. Link Bloche,
M. G. (2004). Health Care Disparities — Science, Politics, and Race.
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| Psychoimmunology. This week we begin Psychoimmunology. The real details of the immune system go well beyond the scope of this course. However, several of these papers provide brief overviews, and an overview from National Institute of Infectious and Allergic Diseases is given below. The Kiecolt-Glaser Annual Review chapter is a good review from a more psychological perspective. They have a lot of interesting work in this area – do an APA search for them for other interesting articles on immune functioning in response to social stresses, marital conflict, etc. Segerstrom – whose paper on optimism and blood pressure we read earlier – here has a review and meta-analysis of stress and immune function. Kop’s shorter piece follows this with a more specific focus on depression, immune function and CHD. Finally, Suinn discusses the “terrible twos” – anxiety and anger – in terms of immune function, disease outcomes, and mental health and behavior. You have two excellent bonus articles. The paper by Ader reviews his
and others’ work on classical conditioning processes in immune function.
This is really interesting work that he compliments with a more detailed
discussion of immunology and stress responses. Ader is one of the key
figures in this area (as is this paper), so it is work working through.
The McDade paper is from Anthropology, where there has been considerable
interest and good work on larger ecological processes in health and
the distribution of disease. |
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| Here is a brief overview of the immune system from NIAID: NIAID. (2003). The Immune System. NIAID Internet, from www.niaid.nih.gov/publications/immune/the_immune_system.pdf . Link | |
| Primary
readings Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., McGuire, L., Robles, T. F., & Glaser, R. EMOTIONS, MORBIDITY, AND MORTALITY: New Perspectives from Psychoneuroimmunology. (2002). Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 83-107. Link. Segerstrom, S. C., & Miller, G. E. (2004). Psychological Stress and the Human Immune System: A Meta-Analytic Study of 30 Years of Inquiry. Psychological Bulletin, 130(4), 601-630. Link. Kop, W. J., & Gottdiener, J. S. (2005). The Role of Immune System Parameters in the Relationship Between Depression and Coronary Artery Disease. Psychosomatic Medicine, 67(Suppl1), S37-S41. Link. Suinn, R. M. (2001). The terrible twos--anger and anxiety: Hazardous
to your health. American Psychologist, 56(1), 27-36. Link. |
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Ader, R., & Cohen, N. Psychoneuroimmunology: Conditioning and Stress. (1993). Annual Review of Psychology, 44(1), 53-85. Link McDade, T. W. (2005). The Ecologies Of Human Immune Function. Annual Review of Anthropology, 34(1), 495-521. Link |
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2-pager assignment |
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Psychoimmunology 2 This week we consider some variables we addressed in the early part of the course. I am biasing these toward actual experimental demonstrations of psychological effects on immunity, particularly interventions. Most of these papers are short, so please stay with them!To no surprise the self-efficacy people weigh in here: Wiedenfeld shows that enhancing self-efficacy among phobics has immuno-enhancing properties. Strauman takes Tory Higgin’s model of ideal-real self discrepancy and shows it to have effects on NK counts. Thus, feeling enhanced control over one’s behavior or affective responses increases immunocompetence, whereas feeling further from your ideal self has the opposite effect. Petrie uses Pennebaker’s model of written emotional expression to show that thought suppression (or, conversely, the expression of trauma-related thoughts) has significant health and immune effects. I have included a short bonus paper addressing this paradigm among HIV patients, and a meta-analyses describing the Pennebaker paradigm vis-à-vis health outcomes. Miller provides a larger meta-analysis of psychological interventions for immune functioning. Here intervention effect sizes are less large than individual reports may lead one to expect, but generally interventions work.I am including a short mechanism paper by Robles; it can get technical but stay with it. They argue that the effect of chronic stress on immune functioning and disease is mediated by an increase in proinflammatory cytokines, particularly Interlukin-6, which itself is immuno-suppressant. Conversely, an experimental increase in IL-6 induces depression in lab animals: depression and immune functioning have bi-directional effects. Finally, stress-induced increases in cytokines may “sensitize” the animal, such that the cytokine -> HPA / immune cascade occurs at lower and lower thresholds. I have two bonus papers addressing this that are well worth wading through. |
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| Primary
readings Wiedenfeld, S. A., O'Leary, A., Bandura, A., Brown, S., & et al. (1990). Impact of perceived self-efficacy in coping with stressors on components of the immune system. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(5), 1082-1094. Link Strauman, T. J., Lemieux, A. M., & Coe, C. L. (1993). Self-discrepancy and natural killer cell activity: Immunological consequences of negative self-evaluation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(6), 1042-1052. Link Petrie, K. J., Booth, R. J., & Pennebaker, J. W. (1998). The immunological effects of thought suppression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(5), 1264-1272. Link Miller, G. E., & Cohen, S. (2001). Psychological interventions and the immune system: A meta-analytic review and critique. Health Psychology, 20(1), 47-63. Link Robles, T. F., Glaser, R., Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K. (2005). Out of Balance:
A New Look at Chronic Stress, Depression, and Immunity. Current Directions
in Psychological Science, 14(2), 111-115. |
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Smyth, J. M. (1998). Written emotional expression: Effect sizes, outcome types, and moderating variables. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 66(1), 174-184. Link Petrie, K. J., Fontanilla, I., Thomas, M. G., Booth, R. J., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2004). Effect of Written Emotional Expression on Immune Function in Patients With Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection: A Randomized Trial. Psychosomatic Medicine, 66(2), 272-275. Link Anisman, H., & Merali, Z. (2002). Cytokines, stress, and depressive illness. Brain, Behavior, & Immunity, 16(5), 513-524. Link Simmons, D. A., & Broderick, P. A. (2005). Cytokines, stressors,
and clinical depression: augmented adaptation responses underlie depression
pathogenesis. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological
Psychiatry, 29(5), 793-807. Link |
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More Psychosocial-oriented Readings in Psychoimmunology Cohen, S., Frank, E., Doyle, W. J., Skoner, D. P., Rabin, B. S., & Gwaltney, J. M., Jr. (1998). Types of stressors that increase susceptibility to the common cold in healthy adults. Health Psychology, 17(3), 214-223. Link Leventhal, H., Patrick-Miller, L., & Leventhal, E. A. (1998). It's long-term stressors that take a toll: comment on Cohen et al. (1998)[comment]. Health Psychology, 17(3), 211-213. Link Cole, S. W., Kemeny, M. E., Taylor, S. E., & Visscher, B. R. (1996). Elevated physical health risk among gay men who conceal their homosexual identity. Health Psychology, 15(4), 243-251. Link Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., Page, G. G., Marucha, P. T., MacCallum, R. C., & Glaser, R. (1998). Psychological influences on surgical recovery: Perspectives from psychoneuroimmunology. American Psychologist, 53(11), 1209-1218. Link Pennebaker, J. W., Kiecolt-Glaser, J. K., & Glaser, R. (1988). Disclosure of traumas and immune function: Health implications for psychotherapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 56(2), 239-245. Link Weisse, C. S. (1992). Depression and immunocompetence: A review of
the literature. Psychological Bulletin, 111(3), 475-489. Link |
Policy, Economic and Political Influences on Health This week we take the larger view and discuss political / policy issues in health behavior, including the regulatory and physical environment. The focus of most research and thinking in this area has been on smoking and weight control – there is less work on, e.g., chronic disease management or sexual risk. Following this trend, our articles will focus on tobacco and obesity. Begin with the Chicago Tribune’s series on the Oreo® cookie. The history of the Oreo illustrates a variety of issues, including financial pressure for “junk” food production, the role of regulation, and the potential influence of scientific findings (including whether researchers can or should ever be neutral about these topics). We then have two review papers on environmental and policy effects on obesity, exercise and tobacco. These are a little redundant, so you can read the second a little faster. French et al. give a nice overview of social and structural issues – obesity is a “perfect storm” of individual and structural inducements toward poor health – whereas Brownson et al. review the outcomes of structural-level interventions. Wang and Brownell take these themes and describe the dangers of individual-level (or “medical”) explanations, and promulgate more science-based advocacy for policy and regulatory change. This takes on meaning now since obesity has recently been recognized as a medical disorder, justifying 3rd party payments for (individual-based) treatment. Craig Ewart’s influential paper on Social Action Theory is a nice integration of the individual-level variables we went over in the early section of the class, plus interpersonal and social variables. The bonus papers
are interesting if you can get to them. First, a nice – and alarming
– NYT Sunday Mag. piece by Gross discussing how corporate agriculture
(“Agribiz”) has lobbied for highly favorable supports and regulations
to dramatically increase corn production, leading to the glut of high
fructose corn syrup that is driving the U.S. obesity epidemic. Szreter
reviews the history of population-level health approaches and the relation
of population health to economic development and political change. Then
a set of three: a short NYT article discusses a paper by Chou and Grossman
addressing the economics of smoking and weight. They argue that obesity
rates have gone up as smoking has become more expensive and difficult
(due to restrictive regulation): basically, as public health regulation
lessened one key health threat it exacerbated another in the process.
Gruber disagrees: I could not find his paper directly addressing Grossman’s
analysis of the population trend data, so I enclosed another piece of
his that provides a larger view of tobacco regulation. |
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Primary
readings Manier, J., Callahan, P., & Alexander, D. (2005) The Oreo, Obesity
and Us. Chicago Tribune, 8/21/05, at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/-chi-oreos-specialpackage,1,7094476.special?coll=chi-news-hed
Link. French, S. A., Story, M., & Jeffery, R. W. (2001). Environmental
influences on eating and physical activity. Annual Review of Public
Health, 22, 309-335. Link. Brownson, R. C., Haire-Joshu, D., & Luke, D. A. (2006). Shaping
the Context of Health: A Review of Environmental and Policy Approaches
in the Prevention of Chronic Diseases. Annual Review of Public Health,
In Press. Link. Wang, S. S., & Brownell, K. D. (2005). Public Policy and Obesity:
The Need to Marry Science with Advocacy. Psychiatric Clinics of North
America, 28(1), 235-252. Link. Ewart, C. K. (1991). Social action theory for a public health psychology.
American Psychologist, 46(9), 931-946. Link. |
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Pollan, M. (2003). THE WAY WE LIVE NOW: The (Agri)Cultural
Contradictions Of Obesity. New York Times, 10/12/2003. Link. Szreter, S. (2003). The Population Health Approach in Historical Perspective.
American Journal of Public Health, 93(3), 421-431. Link. Gross, D. (2005). ECONOMIC VIEW; Cigarettes, Taxes and Thin French
Women. New York Times, 7/24/05. Link. Chou, S. Y., Grossman, M., & Saffer, H. (2004). An economic analysis
of adult obesity: results from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance
System. Journal of Health Economics, 23(3), 565-587. Link. Gruber, J. (2002). The economics of tobacco regulation. Health Affairs,
21(2), 146-162. Link. |
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2-pager assignment Grant methods section. |
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Spirituality, Happiness, Mindfulness, Well-Being and Health As a final, really high-level conceptualization of mind and body, this final week we consider spirituality and health. We begin with an infamous Columbia University study that appeared to demonstrate that intercessory prayer (other people praying for you without your knowledge) can influence objective measures of health, in this case the success of in-vitro fertilization. The study had considerable press, and has been widely cited by religious groups as evidence of supernatural influence in health. Unfortunately for the religious minded the study was a fraud, as reviewed in a scathing article by Bruce Flamm in the Skeptical Inquirer. His discussion includes general cautions about “belief- based science”. Then we get a paper by Ryan and Deci – the “Autonomous self-regulation” theorists – on happiness. They review the larger area of well-being, and introduce all the relevant jargon (“eudaimonic well-being”?). Brown and Ryan review some data on “mindfulness” as a psychological intervention: there is lately a lot of research on this construct in clinical and, to a lesser extent, health research. I included a short paper by Folkman on positive coping, also an area of increasing attention. This is from a special issue of American Psychologist on coping, a worthwhile collection for you coping types. Then we get two papers from another American Psychologist series on spirituality and health. Miller reviews the general concept, proposes some research approaches, and basically defends spirituality as a research topic. Powell et al. review studies on outcomes and potential biomedical mediators. |
| "No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish." -- David Hume | |
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Does Prayer Influence the Success of in Vitro Fertilization–Embryo
Transfer? Report of a Masked, Randomized Trial. (2001). Journal of Reproductive
Medicine, Volume 46, Number 9 , Septermber. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2001). ON HAPPINESS AND HUMAN POTENTIALS:
A Review of Research on Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being. Annual Review
of Psychology, 52(1), 141-166. Link. Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2003). The benefits of being present:
Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality
and Social Psychology, 84(4), 822-848. Link. Folkman, S., & Moskowitz, J. T. (2000). Positive affect and the
other side of coping. American Psychologist, 55(6), 647-654. Link. Miller, W. R., & Thoresen, C. E. (2003). Spirituality, religion,
and health: An emerging research field. American Psychologist, 58(1),
24-35. Link. Powell, L. H., Shahabi, L., & Thoresen, C. E. (2003). Religion
and spirituality: Linkages to physical health. American Psychologist,
58(1), 36-52. Link. |
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Bonus I have lots of bonus readings for this week: the task for primary readings was to eliminate, not add interesting papers. This section begins with some empirical papers. The first is by Jane Simoni that explores subjective spirituality among HIV+ women, a major issue in working with African-American and other ethnic minority women in HIV/AIDS. This is followed by some papers on mindfulness, and the remaining papers from that American Psychologist set. Then I have included most of the papers from a special issue of Behavioral Medicine on spirituality and health, FYI. Simoni, J.
M., Martone, M. G., & Kerwin, J. F. (2002). Spirituality and psychological
adaptation among women with HIV/AIDS: Implications for counseling. Journal
of Counseling Psychology, 49(2), 139-147. Link. Davidson, R.
J., Kabat-Zinn, J., Schumacher, J., Rosenkranz, M., Muller, D., Santorelli,
S. F., et al. (2003). Alterations in brain and immune function produced
by mindfulness meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65(4), 564-570. Link. Carlson, L. E., Speca, M.,
Patel, K. D., & Goodey, E. (2003). Mindfulness-based stress reduction
in relation to quality of life, mood, symptoms of stress, and immune
parameters in breast and prostate cancer outpatients. Psychosomatic
Medicine, 65(4), 571-581. Link. Seeman, T. E., Dubin, L.
F., & Seeman, M. (2003). Religiosity/spirituality and health: A
critical review of the evidence for biological pathways. American Psychologist,
58(1), 53-63. Link. Hill, P. C., & Pargament,
K. I. (2003). Advances in the conceptualization and measurement of religion
and spirituality: Implications for physical and mental health research.
American Psychologist, 58(1), 64-74. Link. Special Issue of Annals of Behavioral Medicine: Mills, P. J. (2002). Spirituality,
Religiousness, and Health: From Research to Clinical Practice. Annals
of Behavioral Medicine, 24(1), 1-2. Link. Thoresen, C. E., & Harris,
A. H. S. (2002). Spirituality and Health: What's the Evidence and What's
Needed? Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 24(1), 3-13. Link. Sloan, R. P., & Bagiella,
E. (2002). Claims About Religious Involvement and Health Outcomes. Annals
of Behavioral Medicine, 24(1), 14-21. Link. Underwood, L. G., & Teresi,
J. A. (2002). The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale: Development, Theoretical
Description, Reliability, Exploratory Factor Analysis, and Preliminary
Construct Validity Using Health-Related Data. Annals of Behavioral Medicine,
24(1), 22-33. Link. Ironson, G., Solomon, G.
F., Balbin, E. G., O'Cleirigh, C., George, A., Kumar, M., et al. (2002).
The Ironson-Woods Spirituality/Religiousness Index Is Associated With
Long Survival, Health Behaviors, Less Distress, and Low Cortisol in
People With HIV/AIDS. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 24(1), 34-48. Link. Peterman, A. H., Fitchett, G., Brady, M. J., Hernandez, L., & Cella, D. (2002). Measuring Spiritual Well-Being in People With Cancer: The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp). Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 24(1), 49-58. Shahabi, L., Powell, L. H.,
Musick, M. A., Pargament, K. I., Thoresen, C. E., Williams, D., et al.
(2002). Correlates of Self-Perceptions of Spirituality in American Adults.
Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 24(1), 59-68. Link. Larimore, W. L., Parker,
M., & Crowther, M. (2002). Should Clinicians Incorporate Positive
Spirituality Into Their Practices? What Does the Evidence Say? Annals
of Behavioral Medicine, 24(1), 69-73. Link. Lawrence, R. J. (2002). The
Witches' Brew of Spirituality and Medicine. Annals of Behavioral Medicine,
24(1), 74-76. Link. |
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