Stress, Personality, & Heart Disease

In this video I discuss the relationship between stress, personality, and heart disease. Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman proposed that Type A personality, characterized by competitiveness and hostility, was associated with 7x more heart disease than Type B personality, characterized by a more laid-back and calm demeanor. The frequent spikes of blood pressure associated with episodes of anger may increase … Read More

Psychological Stressors & Health

In this video I discuss the psychological components of stress and how we can become stressed from the anticipation of threats. Psychological stressors are especially dangerous because they have the potential to become chronic stressors which constantly plague us. Next I discuss the relationship between stress and peptic ulcers, including Barry Marshall and Robin Warren’s Nobel prize-winning research on the … Read More

Stress & The Immune System

In this video I briefly describe the immune system and the cells involved in surveillance and protection from invaders, pathogens, and other threats. Next I discuss the relationship between stress and decreased immune function, which is related to elevated levels of glucocorticoids. This can also be seen in treatment of autoimmune disorders that uses glucocorticoids to suppress immune function. Lastly … Read More

General Adaptation Syndrome

In this video I describe homeostasis, which refers to maintenance of an optimal state, and allostasis, which clarifies that an optimal state is actually a range of possible states depending on context. Next I discuss Hans Selye’s theory of General Adaptation Syndrome, which he derived from his work studying the effects of chronic stressors on rats. He found that many … Read More

The Stress Response & HPA Axis

In this video I describe the stress response in more detail, including possible gender differences in reaction to threats. Shelley Taylor proposed the tend–and–befriend response to refer to a female tendency to focus on relationships, empathy, and group cohesion in response to threats. Next I describe how the stress response travels through the body, which occurs along the HPA axis … Read More

What is Stress?

In this video I discuss how we define stress. I begin with Walter Cannon’s “fight or flight” response and the activation of the sympathetic nervous system. Next I discuss the distinction between stressors and the stress response. I consider Holmes and Rahe’s Social Readjustment Rating Scale for comparing the severity of different types of stressors and then discuss how chronic … Read More

Introduction to Health Psychology

In this video I introduce the unit on health psychology by defining several key terms and discussing the challenges of understanding the causes of illness. I describe etiology (or aetiology), epidemiology, the use of retrospective & prospective studies, and the dangers of coincidental correlations. I also consider how psychological factors may influence health, whether in the extreme of “voodoo death” … Read More

Altruism & Prosocial Behavior

In this video I discuss how prosocial behavior is a commonplace but important part of life and we shouldn’t forget that every day billions of people come together and help one another. What explains this altruistic behavior? Kin selection theory suggests that helping family to survive and mate is another way of helping to pass on one’s own genes. People … Read More

The Bystander Effect

In this video I discuss the bystander effect, which refers to a tendency for people to fail to act or help someone in need when in the presence of others. I begin with the famous story of Kitty Genovese, then consider experiments by John Darley and Bibb Latane demonstrating how the presence of others can inhibit action, even when one’s … Read More

The Stanford Prison Study

In this video I discuss the Stanford Prison Study conducted by Philip Zimbardo and colleagues at Stanford University. Psychologically-healthy college-aged male participants were randomly assigned to the roles of prisoners and guards for a 2 week study. The prisoners were arrested and brought to the basement of the psychology building and placed into mock cells. The guards were given sunglasses, … Read More