Jerome E. Singer

Handbook of health psychology

T.A. Revenson, Introduction. Part 1. Overarching Frameworks and Paradigms. H. Leventhal, S. Bodnar-Deren, J.Y. Breland, J. Hash-Converse, L.A. Phillips, E.A. Leventhal, L.D. Cameron, Modeling Health and Illness Behavior: The Approach of the Common Sense Model. J.R. Jennings, V. Egizio, How Psychophysiology Contributes to Health Psychology. A. Luegey Dougall, A. Baum, Stress, Health and Illness. M.F. Scheier, C.S. Carver, G.H. Armstrong, Behavioral Self-regulation, Health and Illness. K. Glanz, M.C. Kegler, Processes of Health Behavior Change. L.S. Aiken, M.A. Gerend, K.M. Jackson, K.W. Ranby, Subjective Risk and Health Protective Behavior: Prevention and Early Detection. Part 2. Cross-cutting Issues. D. Turk, H.D. Wilson, K.S. Swanson, Psychological and Physiological Bases of Chronic Pain. J. Smyth, J.W. Pennebaker, D. Arigo, What are the Health Effects of Disclosure? T.A. Revenson, S.J. Lepore, Coping in Social Context. M.A. Hoyt, A. Stanton, Adjustment to Chronic Illness. S.I. McClelland, Measuring Sexual Quality of Life: Ten Recommendations for Health Psychologists. J Dunbar-Jacob, E. Schlenk, M. McCall, Patient Adherence to Treatment Regimens. L.M. Martire, R. Schulz, Caregiving and Care-receiving in Later Life: Health Effects and Promising Interventions. Part 3. Risk and Protective Factors. N.E. Grunberg, S. Shafer Berger, A.K. Starosciak, Tobacco Use: Psychology, Neurobiology, and Clinical Implication. R. Wing, S. Phelan, Obesity. G. Brassington, E.B. Hekler, Z. Cohen, A.C. King, Health Enhancing Physical Activity. T.W. Smith, L.C. Gallo, S. Shivpuri, A.L. Brewer, Personality and Health: Current Issues and Emerging Perspectives. C. Park, Meaning, Spirituality, and Growth: Protective and Resilience Factors in Health and Illness. C. Dunkel Schetter, M. Lobel, Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes: A Multi-level Analysis of Prenatal Maternal Stress and Birth Weight. T. Wills, M.G. Ainette, Social Networks and Social Support. M.A. Alderfer, C.M. Stanley, Health and Illness in the Context of the Family. Part 4. Macro-level and Structural Influences on Health. V.S. Helgeson, Gender and Health: A Social Psychological Perspective. J.M. Ruiz, C.C. Prather, P. Steffen, Socioeconomic Status and Health. E. Brondolo, S. Lackey, E. Love, Race and Health: Racial Disparities in Hypertension and Links Between Racism and Health. I.H. Meyer, The Health of Sexual Minorities. I. Siegler, M.F. Elias, H.B. Bosworth, Aging and Health. Part 5. Applications of Health Psychology. J.D. Betensky, R.J. Contrada, D.C. Glass, Psychosocial Factors in Cardiovascular Disease: Emotional States, Conditions, and Attributes. S.P. Newman, S.P. Hirani, J. Stygall, T. Fteropoulli, Treatment in Cardiovascular Disease. N. Schneiderman, K. Orth-Gomer, Randomized Clinical Trials: Psychosocial-behavioral Interventions for Cardiovascular Disease. L.A. Faul, P.B. Jacobsen, Psychosocial Interventions for People with Cancer. A.L. Marsland, E.A. Bachen, S. Cohen, Stress, Immunity and Susceptibility to Upper Respiratory Infectious Disease. S. Danoff-Burg, A.H. Seawell, Psychological Processes in Rheumatic Disease. M.H. Antoni, A.W. Carrico, Psychological and Bio-behavioral Processes in HIV Disease. V. Mays, R.M. Maas, J. Ricks, S.D. Cochran, HIV and African American Women in the U.S. South: A Social Determinants Approach to Population-level HIV Prevention and Intervention Efforts.

Apartment Noise, Auditory Discrimination, and Reading Ability in Children.

This study examined the relationship between a childs auditory and verbal skills and the noisiness of his home. Expressway traffic was the principal source of noise. Initial decibel measurements in a high-rise housing development permitted use of floor level as an index of noise intensity in the apartments. Children living on the lower floors of 32-story buildings showed greater impairment of auditory discrimination and reading achievement than children living in higher-floor apartments. Auditory discrimination appeared to mediate an association between noise and aeading deficits, and length of residence in the building affected the magnitude of the correlation between noise and auditory discrimination. Additional analyses ruled out explanations of the auditory discrimination effects in terms of social class variables and physiological damage. Partialling out social class did, however, somewhat reduce the magnitude of the relationship between noise and reading deficits. Results were interpreted as documenting the existence of long-term behavioral aftereffects in spite of noise adaptation. Demonstration of postnoise consequences in a real-life setting supplement laboratory research showing the stressful impact of noise on behavior.

Toward an integrative approach to the study of stress.

Stress and coping are considered as part of a process involving environmental events, psychosocial processes, and physiological response. The concept of stress as well as approaches to its study are discussed. Links between coping and perceived control are described, and measurement approaches are evaluated. The usefulness of integrated approaches to the study of stress, emphasizing expansion of both conceptual and methodological perspectives, is discussed.

Behavioral consequences of adaptation to controllable and uncontrollable noise

Abstract A laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate the behavioral consequences of adaptation to high-intensity aperiodic noise, under conditions where subjects believed or did not believe they had indirect control over termination of the noise. The findings showed that among a group of college males, the work of adapting to uncontrollable, in contrast to controllable noise resulted in heightened overall tension (tonic skin conductance) and impaired performance efficiency after termination of the noise. Several theoretical explanations of these results were discussed, including interruption-based helplessness. The relationship of the present experiment to previous noise research by the authors was also considered.

Periodic and aperiodic noise: The safety-signal hypothesis and noise aftereffects

Data from five previously published noise experiments were reanalyzed to test implications of Seligman’s safety-signal hypothesis. Spontaneous fluctuation (SF) of skin resistance, an index of emotional arousal, was measured during intervals between high-intensity noise trials. Two types of conditions were compared: Those where noise bursts occurred on an aperiodic schedule and those where they occurred periodically. The aperiodic group showed significantly more SFs than the periodic group, indicating that arousal was greater during exposure to an unpredictable stressor. However, there was no relationship between the magnitude of postnoise performance deficits and number of SFs, even though the deficits were uniformly greater following aperiodic noise than periodic noise. The discrepancy between the two sets of data was explained in terms of a cognitive process involving perception of lack of environmental control and decreased task motivation.

Urinary Catecholamines in Behavioral Research on Stress

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the links between stress and the adrenal medulla, and the methodologic problems associated with measuring this activity. It reviews research documenting the effects of a number of stress-relevant variables on catecholamine (CA) secretion and also discusses the implications of this research. When confronted with danger, the ability of an organism to fight or flee is quickly readied through increased release of epinephrine (E) and overall sympathetic arousal. E, which is secreted by the adrenal medulla, and norepinephrine, a sympathetic neurotransmitter and adrenal medullary hormone, stimulate heart rate, increase blood pressure, selectively constrict blood vessels to channel blood to the appropriate organs, and otherwise support sympathetic arousal. This arousal, in turn, prepares the organism for fight or flight confrontations with stressors. As a result, the organism can meet the stressor at full strength or retreat quickly. In general, the adrenal medullary response is induced by events or situations that deviate from ones habitual environment.