Developmental psychology.pdf

Contemporary Social Issues 541
Personal Health Questionnaire
These questions are part of a more extensive survey administered to 595 members of a medical
school staff. After answering them, compare your responses with this group.
1. Do you smoke cigarettes?
2. Do you use tobacco in any other form on a daily basis?
3. Do you use a sleeping pill more than three times a week?
4. Do you use seat belts routinely?
5. Do you do aerobic exercise for 20 minutes 3 times per week?
6. Do you eat breakfast?
7. Do you take more than two alcoholic drinks a day?
8. Do you maintain a high bran or fiber content in your diet?
9. Do you drink coffee?
10. Do you use vitamin С to protect against colds?
Figure 20.4
Personal Health Questionnaire.
(Adapted from Harvard Medical School Health Letter, 1982)
These decidedly different theoretical views have stimulated several research
and treatment procedures, but the lack of complete success indicates that obesity is a
complex problem with diverse implications for cardiovascular disease. The most important
lesson to be learned from all of this work is that weight control, as a rule, cannot
be managed by a one-shot treatment (Norton, 1982).
Treatment and Prevention
You are probably well aware of one side of our health-care system, so-called curative
medicine, in which some treatment procedure is used to alleviate physical illness. A
physician prescribes a certain medication or suggests a surgical procedure. Much less
visible is preventive medicine, or health maintenance, in which the aim is to ward off
disease or to delay its onset. The idea here is to avoid illness in the first place. The
difference between these two approaches is basically the difference between trying to
get well and trying to stay well (Figure 20.4).
The low priority of preventive medicine in the United States has been the
subject of long and continuous debate. Economic incentives for certain professional
groups certainly operate in favor of the current system, which means that as a nation
we are probably not as healthy as we could be were the priorities reversed. We therefore
begin this discussion from the traditional perspective of curative medicine, and then
we turn to the enormous potential of preventive medicine for promoting good health.
Preparation for Treatment The pain of medical treatment is legion, and the patient
often becomes anxious even before the procedures begin, a reaction that is a problem
for the physician as well. An anxious patient often is not amenable to proper treatment.
Psychologists have made useful interventions in these instances by applying the
principles of learning and using methods for controlling anxiety, often quite simple.
Assume for some reason of obesity that it is desirable to examine your gastrointestinal
tract. In this procedure, called endoscopy, a flexible tube with a tiny camera
is inserted into the stomach via the throat and esophagus, remaining in place up
to one-half hour. In preparation for this procedure, your throat is swabbed with a local
anesthetic, but then a problem arises. The gag reflex causes you to choke or cough
uncontrollably at every attempt to insert the endoscope.
One solution is to administer a quantity of antianxiety medicine. But when
this drug is ingested in sufficiently large quantities to eliminate the gag reflex, you
become too sedated to swallow the tube and engage in other necessary behaviors. What
can we do?
Answer to Figure 20.4.
1. Yes 8%, No 92%
For the general population the
figures are markedly different:
Yes 32%, No 68%.
2. Yes 11%, No 89%
With no inhaling, the danger of
lung damage is considerably
less.
3. Yes 2%, No 98%
Frequent use of certain sleeping
pills even seems to interfere with
normal sleep.
4. Yes 73%, No 27%
Physicians working in emergency
rooms allegedly score 100% here.
5. Yes 49%, No 51%
Exercise promotes feeling well,
looking well, and also cardiac
fitness.
6. Yes 78%, No 22%
A good breakfast, while not
crucial, may indicate awareness
of the importance of nutrition.
7. Yes 7%, No 93%
Two ounces of alcohol per day
may even be beneficial, but
further quantities are cause for
concern.
8. Yes 41%, No 59%
A high-fiber diet reduces
constipation and perhaps
decreases risk of bowel disease.
9. Yes 83%, No 17%
Coffee is doubtful as a health
hazard, but in excess it can
cause jitteriness and insomnia.
10. Yes 14%, No 86%
The evidence for vitamin С is in
question and taking a pill is
bothersome.