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HEALTH AND BEHAVIOR This lecture begins our examination of health enhancement and illness prevention. We first consider what health habits people practice and how their lifestyles affect their health. Then in the next lecture, we will turn our attention to factors that influence the health-related behaviors individuals adopt. The final section of this series of [...]

THE PHENOMENON OF PAIN ITS NATURE AND TYPES Wouldn’t it be wonderful never to experience pain, many people have thought when they or others they have known were suffering. Pain hurts, and people typically dislike it and try to avoid it. But being able to sense pain is critical to our survival—without it, how would [...]

STRESS MANAGEMENT In our previous lecture, we discussed several methods that are helpful in reducing the potential for stress and, thereby, benefiting health. These methods take advantage of the stress-moderating effects of social support, personal control, exercise, being well organized, and being prepared for an impending stressor. In this lecture we will consider ways to [...]

PSYCHOSOCIAL FACTORS THAT CAN MODIFY THE IMPACT OF STRESS ON HEALTH Another story… They were best friends, Joan and Sally, on their way to an art museum a year ago when a car accident ended their lives. Their husbands, Bob and Walt, were devastated, not only by their individual losses but also for each other’s. [...]

INTRODUCTION TO HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY Current Perspectives on Health and Illness Once we add the person to the biomedical model, we have a different and broader picture of how health and illness come about. This new perspective, called the Biopsychosocial model, expands the biomedical view by adding to biological factors the influence of psychological and social [...]

TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS Transactional Analysis (TA), another major cognitive theory was formulated by Eric Berne in the early 1960s. The theory rose to prominence after the publication of two best-selling books: Berne’s Games People Play (1964). Thomas Harris’s I’m OK – You’re OK (1947). Eric Berne Eric Berne was born in 1910 in Montreal, Canada, where [...]

COGNITIVE APPROACHES TO COUNSELING In the previous lecture we discussed that Irrational linking may include the invention of upsetting and disturbing thoughts. Ellis (1962) lists 11 common irrational beliefs that can be quite disturbing. These are given below: “I must be perfect or no one will love me!” “I must be thoroughly competent, adequate, and [...]

CLIENT-CENTERED APPROACH Affective Approaches: Common Characteristics Our next few lectures now will focus on affective approaches to counseling, in which the counselor focuses on the client’ feelings and gives secondary consideration to thoughts and behaviors. Client-centered therapy and Gestalt therapy will be discussed, along with a brief analysis of existential therapy. Focus on primary affect [...]

NEO-FREUDIANS Link to Previous Lecture: Evaluation of Jungian Analytical Psychology Strengths His interest in Eastern philosophy, mystical religions, and mythology brought him in contact with many great thinkers of the 20th century. He was a great opponent of the connection between mind, body and soul. Significant contributions to the fields of sand play therapy, and [...]

COUNSELING PROCESS Counselor Qualities Strong (1968) identifies 3 characteristics of influential counselors: Expert: Expertness is the degree to which a counselor is perceived as knowledgeable depending on culture. Initially nearly all clients like to work with counselors who are perceived as experts. Attractive: Attractiveness is a function of perceived similarity between a client and counselor. [...]

EFFECTIVE COUNSELOR As described below, this lecture will focus on personal characteristics, daily stresses, and psychological health of an effective counselor. Personal characteristics Values Cultural biases Daily world of a practitioner Psychological Health Model Personal Characteristics Model Influence of Counselor’s Values on Client’s Values Values are principles that guide our life. Counselors’ values influence how [...]

GOALS & ACTIVITIES GOALS OF COUNSELING This section will elaborate on the expected results or goals from counseling. The ultimate decision about the goals must rest with the client and counselor as a team. Criteria for Judging Goals Krumboltz (1966) identifies the following criteria for judging the effectiveness of counseling goals: Goals capable of being [...]

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 1900-1909 Frank Parson Frank Parson is known as a broad scholar, a persuasive writer, a tireless activist, and a great intellect. He is rightly called the “father of guidance” and is best known for founding Boston’s Vocational Bureau in 1908. He initiated vocational guidance movement, but he would not have envisioned the growth [...]

PREVALENCE OF SCHIZOPHRENIA AND COUSELLING IN CROSS CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY Prevalence of Schizophrenia: Schizophrenia, characterized by gross distortion of thought, perception and emotion is also prevalent in Pakistan with all its symptoms and dramatic features. About 1.5% of the population is suffering from this ailment. Schizophrenia occurs in both male and female with same frequency and [...]

SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING ACROSS CULTURES Introduction: All individuals strive to be happy. How they pursue this ultimate human goal, however, seems to vary in interesting ways across cultures. Have you ever thought about how happy you are with your life? “Of course!” might be the immediate reaction of people who have lived most of their lives [...]

CRIMINOGENIC PERSONALITY Objectives: To understand the developmental factors of criminogenic personality To know about the different crime prone personality disorders To understand the main characteristics of Anti Social Personality Disorder To understand the common types of crimes, usually committed by individuals with Anti Social Personality Disorder To get an insight about the DSPD debate Criminogenic [...]

OTHER APPROACHES The Humanistic Approach This approach is based on Roger’s theory that does not directly explain the process of gender role development Ideal self and conditional positive regard are the main concepts in this regard. Roger’s theory In the process of gender development conditional positive regard can be seen as a set of expectations [...]

DYSFUNCTIONS OF GROUPS Dysfunctions of groups refer to the negative functions of groups. These include the following four: Norm Violation Norm is the standard against which appropriateness of a behavior is judged. Thus, norms determine the behavior expected in a certain situation. By providing a basis for predicting others’ behaviors, norms enable people to behave [...]

JOB STRESS Many people today work long hours, face constant deadlines, and are subject to pressure to produce more and more. Organizations and the people who run them are under constant pressure to increase income while keeping costs in check. To do things faster and better-but with fewer people-is the goal of many companies today. [...]

HOPE Rick Synder defines hope as “a positive motivational state; having will power and way power” Snyder traced the origins of his thinking to earlier work by Averill, Catlin, and Chon (1990) and Stotland (1969), in which hope was cast in terms of people’s expectations that goals could be achieved. According to Snyder’s view, goal-directed [...]

MOTIVATION ACROSS CULTURES Motivation and motivators differ across cultures. Practices that might be highly motivating for employees in one country may not be as effective in others. Some of the reasons for this variance in motivational factors are as follows: Meaning of Work In some cultures work is more central to one’s life than in [...]

MOTIVATION Motivation is the willingness to exert high levels of effort to reach organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual needs. The key elements can be seen in this definition: effort, organizational goals and need. The effort element is the measure of intensity or drive. When someone is motivated, he or [...]

PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT Personality assessment may be defines as the measurement of personality and behavior. Personality testing tells us about: a) a person’s coping in general with stress and life, sometimes by creating a stressful situation in the act of testing, giving us a chance to watch the person react, make sense of something that is [...]

IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT Impression management (IM) theory states that any individual or organization must establish and maintain impressions that are congruent with the perceptions they want to convey to their publics (Goffman, 1959). The goal is for one to present themselves the way in which they would like to be thought of by the individual or [...]

ATTRIBUTION It is one of the basic human instincts to try to explain things around us to himself/herself and other people. In other words, attributing cause to the events around us. This gives us a greater sense of control. When explaining behavior, it can affect the standing of people within a group (especially ourselves). Attributions [...]

LATE ADULTHOOD Retirement is one of the transitional period of late adulthood and is a period in one’ life, occurring generally during the late adulthood which required adaptation and changes in behaviour role and perception. Retirement always involve role changes. Changes in interest and values and changes in Whole pattern of individual’s life. The age [...]

ADOLESCENCE Definition and Characteristics of Adolescence The term adolescence comes from the Latin word adolescence, meaning “to grow” “to maturity”. As it is used today, the term adolescence has a broader meaning. Adolescence eludes mental, emotional, and social maturity as well as physical maturity. G. Stanley Hall is usually credited with formalizing the concept of [...]

DIFFICULTIES IN STUDY OF DEVELOPMENT PSYCHOLOGY A research who studies human development has to face a number of difficulties. Hurlock has identified following difficulties or obstacles in the study of human development. Representative sample of subjects is one of” the most common drawback that a researcher of developmental psychology faces. It is generally difficult to [...]

EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY The Immune System, Cancer, HIV and Exercise: In recent years research has linked two of the great plagues of our time (cancer and HIV) to exercise and its effect on the immune system. While exercise has generally been linked to benefits, in cases of excess it can have negative consequences. It is like [...]

EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY Theories of Exercise Behavior: Psychological models of human behavior have been applied to the exercise-setting in an attempt to explain why people don’t exercise, why they start to exercise, and why they do or do not continue to exercise, and why they start exercising again if they stop. These models include: The Theory [...]