Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

Answers to Evaluate Questions 
1.
stress; 
2.
1-b; 2-a; 3-c; 
3.
a; 4.
har
diness
484 Chapter 
14 
Health Psychology: Stress, Coping, and Well-Being
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I feel that it is absolutely necessary to be my own best advocate, and the best place to 
learn how to do that is in a group of other well-educated patients and their caregivers. 
We know what life post-diagnosis is like, and we help each other in ways that no docs, 
nurses, clergy, well-meaning friends and family possibly can. We laugh, we cry, we 
bitch, and we push and pull each other! We mourn the losses, celebrate small and large 
victories, and we educate ourselves and others. But most importantly—we embrace 
each other and our lives. (Anonymous blogpost, 2010) 
As recently as three decades ago, most psychologists and health-care providers 
would have scoffed at the notion that a discussion group could improve a cancer 
patient’s chances of survival. Today, however, such methods have gained increasing 
acceptance. 
Growing evidence suggests that psychological factors have a substantial impact 
both on major health problems that were once seen in purely physiological terms 
and on our everyday sense of health, well-being, and happiness. We’ll consider the 
psychological components of three major health problems—heart disease, cancer, and 
smoking—and then consider the nature of people’s well-being and happiness.
The As, Bs, and Ds of Coronary 
Heart Disease
Tim knew it wasn’t going to be his day when he got stuck in traffi c behind a slow-
moving farm truck. How could the driver dawdle like that? Didn’t he have anything of 
any importance to do? Things didn’t get any better when Tim arrived on campus and 
discovered the library didn’t have the books he needed. He could almost feel the 
tension rising. 
“I need that material to fi nish my paper,” he thought to himself. 
He knew that meant he wouldn’t be able to get his paper done early, and that meant he 
wouldn’t have the time he wanted to revise the paper. He wanted it to be a fi rst-class 
paper. This time Tim wanted to get a better grade than his roommate, Luis. Although 
Luis didn’t know it, Tim felt they were in competition and that Luis was always trying 
to better him whether academically or just playing cards. 
“In fact,” Tim mused to himself, “I feel like I’m in competition with everyone, no 
matter what I’m doing.”
Have you, like Tim, ever seethed impatiently at being caught behind a slow-
moving vehicle, felt anger and frustration at not fi nding material you needed at the 
library, or experienced a sense of competitiveness with your classmates? 
Many of us experience these sorts of feelings at one time or another, but for some 
people they represent a pervasive, characteristic set of personality traits known as 
the Type A behavior pattern. The  Type A behavior pattern  is a cluster of behaviors 
involving hostility, competitiveness, time urgency, and feeling driven. In contrast, the