Psychology and Health Problems
Jeffrey Bell
Axia College
Psychology and Health Problems
There are many issues that people face every day that are hard to explain. They could experience issues such as: developing cancer, getting sick, having a heart attack, etc. It can be difficult to distinguish why there are certain people who will come down with an illness when exposed to it, but there are other people who can be exposed to the illness without feeling any symptoms. Psychology uses the multi-factorial model to explain some of the causes of these dilemmas. The multi-factorial model explains how behavior, environmental factors, biological factors, sociocultural factors, personality, and stressors can all play a roll in our physical health (Nevid & Rathus, 2005).
Behavior
One’s behavior can play an important roll when helping determine how healthy a person is. The ways in which a person behaves can cause direct physical stress and effects. If a person smokes cigarettes he or she will increase his or her risk for lung cancer drastically. Excessive consumption of alcohol can also cause serious illness to the organs and lead to other serious sickness or even death. We can behave by attending regular doctor check-ups and check for early symptoms of more serious diseases. When we eat foods that are high in saturated fat and cholesterol we increase our risks for heart illness. Our diet can be a big factor with our health. Even things such as practicing safe sex can help reduce our chance of disease (Nevid & Rathus, 2005).
Environmental Factors
Environmental factors can also affect our health. The sun can cause burns or skin cancer if one is exposed long enough. The weather can cause structural damage that can hurt us, and cause illness such as hypothermia. There are other things such as the water we drink, the air we breathe, and cleanliness of places we visit can play a large factor in determining one’s health (Nevid & Rathus, 2005)....