Finally, thehealth behavior model, unlike the pre-
vious models, does not assume that the physiologi-
cal aspects of stress are the crucial link between
hostility and health. Rather, the health behavior
model proposes that hostile individuals tend to
engage in poor health habits (e.g., smoking, exces-
sive drinking of alcohol, poor exercise habits) and
thus are more susceptible to coronary heart disease.
This parsimonious explanation of the findings of an
association between hostility and coronary heart
disease needs further evaluation.
Social Support and Health. A topic attracting
increased research interest is social support and its
effects on health and well-being (Miller, Chen, &
Cole, 2009; Stanton, Revenson, & Tennen,
2007).Social supportrefers not only to the number
of social relationships but also to the quality of those
relationships (can you confide in your friends, par-
ents, and family members?). The basic idea is that
interpersonal ties can actually promote health.
They insulate people from harm when they encoun-
ter stress, decrease susceptibility to illness, and help
people comply with and maintain treatment regi-
mens. Social support is, in many ways, a kind of
coping assistance. A number of studies have indicated
that better health outcomes are positively related
to social support (Miller, Chen, & Cole, 2009;
Stanton, Revenson, & Tennen, 2007). For exam-
ple, Williams et al. (1992) followed approximately
1,400 patients with coronary artery disease for an
average of 9 years and found that patients who
rated higher on measures of social support (e.g., mar-
ried, able to confide in spouses) exhibited signifi-
cantly lower rates of mortality over the follow-up
period. This relation held even after controlling for
demographic variables and medical risk factors. This
study and others suggest that social support may act
as a type of“buffer”against adverse health outcomes.
The relationships among social support, stress,
and health may depend on a number of factors,
including race, gender, and culture. For example,
women (on average) seem to benefit more from
social support than do men, perhaps because
women tend to have more emotionally intimate
relationships (Brannon & Feist, 2010).
Range of Applications
A full description of all the problems to which health
psychology has addressed itself is beyond the scope of
this chapter. A partial list culled from recent accounts
would include the following: smoking, alcohol
abuse, obesity, Type A personality, hypertension, car-
diac arrhythmia, Raynaud’s disease, Alzheimer’sdis-
ease, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS),
cystic fibrosis, anorexia nervosa, chronic vomiting,
encopresis-fecal incontinence, ulcers, irritable bowel
syndrome, spasmodic torticollis, tics, cerebral palsy,
cerebrovascular accidents, epilepsy, asthma, neuro-
dermatitis, psoriasis, chronic pain, headaches, insom-
nia, diabetes, dysmenorrhea, dental disorders, cancer,
spinal cord injuries, and sexual dysfunction.
In the pages that follow, we deal with several
of these disorders, especially as they illustrate meth-
ods of intervention and prevention. Box 17-2 sug-
gests some of the issues that are within the province
of health psychology and behavioral medicine,
especially as applied to the problem of human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and
acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).METHODS OF INTERVENTIONIn essence, health psychology, behavioral medicine,
and pediatric psychology apply behavioral and
cognitive-behavioral methods of assessment and
treatment. We present brief overviews of general
classes of interventions (respondent methods, operant
methods, cognitive-behavioral methods, and bio-
feedback) and then present a few examples of how
these techniques are used by health psychologists.Respondent Methods
Over time, a neutral stimulus (conditioned stimu-
lus) that is paired with a naturally eliciting stimulus
(unconditioned stimulus) may itself become capable
of eliciting a particular response. This is the classic
Pavlovian paradigm. Emotional reactions may, for
example, become associated with formerly neutral,
innocuous stimuli. This process may then produce494 CHAPTER 17