LSP Health Psychology & Behavioral Medicine 5 ā Questions and Answers
Question 1: A health psychologist is designing an intervention to reduce smoking in low-income communities. Which social determinant lens is most critical to address?
- Genetic predisposition to nicotine dependence in the target population
- Structural factors including tobacco marketing targeting, stress from economic hardship, and limited cessation resources (Correct answer)
- Individual-level motivational deficits common in lower-SES groups
- Cultural acceptance of smoking as a normative behavior
Correct answer: Structural factors including tobacco marketing targeting, stress from economic hardship, and limited cessation resources
Effective interventions in low-SES communities must address structural barriersātargeted advertising, chronic stress from poverty, and lack of access to cessation programsānot just individual motivation.
Question 2: Which psychological construct refers to the degree to which a person believes they can successfully perform a health behavior under challenging circumstances?
- Health locus of control
- Self-efficacy (Correct answer)
- Outcome expectancy
- Perceived behavioral control
Correct answer: Self-efficacy
Self-efficacy (Bandura) is the domain-specific belief in one's capability to execute a required behavior, and is one of the strongest predictors of health behavior initiation and maintenance.
Question 3: Prolonged bereavement following the death of a spouse is most associated with which health consequence?
- Reduced risk of cardiovascular events due to lifestyle simplification
- Increased mortality, particularly from cardiovascular disease, in the months following loss (Correct answer)
- Stable immune function maintained by social support from children
- Temporary cortisol elevation that normalizes within two weeks
Correct answer: Increased mortality, particularly from cardiovascular disease, in the months following loss
The 'widowhood effect' documents elevated mortality riskāespecially cardiovascularāin the months after spousal loss, driven by grief stress, behavioral changes, and loss of health-promoting social support.
Question 4: Which factor most distinguishes illness behavior from disease in behavioral medicine?
- Illness behavior refers to biological pathophysiology; disease refers to patient experience
- Illness behavior encompasses how individuals perceive, evaluate, and act on symptoms, independent of objective pathology (Correct answer)
- Disease is culturally constructed while illness behavior has biological substrates
- Illness behavior occurs only in the context of diagnosed medical conditions
Correct answer: Illness behavior encompasses how individuals perceive, evaluate, and act on symptoms, independent of objective pathology
Mechanic's concept of illness behavior describes the socially and psychologically influenced process by which people interpret, respond to, and seek care for symptoms, which may or may not correspond to measurable pathology.
Question 5: A patient undergoing dialysis for end-stage renal disease reports feeling that life is meaningless and that they are a burden to their family. The health psychologist's first clinical priority should be:
- Referring immediately to nephrology to evaluate for dialysis-related encephalopathy
- Conducting a thorough suicide risk assessment given the elevated risk in this population (Correct answer)
- Teaching relaxation techniques to reduce treatment-related distress
- Facilitating a family meeting to address caregiver burden
Correct answer: Conducting a thorough suicide risk assessment given the elevated risk in this population
End-stage renal disease carries substantially elevated suicide risk; statements about meaninglessness and burdensomeness (Joiner's interpersonal theory) require immediate systematic risk assessment before other interventions.
Question 6: Which concept describes the tendency for health interventions to be most effective for patients who are already motivated and least effective for those at highest risk?
- Prevention paradox (Correct answer)
- Intervention effect modification
- Inverse care law
- Therapeutic dosage ceiling effect
Correct answer: Prevention paradox
The prevention paradox (Rose) notes that population-based interventions produce most absolute benefit at the population level but individuals at highest risk may respond least, while already-motivated low-risk individuals show strong change.
Question 7: Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) offers a methodological advantage in health psychology research primarily because it:
- Eliminates the need for biological measurement of stress-related outcomes
- Captures real-time health behaviors and psychological states in natural settings, reducing recall bias (Correct answer)
- Provides higher statistical power than traditional retrospective survey designs
- Allows researchers to manipulate health behaviors experimentally without consent
Correct answer: Captures real-time health behaviors and psychological states in natural settings, reducing recall bias
EMA collects data repeatedly in participants' daily lives, capturing in-the-moment behaviors and states and avoiding the distortions inherent in retrospective self-report.
LSP Health Psychology & Behavioral Medicine 5
A health psychologist is designing an intervention to reduce smoking in low-income communities.
Which social determinant lens is most critical to address?