wk 4 psy 2010 Assignment - 1 Psychology and Health Problems...

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Psychology and Health Problems
Christiana Rivera
Axia College Psychology 210
August 22, 2010
The Multifactorial model presented in our Chapter 4 reading shows 6

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different factors in any one persons life that might be a contributing factor to
health issues they may have.
The six factor breakdowns are biological (pre-disposed in your genes),
environmental, behavioral, sociocultural (your position in the community),
personality and a category called stressors that may affect your daily disposition.
When psychologists’ and internist doctors look for clues to a form a diagnosis to
an illness a person has, they first look towards the patients history. Are there any
biological factors that may make a person predisposed to this illness? That is, is
there a family history or genetic link that we may form a logical diagnosis before
intrusive testing is done. While looking for biological reasons we look at a
persons environmental and behavioral actions. Are they over eaters? Smokers?
Work in highly contaminated field? Live in high pollution areas? These factors
we can assume are active factors in a health issue and might be a direct cause of
the illness. Stressors and Personality are directly related to a person’s outlook,
actions and discomfort. Is the patient easily angered? Are they depressive? Do
they have a type A personality?
For my assignment I chose Menstruation and Coronary Heart Disease
(CHD) to discuss.
Through the reading (and being a women), we have learned that Menstruation is
not the cause of a women’s hysterical nature but PMS does come with some
biological issues that only a woman can survive. Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)