1st Edition

The Psychology of Health and Illness

Edited By Ami Rokach Copyright 2024

    This book examines the effects of various stresses, strains, and traumas in our lives, from the womb till adulthood. The consequences of such stresses are delineated, and this book describes ways of coping with it.

    Research has demonstrated, repeatedly, that chronic stress may increase unhealthy behavior which may further enhance the development of poor lifestyle habits, substance abuse, or physical inactivity.  This may significantly and negatively influence not only our physical wellbeing but emotional one as well. Certain personality traits, like neuroticism for example, is positively correlated with poor physical functioning, greater alcohol consumption as well as increased cigarette smoking. Similarly, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability were shown to significantly affect lifestyle, physical activity, and self-care, and consequently one’s health.

    The chapters in this volume cover various issues that are related to and influence our health — from how adverse childhood experiences can affect our mental health, resulting in anxiety and heightened stress, how partner violence can cause trauma on the physical and emotional health of its victims to examining the effect of assisted reproductive technology on the mother-child relationship. This book also explores the various ways to cope with the significant stress that we experience daily in our lives, as well as how self-care is important in maintaining good health and in avoiding burnout.

    This book will be of great value to students, researchers and practitioners of psychology, including health psychology and psychoanalysis. The chapters in this book were originally published in The Journal of Psychology.

    Introduction: Health, Illness, and the Psychological Factors Affecting Them

    Ami Rokach

     

    1. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Help-Seeking for Health-Related Interventions in Young Adults

    Canan Karatekin

     

    2. Intergenerational Transmission of Depression during Adolescence: The Mediating Roles of Hostile Attribution Bias, Empathic Concern, and Social Self-Concept

    Xing Wei, Xi Li, Xiaoqin Teng, Jingyao Bai and Feifei Ren

     

    3. Contributors to Women's Perceived Stress at the Start of Assisted Reproductive Technology

    Vera Skvirsky, Orit Taubman – Ben-Ari, Shirley Ben Shlomo, Joseph Azuri and Eran Horowitz

     

    4. Perinatal Maternal Stress and Susceptibility to Infectious Diseases in Later Childhood: An Early Life Programming Perspective

    Irena Stepanikova, Elizabeth Baker, Gabriela Oates, Sanjeev Acharya, Jalal Uddin, Vojtech Thon, Jan Svancara and Lubomir Kukla

     

    5. Moderating Effects of Prevention-Focus on the Paths from Two Insecure Attachment Dimensions to Depression

    Dong-Gwi Lee, Jae Joon Park, Byeong Hoon Bae, and Hyun-Woo Lim

     

    6. The Role of Mindful Self-Care in the Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Burnout in University Students

    Natasha M. Loi and Nyree Pryce

     

    7. The Psychology of Health and Illness: The Mental Health and Physiological Effects of Intimate Partner Violence on Women

    Nancy Lutwak

     

    8. Emotion Regulation Difficulties Mediate the Relationship between Neuroticism and Health-Risk Behaviours in Adolescents

    Parwinder Singh

     

    9. How Compassionate Abilities Influence the Experience of Loneliness and Quality of Life of People with and without Chronic Physical Disease?

    Tânia Ramalho, Joana Pereira and Cláudia Ferreira

     

    10. How Future Orientation is Associated with Depressive Symptoms in Multiethnoracial Adults: Basic Psychological Needs as a Mediator

    Edward C. Chang, Olivia D. Chang, Elizabeth A. Yu, Kaidi Wu, Abigael G. Lucas, P. Priscilla Lui, David Rollock, Xinjie Chen, Jameson K. Hirsch and Elizabeth L. Jeglic

    Biography

    Ami Rokach is a clinical psychologist who teaches in the Department of Psychology at York University in Toronto, Canada. He has been researching and teaching about loneliness, human sexuality, intimate relationships, and death and dying for the past 40 years.