Raven: Immune System and Psychological State Essay

Submitted By slapjack78
Words: 567
Pages: 3

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THE PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL PATHOLOGY

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The difference between psychological and physiological is that physiological tends to deal with the body and our physical responses and psychological is mental and usually deals with our thought processes and the way the brain works.

Running head: THE 3 Psychological and physiological implications in states of heightened stress, some argue that stress causes depression, which causes the immune system to function improperly because resources are tied up in activating the fight or flight mechanism. Others argue that depression causes stress, which then causes the fight or flight. And yet there are other groups that argue a person’s psychological state causes the individual to indirectly affect their health by bad nutrition, physical, and sleep patterns (eg. Having bad nutritional habits could starve the body of necessary nutrients to maintain high levels of white blood cells, resulting in the immune system to have less function; therefor the person may become more prone to diseases, infection, and inflammation). The question to be asked is: Is there a relationship between psychological and physical disorders? Yes, there is. Stress, anxiety, and depression are closely related to physical disorders: Stress has been known to cause diseases such as cardiovascular problems such as hypertension and coronary heart disease (CHD) (p. 262). There is a large amount of research that shows stress-reduction has aided in preventing future heart attacks (p. 263). According to Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman (1959, 1974) there are two types of personalities people engage in, the cluster of behaviors they demonstrate during stressful situations seem to put them at a much higher risk for CHD. The first behavior includes a sense of always being pressured for time, impatience, an incredible amount of energy that may show up in an accelerated speech and motor activity, demonstration of angry outburst: This personality is considered type A pattern. People whom basically so not have type A attributes; such as relaxed, less concerned with deadlines and seldom feel pressured, show excitement of challenges or overriding ambition are considered type

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B personality trait (p. 263). The concept of type A personality or behavior pattern is widely accepted in our hard driving, goal-