Psychology: Health, Lifestyle, and Biopsychosocial Stress Model

This essay delves into the psychology of health and lifestyle, emphasizing the significance of a well-designed healthy lifestyle based on the Biopsychosocial model, which incorporates biological, psychological, and social factors. It highlights how understanding these factors can aid individuals in creating personalized health plans, particularly for managing chronic illnesses. The essay also addresses stress, detailing its various impacts on health, such as headaches, depression, heartburn, and immune system weakening. Furthermore, it provides actionable steps for minimizing stress, including maximizing endorphin release through exercise, learning to say no to unhealthy choices, and monitoring food intake. The report concludes by underscoring the importance of integrating these psychological insights into daily life for achieving and maintaining overall well-being. Desklib offers similar solved assignments and resources for students.

Running Head: Psychology
Psychology
Health and Lifestyle

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Psychology
Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Designing of the Lifestyle............................................................................................................................2
Steps to Minimize Stress.............................................................................................................................3
Impacts of Stress on Health.........................................................................................................................3
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................4
References...................................................................................................................................................5

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Psychology
Introduction
Healthy lifestyle is a necessity these days. Health issues are increasing day after day. It is a
psychological behavior which can make a person change his lifestyle and lead a good one. A
good design of a healthy lifestyle involves Biopsychosocial factors for a person to study the
disease or chronic illness if any in order to make a new diet or health model for himself.
Designing of the Lifestyle
This model refers to the understanding of the person’s condition medically as it is not just the
biological characteristics which should be taken into account but also psychological and social.
The model is mostly used in the critical pain times, with the opinion that the pain is psycho
physiological behavior patter which can be divided in biological, psychological and social
factors.
Biopsychosocial Model
Source: (Physio-pedia.com, 2018)

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Psychology
1. Biological Factors: On the basis of the biological factors such as disability in case if any,
genetic diseases if any can happen or considering the present physical health, the healthy
lifestyle model should be designed. From genetic point of view, a person should be
cautious of his or her health since the childhood (Hatala, 2012).
2. Social Factors: A healthy lifestyle will be based on the basis of the social factors too such
as the circumstances of the family, how deep are the relations in the family, is the person
dealing with some kind of trauma etc. Healthy lifestyle according to the social factors
could be designed by understanding in case if a person is going through some trauma or
stress. Due to increased stress levels, there is an always hormonal change related to it
which affects the body very badly.
3. Psychological Factors: These factors involve the cognitive skills, skills of coping up with
the disease or in fact the healthy lifestyle as it has to be made a habit of eating and living
healthily. It is not a day things (Mckee & Rivard, 2010).
All such factors are important while understanding the design of healthy lifestyle.
Steps to Minimize Stress
There are a few ways by which one can maximize health and minimize stress. They are:
 Maximize Endorphin: If one will sweat it out, there would be happy hormones generate
din the body which is one of the best way to reduce stress. When body works out, it
releases Endorphins and these endorphins strike the assertive feelings for the entire day in
the body. This will lighten up the mood of the person and reduce stress.
 Learn Saying No: Learning to say is a game changer. There are times when a person says
yes to the foods or occasion when he needs to say no so as to lead a healthy lifestyle
(Raine, 2005).
 Monitoring the Foods: One should always monitor as to what exactly they are putting
into their body. If one counts the calories and the nutrients before eating, they would
always eat healthy. Eating healthy is related to the mental stress reliever (McIsaac, Kirk,
& Kuhle, 2015).

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Psychology
Impacts of Stress on Health
There are several impacts of Stress on body. They are:
 Headaches: One gets the headache if he or she thinks about the problematic areas in his
or her life.
 Depression: Due to stress, a person keep on thinking more and more about the problem
and this can get a person go into the depression.
 Heartburn: Stress rises up the development of the stomach acid due to which heart burn is
caused.
 Insomnia: A person can lose his sleep in case if he is stressed. If this continues for a
longer time, a person gets habitual of insomnia (Palmer & Rodger, 2009).
 Rapid Breathing: The muscles with which a person breathes tenses up in stress. Hence, a
person can feel short breathed.
 Immune System: Stress on the first place reduces the immune system in the body. This
might lead the body to intake infections every now and then.
 Sugar: Person can become diabetic if he or she takes stress. This happens mostly after the
age of 40 years.
 Fertility Problems: Due to stress, fertility issues might generate in body of women. This
is the big issues in today’s world (Association, 2009).
Conclusion
This report focuses on the healthy lifestyle plan according to the Biopsychosocial model. This
includes psychological, biological and social factors according to which a person can design a
healthy plan for himself. Also, stress causes a lot of issues in human body. These issues are
discussed in this report with the discussion of the way to reduce the stress in personal lives of
people so that they can love a healthy life.

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Psychology
References
Association, C. M. (2009). Coping With Stress. Retrieved June 12, 2018, from
https://www.heartandstroke.ca/-/media/pdf-files/canada/other/coping-with-stress-en.ashx
Hatala, A. R. (2012). The Status of the “Biopsychosocial” Model in Health Psychology: Towards
an Integrated Approach and a Critique of Cultural Conceptions. Open Journal of Medical
Psychology , 1, 51-62.
McIsaac, J. L., Kirk, S. F., & Kuhle, S. (2015). The Association between Health Behaviours and
Academic Performance in Canadian Elementary School Students: Performance in
Canadian Elementary School Students: A Cross-Sectional Study. Int. J. Environ. Res.
Public Health , 12.
Mckee, P., & Rivard, A. (2010). Biopsychosocial Approach to Orthotic Intervention. Journal of
Hand Therapy , 24 (2), 155-162.
Palmer, A., & Rodger, S. (2009). Mindfulness, Stress, and Coping Among University Students.
Canadian Journal of Counselling / Revue canadienne de counseling , 43 (3).
Raine, K. D. (2005). Determinants of Healthy Eating. Canadian Journal of Public Health , 96
(3).