Question bank for Health Psychology

Patient-Practitioner Relationship

2 marks:

• Explain, in your own words, what is meant by ‘non-verbal communication’ in relation to the patient-practitioner relationship. (June 2013)
• Explain, in your own words, what is meant by the term ‘patient-practitioner relationship’. (Nov 2016)

4 marks:

• Describe two ways in which practitioner style can improve adherence to medial requests. (June 2012)
• Describe one study of patient-practitioner non-verbal communication. (June 2013)
• Briefly describe two studies which have investigated the patient-practitioner relationship. (Nov 2016)

6 marks:

• Outline three things a practitioner could do to improve adherence to medical requests. (No 2013)
• Describe research (e.g. McKinlay) which has looked at verbal communication in the patient-practitioner relationship.
• Describe one study which has investigated the disclosure of patient information to a practitioner. (June 2015)
• Describe one study of patient-practitioner non-verbal communication. (Nov 2017)

8 marks:

• Describe what psychologists have learned about the doctor-patient relationship. (Nov 2013, Nov 2014 and June 2017)
• Suggest how you would assess the long-term effectiveness of any changes a practitioner may make. (Nov 2013)
• Design a new study to investigate how many medical terms people know. (June 2014)
• Suggest how you would use an interview to investigate which people give more information and which people give less to a medical practitioner. (June 2015)
• Suggest how you would design and conduct a study that gathers qualitative data to find out why patients prefer one practitioner clothing style to another. (Nov 2017)

12 marks:

• “So, have you taken all your pills or not?” Evaluate what psychologists have learned about the doctor-patient relationship and include a discussion about the usefulness of self-report measures. (Nov 2013)
• Evaluate what psychologists have learned about the patient-practitioner relationship, including a discussion of the use of the observation method to gather data. (Nov 2014)
• Evaluate what psychologists have discovered about the patient-practitioner relationship and include a discussion about generalisations. (June 2017)

Adherence to Medical Advice

2 marks:

• Explain, in your own words, what is meant by ‘improving adherence to medical requests. (June 2012)
• Explain, in your own words, what is meant by ‘adherence to medical advice’. (June 2015)
• Explain, in your own words, what is meant by ‘rational non-adherence’ to medical advice. (Nov 2017)

4 marks:

• Describe two ways in which practitioner style can improve adherence to medial requests. (June 2012)
• Describe two studies that have investigated why people might not adhere to medical advice. (June 2015)
• Describe one study which has investigated rational non-adherence. (Nov 2017)

6 marks:

• Describe to reasons why people do not adhere to medical advice. (June 2014)
• Describe the psychological perspective on which behavioural techniques to improve adherence are based. (Nov 2014)
• Describe one study that has investigated how patients customise their treatment. (Nov 2015)
• Describe one study of rational non-adherence (June 2016)

8 marks:

• Describe what psychologists have learned about adherence to medical advice. (Nov 2012)
• Design a new study to investigate why Habucuc’s patients do not adhere to medical advice about their heart conditions. (June 2014)
• Design an experiment to test whether sending a reminder does improve attendance at a medical appointment. (Nov 2014)
• Suggest how you would use a questionnaire to investigate the different ways in which patients customise treatment. (Nov 2015)
• Suggest how you would test the hypothesis that as people get older they are less likely to adherence to medical requests. (June 2016)

12 marks:

• “We can count the number of pills in the bottle, but all it tells us is how many are left.” Evaluate what psychologists have learned about adherence to medical advice, discussing the use of quantitative and qualitative data. (Nov 2012)

Pain

2 marks:

• Explain, in your own words, what is meant by ‘psychogenic pain’. (Nov 2012)
• Explain, in your own words, what is meant by a ‘pain measure for children’. (June 2014)
• Explain, in your own words, what is meant by ‘chronic pain’. (June 2017)

4 marks:

• Describe the gate control theory of pain proposed by Melzack. (Nov 2012)
• Describe one pain measure for children. (June 2014)
• Describe one example of chronic pain and one example of acute pain. (June 2017)

6 marks:

• Describe how Jamal could use a behavioural/observational technique, such as UAB, to record whether the pain of the long-stay patients is reducing. (June 2012)
• Describe the specificity theory of pain. (June 2013)
• Describe two visual rating scales that are designed for adults. (Nov 2014)
• Describe psychogenic pain using an example (Nov 2015)

8 marks:

• Suggest how Jamal’s observations of pain could be checked t see if they are correct. (June 2012)
• Suggest how you could gather ecologically valid evidence to test the specificity theory. (June 2013)
• Design a visual rating scale that would be appropriate for a 5-year-old child and suggest how it would work. (Nov 2014)
• Describe what psychologists have found out about pain. (June 2015 and Nov 2016)
• Suggest how would measure phantom limb pain. (Nov 2015)

12 marks:

• Evaluate what psychologists have found out about pain and include a discussion about the interaction of physiological and psychological factors. (June 2015)
• Evaluate what psychologists have learned about pain and include a discussion about the use of psychometrics tests to measure pain. (Nov 2016)

Stress

2 marks:

• Describe what is meant by ‘biofeedback’ to mange stress. (Nov 2013)
• Explain, in your own words, what is meant by ‘stress caused by life events’. (June 2016)

4 marks:

• Describe one study that has used biofeedback to manage stress. (Nov 2013)
• Describe one study which has used a questionnaire to measure life events (June 2016)

6 marks:

• Describe one study which has measured stress physiologically. (Nov 2012)
• Describe ‘daily hassles’ as a cause of stress. (June 2015)
• Describe one study which has used biofeedback to manage stress. (June 2017)

8 marks:

• Physiological measures determine the level of stress. Suggest a measure to find out the cause of stress. (Nov 2012)
• Describe what psychologists have learned about stress. (June 2013 and Nov 2017)
• Suggest how you would investigate why some students experience stress. (June 2015)
• Suggest how you would design and conduct an experiment to determine whether thinking positively is more effective for students that deep breathing at reducing stress before exams. (June 2017)

12 marks:

• “Oh no, my blood pressure is too high!” Evaluate what psychologists have learned about stress and include a discussion about the use of scientific equipment to measure stress. (June 2013)
• Evaluate what psychologists have found out about stress and include a discussion about the use of questionnaires to measure stress. (Nov 2017)

Health Promotion

2 marks:

• Explain, in your own words, what is meant by ‘fear arousal’ to promote health. (Nov 2014)

4 marks:

• Briefly describe two studies which have tested the fear arousal technique to promote health. (Nov 2014)

6 marks:

• Describe one study which has used the fear arousal technique to promote health. (June 2012)
• Describe a community health promotion programme that was successful. (Nov 2013)
• Describe one community health promotion campaign. (June 2017)

8 marks:

• Suggest a fear arousal strategy that could be used to promote health in relation to a specific problem (June 2012)
• Suggest how would conduct a community health promotion programme designed to encourage people to cook healthy food. (Nov 2013)
• Describe what psychologists have found out about health promotion. (Nov 2015 and June 2016)
• Suggest how you would design and conduct an investigation to determine whether people in your community think the health campaign was successful. (June 2017)

12 marks:

• Evaluate what psychologists have found out about health promotion and include a discussion of the use of snapshot and longitudinal studies. (Nov 2015)
• Evaluate what psychologists have learned about health promotion and include a discussion about studies involving children. (June 2016)

 Health and Safety

2 marks:

• Explain, in your own words, what is meant by ‘shift work’. (Nov 2015)

4 marks:

• Describe one way in which shift work can be organised and suggest an alternative way of organising shift work. (Nov 2015)

6 marks:

• Outline the theory on which your strategy to reduce accidents in based. (Nov 2012) Related to 8 marks question.
• Describe one example where the cause of an accident was said to be due to cognitive overload. (June 2013)
• Describe one study which has used a token economy to reduce accidents at work. (June 2016)
• Describe the health promotion methods and techniques on which your campaign is based (Nov 2016) Relation to 8 marks question.
• Describe two other reasons why some people are more likely to have accidents. (Nov 2016)
• Describe one reward strategy and one punishment strategy and outline the perspective on which each is based. (Nov 2017)

8 marks:

• Describe what psychologists have learned about health and safety. (June 2012 and 2014)
• Suggest a strategy to help reduce accidents in the school science laboratory (Nov 2012)
• Design a laboratory experiment to test cognitive overload in air traffic controllers. (June 2013)
• Suggest how you would use token economy in your workplace to improve work safety. (June 2016)
• Suggest how you would conduct a safety campaign to raise awareness about the illusion of invulnerability. (Nov 2016)
• Suggest how you would investigate whether age affects the frequency of accidents. (Nov 2016)
• Suggest how you would design and conduct a field experiment in a school to find out whether the strategy of giving rewards or using punishment is more effective in reducing accidents. (Nov 2017)

12 marks:

• Psychological studies of health and safety may be interesting, but their usefulness is questionable. Evaluate what psychologists have learned about health and safety including a discussion of the usefulness of what has been found. (June 2012)
• Evaluate what psychologists have learned about health and safety and include a discussion about competing explanations. (June 2014)