Drifting Off to Sleep audio or Health Psychology

Drifting Off to Sleep - audio

Author: Mitch Meyerson

Sleep deprivation has reached epidemic proportions in a culture that values keeping busy. Restless sleep may manifest as a temporary annoyance or become a serious and chronic condition such as sleep apnea or insomnia. Solutions abound - everything from natural remedies to pharmaceuticals to curious devices to meditation. For Mitch Meyerson, attacking the problem through a variety of natural strategies has proven successful, and these strategies form the basis for Drifting Off to Sleep. Meyerson's program creates the proper ambience for a gentle and restful sleep. Combining soothing synthesized and acoustic music delicately layered over digitally recorded sounds from nature, this tape encourages listeners to let go of the day's worries. Side A begins with an imagery exercise that quietly enhances a relaxing mood, replacing physical and mental tension with the ideal mind-set for floating into a soothing sleep. Side B combines soft music and nature sounds that create the perfect backdrop for winding down, meditating, or easing into sleep.

Interesting book: Psychologie der Investierung

Health Psychology

Author: Howard S Friedman

This book explains the timeless wisdom uncovered by psychology and other social sciences about the meaning of health, illness, and optimal health care. It provides a conceptual integration of the most important relevant research of the whole 20th century, as well as discussing the most important recent findings—but is not a complicated research compendium. Throughout, the biopsychosocial health psychology model is explicitly contrasted and compared to the traditional biomedical model. The Theory and Methods of the Field of Health Psychology. The Psychophysiological Basis of Health and Illness. The Social and Cultural Basis of Health and Illness. Belief, Pain, and Healing. Stress and Illness. Personality and Disease. Quality of Life and the Self-Healing Personality. Adaptation to Chronic Illness. Dying, Death and Grief. Tobacco, Alcohol, and Illegal Drug Abuse. Nutrition, Exercise, and Prophylaxis. Patient Cooperation (Adherence). Communication between Patients and Practitioners. Health Care Professionals and Hospitals. Socio-Medical Ethics, Utilization, and Goals for the Future of Health Psychology. For anyone involved in health care.

Booknews

A general and comprehensive introduction. Topics include: social and cultural considerations, psychological contributors to and treatments of illness, institutions, future outlook. Seventy-three pages of references. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Table of Contents:

	Foreword	xiii
	Preface	xv
	Acknowledgments	xvii
	About the Author	xix
Part I	Introduction to Basic Concepts and Methods	1
Chapter 1	The Field of Health Psychology	3
	Causes of Death	4
	The Emotional Context	4
	The Psychological and Psychophysiological Context	9
	The Social (Interactional) Context	11
	The Behavioral Context	13
	The Institutional Context	14
	The Societal and Cultural Context	15
	Medical Ethics	17
	Methodology	18
	The Discipline of Health Psychology	23
	The Organization of This Book	25
	Summary and Conclusion	25
Chapter 2	The Psychophysiological Basis of Health and Illness	27
	A Brief History of Psychophysiology	28
	Autonomic Nervous System	32
	Endocrine System	32
	Psychology and the Immune System	38
	Fitness	41
	The Traditional Biomedical Model	44
	Evaluation	47
	Summary and Conclusion	47
Chapter 3	The Social and Cultural Basis of Health and Illness	50
	Medical Help-Seeking	51
	What Is Illness?	54
	Cultural and Demographic Influences	56
	Social Cognition: Social Perception, Attribution, and Illness	58
	The Rewards of the Sick Role	65
	Wellness	66
	The Biopsychosocial Health Psychology Model	67
	Summary and Conclusion	72
Part II	Psychological Contributors to and Treatments of Illness	75
Chapter 4	Belief, Pain, and Healing	77
	Holistic Health	79
	Belief and Its Function in Health	82
	Religiosity	87
	Pain	89
	Pain Management	93
	Summary and Conclusion	98
Chapter 5	Stress and Illness	101
	What Is Stress?	102
	Models of Stress and Illness	103
	Loss, Life Change, and Illness	106
	Mastery and Control or Relinquishing Control	108
	Life Change	113
	Stress Psychophysiology	119
	Coping With Stress	120
	Self-Induced Stress	129
	Summary and Conclusion	130
Chapter 6	Personality and Disease	133
	Models of Personality and Disease	135
	The Coronary-Prone Personality	140
	The Disease-Prone Personality	146
	Personality and the Immune System	154
	Implications for Society	157
	Summary and Conclusion	159
Chapter 7	Quality of Life and the Self-Healing Personality	161
	Healthy Work	163
	Quality of Life	165
	Healthy Control	166
	Commitment	169
	Challenge	170
	Healthy Subtypes	172
	Optimism	174
	Salutogenesis and Coherence	174
	The Self-Healing Personality	175
	Social Ties and Social Integration	179
	Life-Time Predictors of Longevity	181
	Summary and Conclusion	185
Chapter 8	Adaptation to Chronic Illness	187
	Adaptation to the Crisis of Illness	189
	Coping With Chronic Illness	193
	Social Support and Rehabilitation	198
	Special Cases of Chronic Illness	204
	Summary and Conclusion	211
Chapter 9	Dying, Death, and Grief	214
	Reactions to Impending Death	216
	The Hospice	221
	Bereavement and Grieving	224
	The Caregiver's Reaction to Dying Patients	230
	Children and Death	232
	Suicide	236
	Evaluation	242
	Summary and Conclusion	242
Part III	Health Promotion, Disease Prevention, and the Health Care System	247
Chapter 10	Tobacco, Alcohol, and Illegal Drug Abuse	249
	Models of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention	250
	Tobacco	256
	Alcohol	264
	Illegal Drug Abuse	267
	Summary and Conclusion	272
Chapter 11	Nutrition, Exercise, and Prophylaxis	274
	Nutrition and Eating	276
	Exercise and Physical Activity	285
	Injury	291
	Human Sexuality	294
	Immunizations and Vector Control	296
	Summary and Conclusion	298
Chapter 12	Patient Cooperation (Adherence)	300
	The Problem of Noncooperation	302
	Consequences of Noncooperation	305
	Reasons for Lack of Cooperation	306
	The Care of the Patient	314
	Doctor-Patient Relations	318
	Models of the Practitioner-Patient Relationship	321
	Summary and Conclusion	324
Chapter 13	Communication Between Patients and Practitioners	326
	The Problem of Practitioner-Patient Communication	327
	Words and Medical Jargon	330
	Nonverbal Communication Between Patients and Practitioners	335
	Interviewing in the Health Care Context	346
	Summary and Conclusion	351
Chapter 14	Health Care Professionals and Hospitals	353
	Medical Training	354
	Stress and Its Effects on Practicing Health Care Professionals	360
	Decision-Making in Health Care	363
	Women in Medicine	368
	Hospitals	374
	Summary and Conclusion	382
Part IV	Society, Utilization, and the Future	385
Chapter 15	Medical Ethics and Utilization Issues	387
	Socio-Medical Ethics	388
	Health Care and the Poor	390
	Health Care Utilization	393
	The Future of Health Psychology	396
	The Promise of Health Psychology	402
	Summary and Conclusion	405
	Glossary	407
	References	427
	Name Index	491
	Subject Index	503