Health Psychology, Stress and Coping MCQs 2026

Activation of the HPA axis ultimately stimulates secretion of which hormone?

1. A Cortisol ✓
2. B Insulin ✓
3. C Melatonin ✓
4. D Oxytocin ✓

The biopsychosocial model explains health by integrating which factors?

1. A Biological, psychological, and social factors ✓
2. B Only genetic and anatomical factors ✓
3. C Only hospital equipment and medicines ✓
4. D Only income and occupation ✓

Primary appraisal in the transactional model of stress is the evaluation of what?

1. A Whether an event is irrelevant, benign, threatening, or challenging ✓
2. B Available coping resources ✓
3. C The exact cortisol level in blood ✓
4. D The final medical diagnosis only ✓

Problem-focused coping is most directly aimed at what?

1. A Denying that stress exists ✓
2. B Changing or managing the stressor itself ✓
3. C Suppressing all emotional expression ✓
4. D Avoiding all decision making ✓

Emotion-focused coping primarily attempts to do what?

1. A Collect objective job-analysis data ✓
2. B Increase the number of daily hassles ✓
3. C Regulate emotional distress caused by stress ✓
4. D Remove the external stressor immediately ✓

Chronic stress may affect immunity by doing what?

1. A Having no physiological effect ✓
2. B Suppressing or dysregulating immune functioning ✓
3. C Guaranteeing immunity to infection ✓
4. D Replacing the need for vaccines ✓

Kobasa's hardiness includes commitment, control, and what?

1. A Conformity ✓
2. B Compulsion ✓
3. C Challenge ✓
4. D Compliance ✓

The stages of change model begins with which stage?

1. A Precontemplation ✓
2. B Maintenance ✓
3. C Termination ✓
4. D Relapse prevention only ✓

In the Health Belief Model, which factor often strongly prevents action?

1. A Perceived barriers ✓
2. B Perceived benefits only ✓
3. C Cues to action only ✓
4. D Demographic labels alone ✓

Acute stress is best defined as stress that is what?

1. A Inherited from parents only ✓
2. B Short-term and linked to an immediate demand ✓
3. C Always unrelated to physiology ✓
4. D Present continuously for years ✓

Coping flexibility means being able to do what?

1. A Refuse all social support ✓
2. B Apply only one favorite coping strategy ✓
3. C Match coping strategies to the controllability of the situation ✓
4. D Use avoidance for every stressor ✓

Stress inoculation training typically includes education, rehearsal, and what?

1. A Application of coping skills to stressors ✓
2. B Avoidance of all practice ✓
3. C Medication withdrawal without supervision ✓
4. D Random punishment ✓

Illness behavior refers to how people do what?

1. A Monitor, interpret, and respond to symptoms ✓
2. B Develop only genetic diseases ✓
3. C Design hospital buildings ✓
4. D Calculate medical insurance premiums ✓

Gate control theory of pain proposes that pain signals can be modulated at what level?

1. A Only by the kidneys ✓
2. B A spinal gate influenced by neural and psychological factors ✓
3. C Only by the liver ✓
4. D Only by bone density ✓

Burnout among caregivers is most closely characterized by what?

1. A Improved immune function only ✓
2. B Random memory improvement ✓
3. C Emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced efficacy ✓
4. D Brief excitement before a holiday ✓

Regular physical activity reduces coronary heart disease risk partly by improving what?

1. A Cardiovascular fitness and risk factors ✓
2. B Only spelling ability ✓
3. C Job analysis accuracy ✓
4. D Random guessing on tests ✓

The relaxation response is associated with what?

1. A Parasympathetic calming and reduced arousal ✓
2. B Sympathetic emergency activation ✓
3. C Permanent cortisol elevation ✓
4. D Increased muscle tension only ✓

Problem-focused coping is generally least useful when stressors are what?

1. A Simple and skill-based ✓
2. B Uncontrollable or unchangeable ✓
3. C Specific and controllable ✓
4. D Clearly solvable by planning ✓

Optimism is linked with better health adjustment partly because optimists tend to use what?

1. A No coping strategies ✓
2. B Only magical thinking ✓
3. C Active coping and positive expectations ✓
4. D Persistent denial in all situations ✓

Perceived stress is best described as what?

1. A A subjective appraisal that demands exceed resources ✓
2. B An objective count of hospital beds ✓
3. C A disease caused only by bacteria ✓
4. D A fixed personality trait with no context ✓

The fight-or-flight response is primarily mediated by which system?

1. A Sympathetic-adrenal-medullary system ✓
2. B Digestive-rest system only ✓
3. C Visual cortex alone ✓
4. D Skeletal growth system ✓

A chance health locus of control reflects belief that health is mainly controlled by what?

1. A Doctor instructions only ✓
2. B Luck, fate, or chance ✓
3. C Personal diet alone ✓
4. D Measured self-efficacy ✓

Compared with compliance, adherence is preferred because it implies what?

1. A Punishment for every missed dose ✓
2. B No patient choice in treatment ✓
3. C A more collaborative treatment relationship ✓
4. D A more passive patient role ✓

Cognitive-behavioral stress management commonly targets what?

1. A Maladaptive thoughts and behaviors that maintain stress ✓
2. B Only blood type classification ✓
3. C Surgical technique training ✓
4. D Random dream symbols ✓

The diathesis-stress model explains disorder as the result of stress interacting with what?

1. A An underlying vulnerability ✓
2. B A guaranteed cure ✓
3. C Only current income ✓
4. D A single healthy habit ✓

Daily hassles are important because they are what?

1. A Always pleasant events ✓
2. B Minor recurrent stressors with cumulative impact ✓
3. C Rare catastrophic disasters only ✓
4. D Identical to major life events ✓

Venting without problem solving can sometimes be unhelpful because it may do what?

1. A Improve adherence automatically ✓
2. B Guarantee immune recovery ✓
3. C Prolong arousal and reinforce anger ✓
4. D Always remove the stressor ✓

Positive reappraisal involves what?

1. A Reframing a stressful event to find meaning or benefit ✓
2. B Pretending symptoms never happened ✓
3. C Ignoring all medical advice ✓
4. D Increasing the stressor deliberately ✓

Psychophysiological disorders are conditions in which physical symptoms are influenced by what?

1. A Psychological and physiological interactions ✓
2. B Weather reports only ✓
3. C Court decisions only ✓
4. D Job salary scales ✓

The coronary-prone Type A pattern includes competitiveness, time urgency, and what?

1. A Hostility or anger ✓
2. B Low achievement motivation ✓
3. C Deep relaxation ✓
4. D High sleep duration ✓

Progressive muscle relaxation trains people to do what?

1. A Systematically tense and relax muscle groups ✓
2. B Ignore all bodily sensations ✓
3. C Increase caffeine intake ✓
4. D Maintain constant muscle tension ✓

Catastrophizing in pain involves what?

1. A Relaxed acceptance of discomfort ✓
2. B Immediate problem solving ✓
3. C Exaggerating the threat and helplessness associated with pain ✓
4. D Accurate symptom monitoring only ✓

The placebo effect is improvement caused partly by what?

1. A A laboratory error in diagnosis ✓
2. B Expectations and treatment context ✓
3. C A drug's active chemical ingredient only ✓
4. D Permanent genetic change ✓

An internal health locus of control means a person believes health outcomes are influenced mainly by what?

1. A One's own actions and choices ✓
2. B Random luck alone ✓
3. C Only hospital architecture ✓
4. D Astrological timing ✓

Secondary appraisal involves judging what?

1. A Available coping resources and options ✓
2. B The spelling of the diagnosis ✓
3. C Only the duration of sleep ✓
4. D The final disease classification ✓

Resilience refers to what?

1. A A fixed inability to cope ✓
2. B Only high physical strength ✓
3. C Positive adaptation despite adversity ✓
4. D Complete absence of stress exposure ✓

Avoidant coping often provides short-term relief but may do what over time?

1. A Eliminate all daily hassles ✓
2. B Maintain or worsen problems by delaying action ✓
3. C Always improve adherence ✓
4. D Increase perceived control in every case ✓

Eustress is best described as what?

1. A Positive or challenging stress that can motivate performance ✓
2. B Traumatic stress with no recovery ✓
3. C A chronic immune deficiency ✓
4. D An absence of any arousal ✓

Biofeedback helps patients by providing what?

1. A Real-time information about physiological activity for self-regulation ✓
2. B A random score unrelated to the body ✓
3. C Only verbal reassurance without data ✓
4. D A permanent cure for every disease ✓

Psychoneuroimmunology studies interactions among psychological processes, the nervous system, and what?

1. A The legal system only ✓
2. B Financial accounting ✓
3. C The immune system ✓
4. D The education system only ✓

Lazarus and Folkman are most associated with which view of stress?

1. A A reflex-only pain model ✓
2. B The transactional appraisal and coping model ✓
3. C A purely genetic disease model ✓
4. D A fixed intelligence model ✓

Mindfulness-based stress reduction emphasizes what?

1. A Present-focused, nonjudgmental awareness ✓
2. B Constant worry about future illness ✓
3. C Avoidance of bodily sensations ✓
4. D Suppression of all thoughts ✓

Selye's general adaptation syndrome consists of which stages?

1. A Alarm, resistance, and exhaustion ✓
2. B Attention, recall, and recognition ✓
3. C Preparation, action, and reward ✓
4. D Intake, diagnosis, and discharge ✓

Allostatic load refers to what?

1. A A single pleasant life event ✓
2. B An immediate vaccine response ✓
3. C Cumulative wear and tear from chronic adaptation to stress ✓
4. D A temporary rise in appetite only ✓

Self-efficacy in health behavior means confidence in what?

1. A The hospital's legal status ✓
2. B One's ability to perform the behavior ✓
3. C The doctor's medical degree ✓
4. D The absence of all barriers ✓

The Health Belief Model includes perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, and what?

1. A Perceived barriers ✓
2. B Dream interpretation ✓
3. C Classical conditioning only ✓
4. D Birth order ✓

In health psychology, adherence refers to what?

1. A The extent to which a person follows agreed health recommendations ✓
2. B The genetic cause of a disease ✓
3. C The number of physicians in a clinic ✓
4. D The severity of symptoms only ✓

The stress-buffering hypothesis states that social support does what?

1. A Works only for infectious diseases ✓
2. B Increases physiological arousal permanently ✓
3. C Reduces the harmful impact of stress on health ✓
4. D Always eliminates all life stressors ✓

Learned helplessness can develop when stressors are perceived as what?

1. A Fully controllable by skill ✓
2. B Uncontrollable despite effort ✓
3. C Brief and enjoyable ✓
4. D Relevant only to physical exercise ✓

The Type A component most consistently linked with coronary risk is what?

1. A Hostility ✓
2. B Introversion ✓
3. C Openness ✓
4. D Agreeableness ✓