Intro To Health Psychology
Intro To Health Psychology
Intro To Health Psychology
Course Instructor
Dr Sana Anwar Lashari
1-2
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2012 McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
“a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being
and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”
1-4
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2012 McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
• Research
Scope of • Practice
• Role of behaviors
• Challenges the • • Evaluation, prevention and
biomedical separation of treatment of physical disease
or physiological dysfunction
the body and the mind
• Direct pathway
• Reactions to illness
Psychology
Application of Psychological Theories and
Methodologies
• Stress
• Behaviours
• Help-seeking
• Adherence to treatment
• World Health Organization (1948),
• DISEASE: DEVIATION FROM ~ WHAT THE DOCTOR • ILLNESS: THE DISCOMFORT ~ WHAT THE PATIENT IDENTIFIES
HEALTH IDENTIFIES AS AN THE PATIENT EXPERIENCES AS SYMPTOMS AND FEELS
ABNORMALITY IN HEALTH (FEAR, DISTRESS, ETC.)
1. Primary prevention
• Modification of risk factors (e.g.
smoking, drinking) before illness onset
• Health promotion efforts are a form
of primary prevention
2. Secondary prevention
• Interventions aimed at detecting
illness at an asymptomatic stage so that
II. Prevention its progression can be haltered or
retarded
• E.g. screening
3. Tertiary prevention
• Treatment interventions once an
illness has manifested itself to prevent it
from worsening
• Rehabilitation of patients
Health Promotion
• • Classical Conditioning
Applications
• Stress
of These • Coping with pain
management
Methods For
• Improving
treatment
adherence
• Attributional Theories
V. • • Likeability
• • Similarity to audience
1. Health psychology examines psychological influences on how people stay healthy, why they become ill, and how they respond when they do get ill.
The field focuses on health promotion and maintenance; prevention and treatment of illness; the etiology and correlates of health, illness, and
dysfunction; and improvement of the health care system and the formulation of health policy.
2. The interaction of the mind and the body has concerned philosophers and scientists for centuries. Different models of the relationship have
predominated at different times in history.
3. The biomedical model, which has dominated medicine, is a reductionistic, single-factor model of illness that treats the mind and the body as separate
entities and emphasizes illness concerns over health.
4. The biomedical model is currently being replaced by the biopsychosocial model, which regards any health disorder as the result of a complex interplay
of biological, psychological, and social factors. The biopsychosocial model recognizes the importance of interacting macrolevel and microlevel
processes in producing health and illness. Under this model, health is regarded as an active achievement.
5. The biopsychosocial model guides health psychologists in their research efforts to uncover factors that predict states of health and illness and in their
clinical interventions with patients.
6. Th e rise of health psychology can be tied to several factors, including the increase in chronic or life-style-related illnesses, the expanding role of
health care in the economy, the realization that psychological and social factors contribute to health and illness, the demonstrated importance of
psychological interventions to improving people’s health, and the rigorous methodological contributions of health psychology researchers.
7. Health psychologists perform a variety of tasks. They develop theories and conduct research on the interaction of biological, psychological, and social
factors in producing health and illness. They help treat patients with a variety of disorders and conduct counseling for the psychosocial problems that
illness may create. They develop worksite interventions to improve employees’ health habits and work in medical settings and other organizations to
improve health and health care delivery.