Health+Psychology

__** Health Psychology **__ Health psychologists emphasize the wellbeing of humans by looking at their social conditions, biological characteristics, and behavioral factors. They study health and illnesses to gather new information and conduct research in order to improve the overall health aspect of life. Health psychologists focus not on the inevitable illnesses rather on the ones that are caused by humans engaging in poor behavior, such as smoking or overeating. The researchers find ways for people to control negative behaviors so that they can engage in healthy behaviors and live a longer life.

__** Topics in Health Psychology **__ The topics that health psychologists usually research are ones that have a combination of contributing factors, meaning topics that include a social, biological, and behavioral aspect. The social aspect includes the “norms” of behavior such as smoking or not and the pressures to engage in those types of behaviors. The biological part includes factors such as genetics, bacterial infections, and viruses. The behavioral aspect includes engaging in behaviors such as consuming alcohol and dieting and can also include emotions like fear of treatment. Some of the topics that have been researched include: coronary heart disease because it has been related to behaviors such as lack of exercise, high blood pressure, smoking, stress, and high cholesterol. Other examples include strokes, which have been related to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking. Some of the main topics that researchers look at are the activities that people may or may not engage in during everyday life such as smoking, drinking, poor eating habits, sex, and exercise.

__** Typical Questions of Health Psychologists **__ -How can we predict who will become smokers or people who have high fat diets? -What beliefs predict what behaviors? -Could changing certain beliefs change behavior, therefore, preventing illness? -What types of intervention and/or therapy would help the person during the “illness” (while they are smoking)? -What types of illnesses are related to certain types of behaviors?

__** History of Health Psychology **__ Health psychology first took its name in the 1970’s. It is the most recent addition to biomedicine and was founded in America in 1980. Matarazzo described health psychology in 1980 as, “the aggregate of the specific educational, scientific and professional contribution of the discipline of psychology to the promotion and maintenance of health, the promotion and treatment of illness and related dysfunction” (Ogden, 2000, p.4). The 1980’s and the 1990’s were a period of rapid growth for health psychology, where the demand for health psychologists increased. The field became a major component to clinical psychology and to behavioral medicine. The rapid growth of health psychology can be accredited to the awareness of the huge amounts of illness and mortality, the strengthening of the idea that “individuals are responsible for their own health,” and the disappointment with biomedical care during that time (Ogden, 2000). Health psychology has changed the outlook on preventable illnesses and is continually expanding.

__** Health Psychology Publications **__ Thomas McKeown wrote // The Role of Medicine // in 1979 which examined medicines impact on health. He examined medicines effects on illnesses and he also looked at the role of behavior on illnesses. His argument was that “it is on modification of personal habits such as smoking and sedentary living that health primarily depends on” (Ogden, 2000, p.13). He observed the main causes of death to be due to behaviors such as smoking and eating unhealthy. Jane Ogden, another health psychologist, published her book // Health Psychology A Textbook // in 1996. This book is an overview of the many aspects of health psychology. Ogden specifically focuses on eating behavior, exercise, sex, alcohol, and smoking. Under each topic she talks about what it is, who is most likely to engage in the activity, what causes someone to engage in those activities, and ways to treat the behavior (Ogden, 2000). // Health Psychology Theory, Research, and Practice // is another health psychology book that was written by David Marks, Michael Murray, Brian Evans, and Carla Willig. This book, like Ogden’s, breaks down into parts about each behavior such as smoking and exercising. It also talks about health promotion and disease prevention. All of these publications support health psychology through the research that has be done to prove that many deaths could be prevented if people did not engage in certain behaviors.

References

Marks, D., Murray, M., Evans, B., & Willig C. (2000). // Health psychology theory, research and practice //. London: Sage Publications Ltd.

Ogden, J. (2000). // Health psychology //. Buckingham, PA: Open University Press.