Health PSYCHOLOGY

Second Edition

Chapter 1
Introducing Health
Psychology
Slides prepared by
Richard O. Straub, University of Michigan, Dearborn
 Health and Illness
 What Is Health?
 A state of complete physical, mental, and
social well-being
 Physical health
 Psychological health
 Social health
 Health and Illness:
Lessons from the Past
 Ancient Views
 Prehistoric Medicine
 Illness caused by evil spirits
 Trephination
 Demons and punishment by the gods cause illness
 Health and Illness:
Lessons from the Past
 Hippocrates (c. 460 – c. 377 B.C.)
 Rejected ancient focus on mysticism &
superstition
 “Father” of western medicine

 Humoral theory
 Wellness: equilibrium among four bodily fluids
 Claudius Galen (A.D. c. 129 – c. 200)
 Developed widely used system of pharmacology
 Roots of Non-Western Medicine
 Traditional Oriental Medicine
 Founded on principle of internal harmony
 Qi — vital energy or life force

 Acupuncture, herbal therapy, meditation

 Ayurveda (longevity-knowledge)
 Oldest known medical system

 Health is a balance of bodily humors (doshas)

 Health and Illness:
Lessons from the Past
 The Middle Ages and the Renaissance
 Epidemic — disease that spreads rapidly
within a community
 Plague — bacterial disease carried by
rodents that occurred during the Middle Ages
 Health and Illness:
Lessons from the Past
 The Renaissance
 Reemergence of scientific
inquiry and medical study
 Mind–body dualism —
philosophical viewpoint that
mind and body are separate
entities that do not interact
 Health and Illness:
Lessons from the Past
 Post-Renaissance Rationality
 Focus shifts from mysticism to the biological
causes of disease
 Anatomical theory of disease — theory that
the origins of diseases lie in the internal
organs, musculature, and skeletal system of
the body
 Health and Illness:
Lessons from the Past
 Discoveries of the Nineteenth Century
 Cellular theory — theory that disease results
from abnormalities in body cells
 Germ theory —
theory that disease
is caused by
microorganisms
 Health and Illness:
Lessons from the Past
 The Twentieth Century and the Dawn
of a New Era
 Biomedical model — the idea that illness always has a
physical cause
 Dominant view of twentieth-century medicine
 Embraces reductionism (complex phenomena derive
ultimately from a single primary factor)
 Based on the Cartesian doctrine of mind–body dualism
 Health viewed as simply the absence of disease
 Pathogen — a virus, bacterium, or some other
microorganism that causes a particular disease
 Health and Illness:
Lessons from the Past
 The Twentieth Century and the Dawn
of a New Era
 Psychosomatic Medicine — outdated branch of
medicine focused on the diagnosis and treatment of
physical diseases caused by faulty mental processes
 Started trend toward modern view of illness and health
as multifactorial
 Interaction of host factors, environmental factors,
behavioral factors, psychological factors
 Health and Illness:
Lessons from the Past
 The Twentieth Century and the Dawn of a
New Era
 Behavioral medicine — interdisciplinary field

that integrates behavioral and biomedical

science in promoting health and treating
disease
 Biofeedback
 Health and Illness:
Lessons from the Past
 The Emergence of Health Psychology
 1978: APA establishes the division of health
psychology (Division 38) and lays down four
goals for the new field
 To scientifically investigate the psychological,
behavioral, and social etiology of disease
 To promote health
 To prevent and treat illness
 To promote public health policy and the improvement
of the health care system
The Biopsychosocial Model
 Biopsychosocial Perspective
 The Biological Context
 Every thought, mood, and urge is a biological
event
 Evolutionary Perspective
 Adaptation and reproductive success
 Life-Course Perspective
 Age-related aspects of health and illness
 Biopsychosocial Perspective
 The Psychological Context
 Coping with stressful experiences
 Attitude and treatment effectiveness

 Psychological interventions
 Biopsychosocial Perspective
 The Social Context
 The ways we think
about, influence, and
relate to one another
and the environment
 Birth cohort — group
of people who,
because they were
born at about the same
time, experience
similar historical and
social conditions
 Biopsychosocial Perspective
 Sociocultural Perspective
 Theoretical perspective that focuses on how social and
cultural factors contribute to health and disease
 Culture — the enduring behaviors, values, and customs
that a group of people transmit from one generation to
the next
 Ethnic group — large group of people who tend to
have similar values and experiences because they share
certain characteristics
 Socioeconomic status (SES) — a measure of several
variables, including income, education, and occupation
 Biopsychosocial Perspective
 Gender Perspective
 Theoretical perspective
that focuses on gender-
specific health problems
and barriers to health care
 Under-representation of
women as participants in
medical research trials
Biopsychosocial “Systems”
 FAQs About Health Psychology
 What Do Health Psychologists Do?
 Teachers, research scientists, clinicians
 Positive psychology: new focus on optimal,
healthy human functioning
 Applied health psychologists: licensed
practitioners who focus on health-promoting
interventions
Where Do
Health
Psychologists
Work?
 FAQs About Health Psychology
 How Do I Become a Health Psychologist?
 General psychology training at the
undergraduate level
 Special training at the doctoral (Ph.D.) level
 Four- to six-year program
 65 Ph.D. programs in health psychology in the
United States
 Curriculum follows the biopsychosocial model