Health psychology

What is health psychology? What does a health psychologist do? These are important questions that need to be answered to explain the importance of health psychology in a person’s life. Health psychology has been growing rapidly and will continue to grow. The growth of health psychology is occurring because people are learning to utilize the internet and resources made available to them to help them advocate for themselves instead of relying on doctors. When reading, An Overview of Health Psychology at psychcentral.com, I came across a simplistic description of what health psychology is and what a health psychologist does. The basic explanation given in the article and website describes health psychology as a combination of medicine and psychology. The whole idea behind it is that by taking the knowledge of mind and body, an understanding is used to help individuals manage pain and help them learn to cope with their pain. Health psychology is also used to help someone…

Mental Health A person is considered to be mentally healthy if he is emotionally, psychologically and socially fit. According to Wakefield (2005), the only way to fully understand the concepts of function, dysfunction, and disorder is through natural selection. It is through national selection that people are now able to understand how species change over time (SparkNotes, 2015). However, one perspective brought about by evolution is mental disorder. Evolutionary psychology explains why there…

Question 1 A.) & B.) Health Psychology has to be the most interesting topic from the many divisions of the APA. Conducting research based on the psychological behaviors of people is being related to ones health. The key that most interests me is how they are conducting research on unhealthy behaviors. They relate to psychology in many ways. Unhealthy behaviors can lead to many bad choice you make such as: drugs, un-protective sex, alcohol, smoking, stress, diet, obesity, and etc. I can see…

The primary objective of the health psychology plan is to study the inter-individual differences in health and illness and their determinants. It is a new perspective, both multifactorial and integrative, characterized by the importance it attaches to transactions between the individual and the environment. In this research paper the objective of this Health psychology plan is much more particular it is up to me to address the very delicate subject. The management of a subject who presents…

Clinical health psychology is an area of health psychology that focuses on treating individuals. Professionals pursuing clinical health psychology careers often focus on how an individual's lifestyle and behavior might affect his overall health. Clinical health psychologists will also usually work with individuals to help change bad habits or overcome lifestyle problems that may be affecting their physical health. (Becoming a, n.d.) Similarities and Differences Similarities in the training and…

Defining health psychology What is health psychology? What are the reasons to study health psychology? “Health psychology is the application of psychological principles and research to the enhancement of health and the prevention and treatment of illness” (Straub, 2014, p. 3). Health psychology involves your social well-being, psychological well-being, and your physical well-being. All of these important factors contribute to our overall state of health. Behavior, cultural factors, and…

International Health Psychology In an ideal world, everyone would think and treat health the same but this is not the case. Worldviews on health care varies from culture to culture in their perspective on topics like preventative medicine to treatment, traditional and progressive views, and scientific and spiritual approach. Some North Americans take for granted that healthcare, water, and food is readily accessible, while these basic needs are not available for others. It is important to…

In this essay I contrast and compare community psychology and public health approaches to social problems. I accomplish this by introducing the concepts of community psychology and public health with regards to their historical discourses and development and I contrast and compare the approaches of these concepts in terms of different models associated with them such as; mental health and social action models from community psychology, biomedical and psycho-socio-ecological models from public…

Like every child, I went through the ubiquitous “why” stage where I posed this question even to the smallest, most mundane events of life. Filled with genuine curiosity and fascination, I desired to understand the ornate workings of the world. Unlike the majority of children, however, I did not lose this fervor and drive to find answers. This inquisitiveness laid the foundation for my interest in research work. Growing up, my family placed a tremendous emphasis on health, fitness, and…

During Dr. Saltisky’s lecture on health psychology, one of the main issues he emphasized was how we don’t exercise as much as we should. He stated how we spend more money on treatment than actual prevention, and how as much as treatment is essential everything begins with prevention. For this reason, is why Dr. Sltisky encourages doctors to mention exercising in every appointment. The goal is to get people to exercise more and prevent them from being diagnosed with a cardiovascular disease. In…