Health psychology examines the interrelationship between biology, social factors, and behavior to improve overall health. Health psychologists address the whole person, rather than a health condition, and work in research, clinical practice, teaching, and public policy development. The mind-body approach focuses on the overall health of each individual.
Health psychology, also called behavioral medicine or medical psychology, is a branch of study that examines the interrelationship between biology, social factors, and behavior. While the doctor treats an illness, a practicing health psychologist would like to know more about the person with the illness. They may want to understand their educational or socioeconomic background, behaviors that could influence the disease such as medication compliance, and biological reasons for the disease. By analyzing disease in the context of so-called biopsychosocial factors, health psychology aims to help improve overall health.
A health psychologist is first and foremost a psychologist, usually with a PhD in psychology. There are now numerous schools offering health psychology majors, and even graduate programs may offer a class or two on the subject. What health psychology posits is that treating disease or preventing it must look at the big picture of a person’s behaviors, thoughts, and social standing.
Health psychology could be best explained with the concept of smoking addiction. A person addicted to nicotine is physically dependent and will experience withdrawal symptoms if they stop smoking. This is only one aspect of smoking addiction.
The smoker is also psychologically addicted to smoking. The smoker gets rewards, however temporary, from every cigarette. It can offer a moment to relax, give the person a chance to cool off, or help suppress the appetite. The smoker may also be behaviorally addicted to smoking, especially if he has smoked for a long time, which means that he has accumulated some smoking habits, such as smoking after dinner or smoking in the car. Finally, how the person relates culturally to smoking is important. Studies in sociology, for example, show greater acceptance of smoking among people with less education and lower socioeconomic status.
To the health psychologist, all of these factors need to be addressed if a person is to quit smoking. You have to deal with physical dependence, psychological dependence, long-standing behaviors and the person’s view of smoking. Trying to get the person to quit smoking by addressing just one of these things is likely to be unsuccessful. A smoker can use a nicotine patch to help deal with physical dependence, but if their overall feeling about smoking is that it’s not a bad thing to do, their success rate will be minimal. Furthermore, if smoking-focused behaviors are not changed or alternative rewards for smoking cessation are not provided, smoking cessation is unlikely to be successful.
In this way, health psychology addresses the whole person, rather than a health condition. The health condition is always symptomatic of the whole person, rather than an isolated event. Health has as much to do with being social and emotional as it does with illness.
Health psychology has numerous applications. Health psychologists might work in a research setting, finding ways to better address the social and psychological factors of illness. You may notice how to quit smoking brochures that emphasize not only quitting smoking, but also give tips on how to be successful that include behavior modification.
Health psychology research can also examine how doctors and patients interact and how likely a patient is to follow a doctor’s advice or even understand what the doctor had to say. They can also study ways healthy behavior patterns can be taught to different groups of people. For example, how you address teenagers on the issue of sex education will likely have an effect on their understanding of sex, birth control, abstinence and disease prevention, and their sexual behavior.
Health psychology has broad applications in clinical practice. Health psychologists work alongside other members of the medical and mental health fields in hospital settings, drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, and in medical centers dedicated to the treatment of certain diseases such as cancer. It is common to hear the term “mind/body” approach. This is the expertise of the health psychologist, who realizes that the mind definitely affects the body.
In research, clinical practice, teaching, and even public policy development, health psychologists are assets. With the mind-body approach, health psychology focuses on the overall health of each individual. The hope, as with health ecology, is that greater understanding of the whole person will lead to better health and encourage healthy mind/body behavior.
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