Introduction to Health Psychology

1. Introduction to Health
Psychology

2. Learning
Outcome
At the end of this lesson students will be able to:
• Define “What is Health Psychology”.
• Describe how views of health have changed.
• Illustrate how the biopsychosocial model
interact in producing health or diseases.
• Describe the role of Health Psychologists.
• Explain what is psychology’s involvement in
health.

3. Chapter
Outline
• Definition of Health Psychology
• The Need for Health Psychology
• The Rise of Biopsychosocial Model in Health
Psychology
• What is the Role of Health Psychologists

7. 1-What is Health Psychology

8. Definition of Health Psychology
Branch of psychology that
concerns individual
behaviors & lifestyles
affecting a person’s physical
health
1
Involves application of
psychological principles,
concepts, theories, &
models to physical health
areas e.g. quit smoking,
doing physical exercise,
managing stress
2
Helps identify conditions
that affect health, diagnose
& treat certain chronic
diseases, and modify
behavioral factors involved
in rehabilitation
3

9. Health Psychology
Studies psychological influences on people
• How they stay healthy
• Why they become ill
• How they respond when they get ill

11. Focus of Health Psychologists
Health promotion and maintenance
Prevention and treatment of illness
Etiology and correlates of health, illness, and dysfunction
• Etiology: Origins or causes of illness
Improvement of health care system and the formulation of
health policy

12. 2- The Needs for Health
Psychology

13. 4 factors that led the development of health psychology
1
• Changing pattern of illness
2
• Advances in technology and research
3
• Expanded health care services
4
• Increased medical acceptance.

14. A. The Rise, Decline, & Fall of Psychosomatic
Medicine
• Psychosomatic medicine is based on the premise that physical illness
has its root in psychological and emotional conflicts
• Specific illnesses are produced by people’s internal conflicts
• It holds that psychological factors such as unconscious conflicts can
be linked to specific diseases e.g. ulcers, arthritis

15. B. The Emergence of
Behavioral Medicine
• Development of behavioral medicine altered psychology’s role in
medicine by concentrating on behavioral rather than mental factors in
health and illness.
• Behavioral medicine is an interdisciplinary field that attempts to
integrate behavioral and biomedical knowledge & techniques and to
apply this knowledge to prevention, diagnosis, treatment, &
rehabilitation.

16. C- Biomedical Model
•Reduces illness to low-level processes
such as disordered cells and chemical
imbalances
•Fails to recognize social and
psychological processes as powerful
influences over bodily estates, it
assumes a mind-body dualism

17. D. Psychology in Medical Setting
• Before: Psychologists in medical schools were mostly limited to
teaching & consultation on traditional clinical topics
• Now: Psychologists are gaining acceptance by physician & privileges
for treating patients for health problems related to behavior
• Besides training and teaching they have become part of many
hospitals, as valued members of hospital staff

18. E. The Emergence of Health Psychology
• At about the same time behavioral medicine developed, behavioral
health also emerged
• Behavioral health emphasizes more on health-related behaviors and
maintaining health than behavioral medicine
• Health psychology developed within psychology, influenced by both
behavioral medicine and behavioral health

19. 3- The Rise of Biopsychosocial
Model in Health Psychology

20. Biopsycho
social
Model
(BPS)

21. • The biopsychosocial model maintains that health & illness are caused
by multiple factors.
• Maintains that the macrolevel and microlevel processes continually
interact to influence health and illness
• The model also allows a definition of health as the attainment of a
positive state.
• Definition of health as attainment of a positive state of wellness
compatible with WHO’s definition & also with the view proposed by
positive psychology.

22. BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL MODEL

23. • Diagnosis should always consider biological, psychological and social
factors in assessing an individual’s health or illness
• Recommendations for treatment must examine all three sets of
factors
• The relationship between the patient and the practitioner is
significant

24. Example
• Ana is an overweight girl
• Biology: genetic
• Psychology: Behaviour; eat fast-food, don’t exercise
• Social: Learn to eat fast-food from advertisements, at school friends
make fun of her

25. Biological Factors
• genetic
• hormones
• function and structure of physiology
• organs, nerves, bones, tissue, cells

26. Psychological Factors
• Cognition: mental activity. thinking, learning,
remembering, problem solving
• e.g.: past memory, emotion; subjective
feelings that affects thoughts such as
positive/negative emotions
• motivation: why people do what they do

27. Social Factors
• relationships with people: family, friends,
groups
• society: affects our health by promoting
certain values: TV, radio, internet messages
(gaya hidup sihat)
• community: neighbours exercising, parks to
exercise in, campus facilities, gyms, policies
on smoking, recycling, diet.

28. System Interplay

29. 4-What is the Role of Health
Psychologists

30. Health Psychologist Involvement in Health
• Perform a variety tasks
• Concentrate on behaviour and
lifestyle components in the
development of chronic diseases
• Attempt to help people in coping
with stress, pain, and chronic
diseases
• Research and examine the
interaction of biological,
psychological, and social factors
in producing health and
diseases.
• Develop worksite intervention.
Eg: improve employee’s health
habits

31. Health Psychology’s Position within
Psychology
• It is currently a well-established specialty field within psychology
• It has received recognition in the fields of health care also from other
psychological disciplines, doctors and health care providers

32. REFERENCES
• Taylor, S. E (2018) Health Psychology (10th ed.). NY: McGraw Hill
Education.
• Brannon, L., & Feist, J.,Updegraff, J.A. (2014). Health psychology: an
introduction to behavior and health (8th ed.). CA: Thomson
Wadsworth.
• Sarafino, E. P. (2006). Health psychology: biopsychosocial interactions
(5th ed.). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

33. Leen is a 40-year-old
Chinese woman
with a history of
type 2 diabetes,
hypertension, and
migraine headaches.
The patient was
diagnosed with type
2 diabetes 9 years
ago.
1- Enhancement Exercise

34. Biological
Psychological
Social

35. Discuss the clinical implications of the biopsychosocial
model?
2- Enhancement Exercise

36. THANK YOU