Textbook
Chapter 1: what is health psychology?
Health psyc is devoted to understanding psychological influences on how people stay
healthy, why they become ill and how they respond when they do get ill
Health: a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being
Etiology: origins or causes of illness
Recap: health psychology represents:
1. The educational, scientific, and professional contributions of psychology to the
promotion and maintenance of health
2. The prevention and treatment of illness
3. The identification of the causes and correlates of health and illness
4. The improvement of the healthcare system and the formation of health policy
Mind body relationship
● Used to be one unit
● Greeks developed human theory of illness
● Middles ages: medical practice was linked to religion
● Descartes: mind body dualism perspective, shift to reductionist views of the
body that focus on organic and cellular changes
See figure 1.1 on page 5
Psychosomatic medicine: bodily disorders due to emotional conflicts
Behavioural medicine: address need of dealing with health and illness, demonstrate
connections between body and mind
Biopsychosocial model of health
Idea that the mind and body together determine health and illness logically,
Biomedical model: thinking of most health practitioners maintains that all illness can be
explained on the basis of aberrant somatic processes (like biochemical imbalances),
reductionist model, single-factor model of illness, assumes body mind dualism, emphasis
illness over health
Biopsychosocial: macro level as well as microlevel, multiple causal factors considered, mind
and body inseparable, emphasizes both health and illness
Why is the field of health psychology needed?
Chronic illnesses are the main contributors to disability and death, especially
industrialized countries (heart disease, cancer)
Epidemiology: study the frequency, distribution, and causes of infectious and noninfectious
diseases in a population, based on an investigation of the physical and social environment
Chapter 1: what is health psychology?
Health psyc is devoted to understanding psychological influences on how people stay
healthy, why they become ill and how they respond when they do get ill
Health: a complete state of physical, mental and social well-being
Etiology: origins or causes of illness
Recap: health psychology represents:
1. The educational, scientific, and professional contributions of psychology to the
promotion and maintenance of health
2. The prevention and treatment of illness
3. The identification of the causes and correlates of health and illness
4. The improvement of the healthcare system and the formation of health policy
Mind body relationship
● Used to be one unit
● Greeks developed human theory of illness
● Middles ages: medical practice was linked to religion
● Descartes: mind body dualism perspective, shift to reductionist views of the
body that focus on organic and cellular changes
See figure 1.1 on page 5
Psychosomatic medicine: bodily disorders due to emotional conflicts
Behavioural medicine: address need of dealing with health and illness, demonstrate
connections between body and mind
Biopsychosocial model of health
Idea that the mind and body together determine health and illness logically,
Biomedical model: thinking of most health practitioners maintains that all illness can be
explained on the basis of aberrant somatic processes (like biochemical imbalances),
reductionist model, single-factor model of illness, assumes body mind dualism, emphasis
illness over health
Biopsychosocial: macro level as well as microlevel, multiple causal factors considered, mind
and body inseparable, emphasizes both health and illness
Why is the field of health psychology needed?
Chronic illnesses are the main contributors to disability and death, especially
industrialized countries (heart disease, cancer)
Epidemiology: study the frequency, distribution, and causes of infectious and noninfectious
diseases in a population, based on an investigation of the physical and social environment
