What is Health Psychology?

Health psychologists have found that not only behavior has an impact on disease, but also attitudes and social factors. These factors combined to form the biopsychosocial model which guides the work of many health psychologists today.

There are five major aspects to health psychology, in which each contribute to the overall existence of health psychology. Health psychology contributes to our understanding of health and illness through patients' adjustment to serious illnesses, their health beliefs, which influences their behavior, their mind and body connection, and finally the psychosocial factors that can reinforce healthy behaviors and prevent negative ones.

 

 Mind and Body Connection

Physical disorders can affect psychological states. Pain associated with physical disorders may cause sleep disturbances and alter one's usual routines and ways of coping, producing distortions in thinking and appraisal of problems. It can also reduce one's confidence in managing problems. Health psychologists stress the importance of identifying and treating psychological distress in patients with physical diseases, therefore paying more attention to the connection between the mind and body.

           Psychological Adjustment

Health psychologists want to know how peoples' lives change following the diagnosis of terminal illness or injury. They have found that illnesses and other negative life events often make people feel badly about themselves. One third of hospitalized medical patients with chronic medical conditions also suffer from psychological disorders such as depression or anxiety.. Health psychologists stress the importance of identifying and treating psychological disorders in patients with chronic diseases.

          Preventing Disease

Health psychologists promote health and they hope that it will prevent disease. Many chronic disorders, such as heart disease, lung disease, cancer, and complications from substance abuse, have continued to rise in the second half of the twentieth century, even with all the new technology. Health psychologists have found that many of these chronic illnesses could have been prevented through modifications in behavior. 

For example, approximately 25% of all cancer deaths and 350,000 heart attack deaths could be avoided annually through the cessation of smoking alone. Health psychologists want to find out why people still smoke when they know it causes cancer.

         Optimism

Health psychologists have found that an optimistic attitude and behavior are linked to better reports of physical health and faster recovery from illnesses. Studies show that usually people with an optimistic attitude return to normal recreational, social, and sexual activities within six months after diagnosis and treatment of a serious illness. Health psychologists have found new evidence showing that optimism assists people in remembering information about their own health risk behaviors; this in turn helps them over time to avoid behaviors that threaten their health.

        Social Support

Health psychologists have extensively studied the association between social support and mental and physical health and found that it is extremely beneficial in highly stressful situations. There are different forms of social support. One type is practical support, which includes rides to the doctor's office or help around the house. The next type is emotional support, which consists of reassurance, trust, and dependence. The final form of social support is appraisal support, such as help in figuring out what is happening and how to cope with it. Health psychologists have found that family relationships play an important role for the patients' adaptation to the serious illness. The family seems to be the vital source in the overall adjustment. If support is nonexistent for the patient then they may respond negatively to their illness and keep their problems hidden, which causes more stress for themselves. If a patient does not have a family, then there are many different support programs that patients can get involved in. These programs focus on various activities like education, emotional support, and social activism.