Health Psychology

• Scientific study of psychological processes involved in illness, health and healthcare
  
• Aim to promote or maintain good health, improve healthcare delivery 
• Use psychology to understand health and illness

• Medicine and psychology work together
  
• Health psychologists are holistic
• Considers biological, social, psychological, environmental and cultural factors determine health and illness
• Devise strategies to prevent poor health

• Biomedical model of health and illness
  
• Illness caused by organisms in the body eg. virus
• Treatment should be physiologically based as cause is exernal - not in individuals control
• Mind and body are separate entities - illness is not caused by psychological factors

• Mental and physical illnesses are present and negatively affect eachother
  
• A psychiatric problem occurs as a consequence of a physical illness
• A psychiatric problem is presented as a physical problem
• Somatoform disorders - physical problems or illnesses that only have a psychological cause, eg. body dysmorphic disorder

• Stress
  
• Cancer
• Addiction
• Diabetes
• Chronic illness
• Pain
• End of life care
• Lifestyle factors
• Behaviour change
• Illness cognitions

• Person-environment fit - Lazarus and Launier 1978
  
• Different types of stressors include psychogenic, neurogenic and systemic
• Models include: Cannon fight or flight, Selye General Adaptation syndrome, Holmes and Rahe life events and Lazarus transactional

Severity influenced by

• Controllability
• Predictability
• Ambiguity
• Volatility

Coping with stress

• Problem focused
  
• Emotion focused
• Avoidant focused

• 17th Century: Moral addiction - addiction is a moral choice to be punished
  
• 19th Century: Disease concept - addiction is due to the substance being dangerous
• 20th Century: 2nd Disease concept - addiction is an illness
• 1970s: Social learning theory - addiction is learned behaviour

Health Psychologists interested in

• Initiation - how and why does it begin
  
• Maintenance - how and why is it maintained
• Cessation - how can we change unhealthy behaviour
• Relapse - why do people go back to unhealthy behaviour

• serious physical illness lasting more than 3 months with no known cure
  
• Affects quality of life
• Resilience can facilitate effective coping 
• Stigma 
• Management of illness focused on

• Burden of informal care
  
• Palliative care issues - commmunication, planning, fulfilling wishes
• Physician assisted death
• Grieving