Health Psychology (ePub)

Health psychology is the study of psychological and behavioral processes in health, illness, and healthcare. It is concerned with understanding how psychological, behavioral, and cultural factors contribute to physical health and illness. Psychological factors can affect health directly. Health Psychology is concerned with understanding how biology, behavior, and social context influence health and illness. Health psychologists work alongside other medical professionals in clinical settings, work on behaviour change in public health promotion, teach at universities, and conduct research. For example, chronically occurring environmental stressors affecting the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, cumulatively, can harm health. Health psychology also concerns itself with bettering the lives of individuals with terminal illness. When there is little hope of recovery, health psychologist therapists can improve the quality of life of the patient by helping the patient recover at least some of his or her psychological well-being. Health psychologists are also concerned with providing therapeutic services for the bereaved. The theoretical and conceptual input of the book in the health areas will prove quite beneficial for students and researchers whereas the ideas and research questions raised in the book will surely provoke the scientists for fulfilling heuristic function.