Health Psychology
Health Psychology
Health psychology is a specialty area that focuses on how biological, psychological, behavioral, and social factors influence health and illness.
Recent advances in psychological, medical, and physiological research have led to a new way of thinking about health and illness. This conceptualization, which has been labeled the biopsychosocial model, views health and illness as the product of a combination of factors including biological characteristics (e.g. genetic predisposition), behavioral factors (e.g. lifestyle, stress, health beliefs), and social conditions (e.g. cultural influences, family relationships, social support).
While health psychologists engage in a wide variety of activities, the following are just a few of the areas they address and treat:
Stress reduction
Weight management
Smoking cessation
Improving daily nutrition
Adjustment to chronic Illness
Pain management
Grief counseling for terminal patients