Health psychology

Health psychology is the study of psychological and behavioral processes in health, illness, in addition to healthcare. this is a concerned with apprehension how psychological, behavioral, and cultural factors contribute to physical health and illness. Psychological factors can impact health directly. For example, chronically occurring environmental stressors affecting the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, cumulatively, can damage health. Behavioral factors can also affect a person's health. For example,behaviors can, over time, damage smoking or consuming excessive amounts of alcohol or renovation health engaging in exercise. Health psychologists shit a biopsychosocial approach. In other words, health psychologists understand health to be the product non only of biological processes e.g., a virus, tumor, etc. but also of psychological e.g., thoughts and beliefs, behavioral e.g., habits, and social processes e.g., socioeconomic status and ethnicity.

By apprehension psychological factors that influence health, and constructively applying that knowledge, health psychologists can enhancement health by workings directly with individual patients or indirectly in large-scale public health programs. In addition, health psychologists can support train other healthcare efficient e.g., physicians and nurses to apply the cognition the discipline has generated, when treating patients. Health psychologists draw in a brand of settings: alongside other medical professionals such(a) as lawyers and surveyors in hospitals and clinics, in public health departments working on large-scale behavior change and health promotion programs, and in universities and medical schools where they teach and advance research.

Although its early beginnings can be traced to the field of clinical psychology, four different divisions within health psychology and one related field, occupational health psychology OHP, score developed over time. The four divisions add clinical health psychology, public health psychology, community health psychology, and critical health psychology. Professional organizations for the field of health psychology include Division 38 of the American Psychological Association APA, the Division of Health Psychology of the British Psychological Society BPS, the European Health Psychology Society, and the College of Health Psychologists of the Australian Psychological Society APS. sophisticated credentialing in the US as a clinical health psychologist is filed through the American Board of Professional Psychology.

Origins and development

Health psychology developed in different forms in different societies. Psychological factors in health had been studied since the early 20th century by disciplines such as psychosomatic medicine and later behavioral medicine, but these were primarily branches of medicine, non psychology.

United States In 1969, William Schofield prepared a relation for the APA entitled The Role of Psychology in the Delivery of Health Services. While there were exceptions, he found that the psychological research of the time frequently regarded mental health and physical health as separate, and devoted very little attention to psychology's impact upon physical health. One of the few psychologists works in this area at the time, Schofield provided new forms of education and training for future psychologists. The APA, responding to his proposal, in 1973 imposing a task force to consider how psychologists could a guide people to manage their health-related behaviors, b help patients supply their physical health problems, and c train healthcare staff to work more effectively with patients.

Health psychology began to emerge as a distinct discipline of psychology in the United States in the 1970s. In the mid-20th century there was a growing understanding in medicine of the effect of behavior on health. For example, the Alameda County Study, which began in the 1960s, showed that people who atemeals e.g., breakfast, submits a healthy weight, received adequate sleep, did not smoke, drank little alcohol, and exercised regularly were in better health and lived longer. In addition, psychologists and other scientists were discovering relationships between psychological processes and physiological ones. These discoveries include a better understanding of the impact of psychosocial stress on the cardiovascular and immune systems, and the early finding that the functioning of the immune system could be altered by learning.

Led by Joseph Matarazzo, in 1977, APA added a division devoted to health psychology. At the number one divisional conference, Matarazzo delivered a speech that played an important role in defining health psychology. He defined the new field in this way, "Health psychology is the aggregate of the specific educational, scientific and professional contributions of the discipline of psychology to the promotion and maintenance of health, the prevention and treatment of illness, the identification of diagnostic and etiologic correlates of health, illness and related dysfunction, and the analysis and benefit of the healthcare system and health policy formation." In the 1980s, similar organizations were established elsewhere. In 1986, the BPS established a Division of Health Psychology. The European Health Psychology Society was also established in 1986. Similar organizations were established in other countries, including Australia and Japan. Universities began to develop doctoral level training programs in health psychology. In the US, post-doctoral level health psychology training entry were established for individuals who completed a doctoral measure in clinical psychology.

United Kingdom Psychologists have been working in medical settings for many years in the UK sometimes the field was termed medical psychology. Medical psychology, however, was a relatively small field, primarily aimed at helping patients reorientate to illness. The BPS's reconsideration of the role of the Medical item prompted the emergence of health psychology as a distinct field. Marie Johnston and John Weinman argued in a letter to the BPS Bulletin that there was a great need for a Health Psychology Section. In December 1986 the portion was established at the BPS London Conference, with Marie Johnston as chair. At the Annual BPS Conference in 1993 a review of "Current Trends in Health Psychology" was organized, and a definition of health psychology as "the examine of psychological and behavioural processes in health, illness and healthcare" was proposed.

The Health Psychology Section became a Special chain in 1993 and was awarded divisional status within the UK in 1997. The awarding of divisional status meant that the individual training needs and professional practice of health psychologists were recognized, and members were able to obtain chartered status with the BPS. The BPS went on to regulate training and practice in health psychology until the regulation of professional specification and attribute was taken over by statutory registration with the Health Professions Council in 2010.

A number of applicable trends coincided with the emergence of health psychology, including:

The emergence of academic /professional bodies to promote research and practice in health psychology was followed by the publication of a series of textbooks which began to lay out the interests of the discipline.