Health Psychology is a specialization of Psychology that focuses on the interaction of mind and body as it affects physical and psychological well being. In other words, health psychology looks at how a person's emotions, thoughts, behaviors, and social interactions influence his or her physical well being, and also examines how illness impacts on a person's emotional and psychological well being and behaviors. It is a relatively new subfield of Psychology dating back to the late 1970's that is continuing to grow as researchers uncover the subtle and complex relationships between the Mind and Body.

The areas of concern to health psychologists are wide ranging and diverse and cover both preventive and therapeutic applications of psychological principles to improve the individual's health and well being.

Health Psychology generally covers four broad areas (Matarazzo, 1980):
 

1. Health promotion and maintenance: e.g. examining people's health behaviors and habits - smoking, diet, seat belt use, etc.
2. Prevention and treatment of illness: stress management, changing health habits to prevent illness, illness coping and rehabilitation.
3. Role of psychological and social factors in the development of illness: role of stress in disease onset, impact of social support, psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), personality correlates of illness and health.
4. Health care policy formulation and the health care system:  how people interact with health care professionals and institutions, and the impact of these relationships on the individual's health, e.g. compliance, recovery time, etc.

 

Some of the current research interest areas in health psychology are the impact of cultural factors on health behaviors, the impact of stress on immunity and mood, the relationship between childhood abuse and health, the placebo effect, and why people use alternative medicine. Click here to view the health-related psychology research at Carleton University.

For more information on the practice of Health Psychology please read the APA article "What a Health Psychologist does and How to Become one"  for an excellent outline of career and training information for those interested in practising Health Psychology.

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is an important new area of Health Psychology that looks at how psychology affects nervous system functioning, and how this in turn affects immunity to disease. It is interdisciplinary in nature and brings together knowledge and research in neuroscience, immunology, and social psychology (Poole, Matheson, & Cox, 2000).

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References

Matarazzo, J. D.  (1980). Behavioral health and behavioral medicine:  Frontiers for a new health psychology. American Psychologist, 35, 807-818.

Poole, G., Matheson, D., Cox D. (2000) The Psychology of Health and Health Care:  A Canadian Perspective, Prentice Hall:  Toronto, p. 75.