Key Concepts in Health Psychology | Date: 28 April 2011, 08:14
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Key Concepts in Health Psychology
By Dr Ian Albery, Dr. Marcus Munafo
* Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd
* Number Of Pages: 304
* Publication Date: 2008-02-06
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 1412919339
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9781412919333
Product Description:
Key Concepts in Health Psychology aims to provide the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the key issues, theories, models, and methods in contemporary health psychology. It allows the reader the opportunity to engage with a full range of approaches and methods in a very diverse field, and importantly to be able to appreciate the relationships between these.
P R E FA C E
Background
Health psychology is one of the fastest growing disciplines in psychology but remains in
its early years. Very few textbooks or journals, let alone societies devoted to the study of
health psychology, existed prior to the late 1970s to early 1980s. By the twenty-first
century, and our putting pen to paper for the production of this book, health psychology
had matured significantly into its adolescence. Psychological societies and associations
around the world have their own divisions or sections devoted to the discipline. For
instance, in the UK the British Psychological Society established the Division of Health
Psychology in 1997 from the Special Group in Health Psychology (see www.healthpsychology.
org.uk and www.bps.org.uk/dhp/dhp.home.cfm), and in the USA health psychology
is represented as Division 38 of the American Psychological Association (see www.
health-psych.org). There is also a burgeoning and active European Health Psychology
Society (see www.ehps.net/1024/index.html) with membership and representation
derived from across the whole of eastern and western Europe. Each of these societies have
the general aim to study psychological processes of health, illness and well being in order
to understand and implement the promotion and maintenance of health, to prevent illness
and augment outcomes for those affected by illness, as well as to provide evidence
that can be used to improve local and international healthcare systems and as such inform
healthcare policy.
Major international journals have also been established to report specifically research
related to the psychology of health (e.g. Health Psychology and Psychology and Health),
many international and national conferences are organized so that researchers from
around the world can converse about new and interesting findings and ideas, and it seems
virtually infeasible to think that these days there are many universities around the world
that do not offer courses or modules in health psychology.
From all this it would seem that academic health psychology is alive and kicking!
Health psychology as a profession
In parallel with the development of health psychology as an academic discipline providing
applied empirical evidence for understanding psychological processes in health, there have
also been significant moves in the maturity of health psychology as a profession. This has
resulted in the development of health psychology competencies and professional skills to
present the boundaries within which health psychologists should be expected to work and to
which they should adhere. These include research competencies (e.g. familiarity with various
research methods and research tools, and so on), teaching and training competencies (e.g.
designing and delivering training about factors involved in the psychology of health to various
consumer groups, and so on), consultancy (e.g. communication skills in the management
of clients, and so on), as well as more general professional competencies (e.g. understanding
and managing legal and ethical frameworks relevant to the professional environment).
An example of these competency requirements has been developed by the Division of
Health Psychology within the British Psychological Society (BPS) and can been viewed at
www.health-psychology.org.uk (see also Michie, 2004). Once a person has demonstrated
these competencies to a governing body they can be approved as a professional health
psychologist. In the UK achieving these competencies takes places via what is known as
Stage 1 and Stage 2 training. Stage 1 training involves the postgraduate study of the core
theories, models, methods and evidence in health psychology and as such provides core
knowledge. This stage can be undertaken by successfully completing a BPS approved postgraduate
qualification at a university. Stage 2 comprises supervised practice in which the
individual is expected to show evidence of the core competencies (e.g. through written
reports, assignments, supervisor’s reports, and so on). Once a person has completed Stage 1
and Stage 2 training they can apply to become a full member of the Division of Health
Psychology of the BPS and also a Chartered Health Psychologist.
But the story does not end there. Being an effective, competent, professional health psychologist,
or indeed any other professional, means that you have to keep abreast of new
information, new intervention techniques, contemporary legislation, and the like, in order
to maintain the highest standards of professional practice. This means that registered
health psychologists are expected to undertake and demonstrate what is called ‘continuing
professional development activities’.
So, I’m a chartered health psychologist but what kind of jobs can I do? Among many
other examples health psychologists work as part of a multidisciplinary team in clinical
and research practice. It is not uncommon to find a health psychologist in healthcare services
such as in medical departments. They work in health promotion departments providing
expert knowledge in the identification of core psychological factors that, for
instance, lead people to behave in unhealthy ways, as well as having an important input
into the design and evaluation of health promotion activities. You will also find them in
university departments training aspiring health psychologists and undertaking healthrelated
research which can be disseminated to the wider audience – just like us. Some
even write books! A number of specific examples of the types of jobs chartered health
psychologists undertake can be found at www.health-psychology.org.uk/menuItems/
what_ is_health_psychology.php.
Aims of the book
Concepts are mental tools that we use when we are thinking about a subject. Conceptual
thinking enables us to organize, catalogue, evaluate, interpret and explain the issue or
topic we are interested in. While current textbooks in health psychology offer the reader
some conceptual reasoning about different aspects of a discipline, there is no single source
which provides a detailed conceptual analysis of current issues and debates, and theories
and models, in health psychology. This book aims to provide the reader with a ‘one stop’,
comprehensive and conceptual analysis of key issues in contemporary health psychology.
This type of conceptual analysis also allows the learner to create meaningful relations
among many related facts and ideas, which is essential for a full and critically discerning
appreciation of an area of study.
In addition, health psychology concerns evidence and concepts drawn from a multitude
of perspectives including those based on biological systems, cognitive or thinking systems,
emotional systems and social systems. As such this book aims to offer the reader the
opportunity to engage with a full range of approaches and methods in contemporary
health psychology, and importantly, to be able to appreciate the relationships between
each. We are trying to build ‘a contemporary picture’ of health psychology comprising
many different interacting themes and concepts. Only when a person is able to appreciate
the discipline in this way are they able to view the discipline of health psychology in
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