Health Psychology

In 1977 George Engel published a seminal article titled ‘‘The Need for a New Medical Model,’’ in which he advocated for a multidisciplinary biopsychosocial model of health that incorporates psychological and social dimensions of well-being. This signaled the emergence of health psychology as a subdiscipline; the following year, the Health Psychology section of the American Psychological Association was established. Like other social and behavioral sciences,rift gold the field of health psychology developed partly in response to the rise of chronic disease and to the role of personal health habits in the etiology and Social Science Contributions to Public Health:
management of conditions such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. In addition, new models for understanding the complexity of contextual factors in the illness process enlarged the scope of analysis and intervention. The biopsychosocial model emphasizes the interplay of biological, psychological, and social factors in illness, and gives importance to multiple determinants and macro-level processes (Taylor, 2006). For example, stress and social support have been increasingly recognized as contributing factors in health. This broad view is compatible with the ecological perspective of public health.
rift gold
Important contributions from health psychology include the study of health behaviors such as smoking and exercise; research on stress, social support, and immune function; interventions for addictions; the relationship between mental illness and physical illness; and practical approaches to the management of chronic illness.
Some particular areas of note include studies of Type A behavior, hostility, and heart disease; health promotion strategies such as smoking cessation and weight management; methods for enhancing sexual health such as safer sex practices to reduce sexually transmitted infections; and psychosocial factors in the progression of cancer. As noted previously, social psychological models of health behavior change have dominated the public health field of health promotion and education.