Understand psychological
approaches to health and social
care
Understand psychological approaches
to health and social care
Learning Outcome
- The learner will:
Assessment Criteria
Pass -
Merit – in addition
to the pass criteria
the learner can:
Distinction –
In addition to the
pass and merit
criteria the
learner can:
M1
Explain how
practitioners could
apply psychological
approaches to
health and social
care practice
D2
Evaluate the
usefulness of
psychological
approaches to
health and social
care practice
The learner can:
Understand
psychological
approaches to
health and
social care
P2
Explain different
psychological
approaches to
health practice
P3
Explain different
psychological
approaches to social
care practice
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Care settings that could use
psychological perspectives in care
Hospitals
Counsellors
Health clinics
Nursing homes
Day centres
Resource centres for disabled people
Nurseries
Clients own homes
Residential settings
Schools
Foster care
Occupational therapy
Biological
• Genetic predisposition to illness
• Effects of stress and ways of managing stress
• Developmental norms
Behaviouralist
• Behaviour shaping
• Ways of dealing with challenging behaviour
Social learning
• Promoting anti – discriminatory behaviour
• Positive role models in health education
Cognitive
• Supporting those with learning difficulties
• Cognitive behaviour therapy
Psychodynamic
• Therapeutic interventions to deal with anxiety
• Therapeutic interventions to deal with anxiety,
relationships difficulties and emotional
problems
Humanistic
• Recognising individual needs
• Person centred approach
• Empathy, understanding and a non
judgemental approach
Example one
• Enid is living in a care home. She is cared for be
empathetic staff who take time to meet her needs.
Sally is her main carer. She remembers to call Enid by
her preferred name and encourages Enid to try new
things. For example Enid had never learnt to knit so
Sally taught her – it was a great accomplishment to
Enid especially when Enid was given a certificate once
she had knitted her first item! Enid enjoys the fact that
she can get up when she wants to and can dress in her
choice of clothes. She has a chance to go to church on
a Sunday. If Enid feels sad Sally will listen to her and
try to give emotional support.
• humanistic
Example 2
• Jim and John go to Little Jumping Beans. Every day if
they remember to say please and thank you they get a
sticker on the wall. At the end of the week they can
have a choice of a toy to play with. John has coloured
a lovely picture and his nursery worker encourages him
to talk about it and she says “well done” several times.
Sian is also in their class. She shouts at Jim and hits
him. The nursery worker takes her to the side and tells
her that she will not be allowed to go outside to play.
Sian is told that her Mum will be told about her poor
behaviour. Sian doesn’t really listen and swears at Jim
for getting her into trouble. She is put on the “naughty
chair” for 4 minutes and ignored.
• Skinner behavioural
Example 3
• Terry is going to the doctors to have an injection.
He is terrified. When he was very young he
remembers the nurse missing the vein and having
to have “another go”. This hurt and the nurse was
dismissive of Terry and his feelings. Terry has a
phobia of needles. The doctor encourages Terry
and talks through what he is going to do. He
encourages Terry to ask questions and talks about
his past experiences before he gives Terry the
injection.
• pschodynamic
Example 4
• Tamsin is 2. She is a happy child and likes to
play with her toys. Her parents are worried
because she has not started to speak yet. The
Health visitor suggests some tests – some
done by the doctor and some by the speech
therapist
• Gesell – biological developmental norms
Example 5
• Pat and Sally are eight and six. They have a mixed
family life. They each have different fathers who are
involved with them. They like to watch TV
programmes and spend a lot of time playing video
games that are designed for teenagers. Sally has
heard her Dad using swear words. She goes to
school and tells her teacher to “f… off” She doesn’t
know why the teacher is angry at her. The teacher
knows that she will have to make sure Sally doesn’t
hear swear words at school and learns the socially
acceptable way to speak to others.
• Bandura – social learning
Example 6
• Jamie is 3 and just started play group. Sara is worried as she is
having problems with him at home – he never seems to sit
still! Loran is the play group manager who decides to observe
Jamie. She looks at how long he spends sitting down. She
observes him for periods of 15 minutes every day at the same
time. She writes notes about what he is doing when he is
sitting down, and not sitting down and how people respond to
him. She will use this as a “baseline”. Loran sees that Jamie
never runs about if he is working with an adult and he seems
to like the attention when he does run away – an adult always
runs after him. She decide to give Jamie praise when he sits
down, calmly collect him when he runs off and encourage him
to work in a very small group when doing activities.
• Behaviour - Skinner
Example 7
• John is 23 and single. He lives at home with his parents. He
finds socialising difficult. HE is going out with Sian. However,
he thinks she will dump him as he can’t believe she will
continue to like him. John gets very anxious in crowded
places – buses and trains are a big problem and he has had a
panic attack the last time he was on a train because he
thought every body was looking at him because he was weird.
• Hakeem is John’s counsellor. He asks him questions about
being on a bus or train. He asks John to do a “task” – this
involves noticing how many people on the train or bus were
not looking at him. Hakeem reviews this in the next session.
• Cognitive behaviour therapy
Example 8
• Javier is very clingy to his mother when he comes to school. He refuses to let
go of his mother’s hand, even though he has been rewarded when he does
go into school. The teachers think he is afraid of something at school. The
educational psychologist talks to Javier and asks him about his dreams. He
tells her that he has one where he is in a shop, crying because he can’t find
his mummy. At the next meeting the psychologist asks him to draw a picture
of his family in different situations. The psychologist begins to think that
Javier may be anxious about leaving his mummy in case she disappears. He
talks to Javier’s mother. His mother tells him of a time that she had to go
into hospital when Javier was very small. Javier’s mother remembers him
being very upset. The psychologist thinks that Javier has repressed this
memory and is fearful about his mother disappearing again. He begins to
work on this.
Example 9
• psychodynamic
Example 9
• Isobella works for Crossroads and cares for Mrs
Bittam at her home. Mrs Bittam is a widow and her
daughter rarely visits. Isobella is very friendly
towards Mrs Bittam. She doesn’t make any
judgements about her and why Joan, the daughter,
never visits. She remembers to be polite and
respectful and compliments Mrs Bittam on many
things. Isobella makes sure that when she is caring
for Mrs Bittam, she makes the service user the centre
of her focus. She chats and shows empathy as much
as she can towards the older lady.
• humanistic
Applying the approached in the health
and social care sectors
• You will find information on the public drive – there
are several word documents which shows the
application of approaches to different organisations
• You should also approach health and social care
workers or care settings to find what they use. Work
with another person and share your primary
information. This will need careful planning so you
find the right information.
• There may be information in our case studies of
those with additional needs, job information and
websites such as social care and NHS sites.
Scenario:
You are a trainee care worker. You are taking a module in
psychological perspectives about the care you give. You are
working with a study buddy. You are working on how important
psychology is to good care in health and social care.
Task – this is in 2 parts..
• You are now studying how useful psychology
is in health and social care.
• First make a presentation that you will give
to your study group on how the different
approaches can be used in both the health
AND social care sectors. You will be
presenting this to the group. (P)
Task part 2
• Next, choose a NAMED setting in either health or
social care. Arrange a visit or a talk to a person
who works there – prepare carefully before your
visit so you get all the information you need.
• Using primary and secondary evidence show how
the psychological approaches are applied in the
• setting. Try to explain how the approach is used,
why it is used and the result of using the approach.
(M)