Introduction to Health
Psychology
The Changing Field of Health
 Patterns
of disease and death
– Infectious versus chronic disease
 Escalating
costs of medical care
What is health?
World Health Organization
Definition of Health (1948)
“A complete state of physical, mental,
and social well-being and not
merely the absence of disease and
infirmity.”
Changing Models of
Health
The Biomedical Model
 Dominant
paradigm of the medical
profession
 Can be characterized as:
– Reductionistic model
– Single-factor model
– Mechanistic model
Evolving View of Diseases
 Anatomical
pathology
– Disease is localized in anatomy (16th to
18th Centuries)
 Tissue
pathology
– Specific tissues could become
diseased while others remain healthy
(Late 1800s)
 Cellular
pathology
– Life resides in cells and so cells must
be the place to look for disease (19th
century)
 Germ
theory
– Discovery that particles in the air that
could not seen (e.g., bacteria) could
cause disease
The Biopsychosocial Model
 Favoured
paradigm of health
psychology
 Can be characterized as:
– Multidimensional model
– General systems model
– Intuitive
Biopsychosocial Model
 Psychological
component:
– Behaviour (adoption and
maintenance)
– Emotional (feelings)
– Cognition (thoughts, beliefs, and
attitudes)
– Personality – characteristic ways of
thinking and feeling
The Biopsychosocial Model
Clinical Implications of the
Biopsychosocial Model
 Interdisciplinary
team approach to
assessment and diagnosis
 Prevention and treatment should
consider all three factors
 An effective patient-practitioner
relationship can improve treatment
Health Psychology
 Study
of social, behavioural,
cognitive, and emotional factors
that influence the:
– Maintenance of health
– Development of illness and disease
– Course of illness or disease
– Patient’s and family’s response to
illness and disease
Important Contributions of
Psychology to Health
Reliable and valid measures for
assessing health-related factors.
 Techniques for changing behaviours
that affect health and illness.
 Commitment to keeping people healthy
rather than treating them when they
become ill.
 Solid foundation of scientific methods
for studying health-related behaviours.

Health Psychology Research
 Examples
of studies:
– Immune function (Glaser et al.)
– Psoriasis (Kabat-Zin et al.)
– Breast cancer (Spiegle)