PSYC 412 1st Edition Lecture 2Health Psychology Notes - Health Psychology: exciting and relatively new field devoted to understanding psychological influences on how people stay healthy, why people become ill and how they respond when they do get illo Health psychologists focus on: Health promotion and maintenance  Prevention and treatment of illness Etiology and correlates of health, illness and dysfunction Health care system and formulation of health policy Helping people cope more effectively with disease- Behavioral medicine: sub-field of health psychology that specifically focuses on working with medical patientso Focuses on helping individuals adhere to medical regimens and cope more effectively with their illness- Mind-Body Relationshipo Disease was believed to be: evil spirits entering the body, result of imbalance of blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm, or God’s punishment for evil-doingo Freud contributed conversion hysteria: unconscious conflicts produce physical disturbances such as “glove anesthesia” (sudden loss of speech, hearing, or sight), tremors, or muscular paralysis - Conversion Disorder:o A type of somatoform disordero a psychosocial conflict or need is “converted” into dramatic physical symptoms that affect voluntary or sensory functioningo low (and apparently decreasing) prevalenceo more common in women than meno Typically brought on by stress- Psychosomatic Medicine:o Dunbar and Alexander: linked patterns of personality to specific illnesses helped shape belief that bodily disorders are caused by emotional conflictso criticisms: methodological problems conflict and personality not sufficient to produce illnessThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute. restricted the range of medical problems caused by psychological and social factors- Ulcerso For many years, it was thought that the primary cause was stresso Individual with ulcers were sent for therapyo Helicobacter pylori- Biomedical Methodo all illness can be explained on the basis ofaberrant somatic bodily processes;psychological and social processes are irrelevant to disease process- Biopsychosocial model:o health and illness are consequences of the interplay of biological, psychological and social factorso Advantages of the Biopsychosocial Model: macrolevel processes and microlevel processes interact to produce a state of health or illness the mind and body cannot be distinguished in matters of health and illness researchers have adopted a systems theory approach to health and illnesso Clinical implications: diagnosis should always consider biological,psychological and social factors in assessing anindividual’s health or illness recommendations for treatment must examine allthree sets of factors the relationship between the patient and the practitioner is significant- Why is the field of Health Psychology needed?o advances in technology and research: role of Epidemiology in Health Psychology morbidity and mortalityo expanded health care services health care is the largest service industry inthe U.S.o increased medical acceptanceo demonstrated contributions to healtho methodological contributions: experiments correlational studies prospective designs retrospective