HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY: HISTORY, OBJECTIVES, AREAS, INSTRUMENTS - PSYCHOLOGY - 2025

The health psychology is the study of the influence of psychological and behavioral processes in areas such as health, illness and health care of patients. It is based on the idea that our attitudes, thoughts, emotions and ways of acting can play a fundamental role in our physical state.

The main goal of health psychology is to understand which psychological factors play the most important role in our physical well-being. In this way, this knowledge can be applied to improve the health of patients, either individually in consultation, or on a large scale by generating public awareness programs.

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Although health psychology was initially based on studies related to clinical psychology, today they are completely independent disciplines. In fact, over the years different branches have emerged within this field, each studying the influence of psychological processes in different areas of physical well-being.

Thus, today health psychology professionals can dedicate themselves to areas such as clinical, public, community and critical health. However, despite the fact that it is an independent field of study, it is very common for experts in this area to collaborate with others in disciplines such as occupational therapy, community intervention, or traditional clinical psychology.

Origin and history

First evidences

The influence of psychological and behavioral factors on physical health began to be studied from the beginning of the 20th century. However, the first investigations in this regard came from fields such as medicine, especially specialties such as behavioral medicine or psychosomatics. Psychology, at first, did not play any role in this regard.

However, towards the middle of the 20th century, different investigations began to relate factors of psychology and behavior with a better state of physical health. Thus, the first studies in this regard showed the effect that adequate sleep, eating healthy food, exercising and avoiding harmful substances such as tobacco and alcohol had on the well-being of the population.

On the other hand, in the 60s and 70s, some psychologists and scientists began to suspect that mental processes could also play an important role in the health of our body. For example, stress was found to have a very negative impact on the immune system, increasing the chances of cardiovascular disease.

Emergence of health psychology

Until around the 1970s, the role of psychologists in clinical settings such as hospitals was limited to helping patients better adjust to the conditions caused by their illnesses. However, the psychologist William Schofield had to prepare a report for the American Psychological Association (APA) that caused a series of changes in this fact.

In his report, Schofield realized that most research treated psychology and physical health as separate entities, and that there were hardly any studies on the relationship between the two. Due to this result, the APA decided to create a program to train mental health professionals on what role they should adopt in relation to traditional medicine.

Thus, in 1977 the APA created a specific division dedicated to health psychology, which sought to collect and expand the available data on the role of thoughts, emotions, behaviors and attitudes on physical well-being. Over the next several years, similar institutions were created around the world.

Discoveries and changes in the last decades

Since the first health psychology departments were established between the 1970s and 1980s, this discipline has grown in importance and in the number of professionals who dedicate themselves to it. Some of the most important changes and discoveries of recent times are listed below.

Evidence on the relationship between mind and body

Beginning with the creation of the first professional divisions dedicated to health psychology, more and more evidence of the relationship between psychological and physical well-being began to be collected. Factors such as the social and communication skills of physicians were also seen to greatly influence adherence to medical treatments.

On the other hand, over the last decades a large number of medical programs based on psychological theories have been developed, such as behavior modification (a technique derived from behaviorism), belief change, or skills training. social, self-control and emotional intelligence.

Creation of the figure of the health psychologist

As data were collected on the influence of a person's mental well-being on their physical health, the need to train professionals who could serve as a bridge between psychology and medicine became increasingly evident. This is how the figure of the health psychologist emerged.

Nowadays, people who want to dedicate themselves to this field must receive specific training, in which they are prepared to face the specific difficulties of their job.

Among the tasks that health psychologists have to perform are some such as interaction with patients, the creation of intervention programs or the training of doctors, nurses and other professionals.

Main theory of health psychology: the biopsychosocial model

In the past, it was believed that the body and the mind were separate entities, and did not influence each other in any way. This is what was known as "dualism." However, since the middle of the last century it has become increasingly evident that this notion is completely wrong.

Today, both in medicine and in the field of mental health a model called "biopsychosocial" is used. The theory behind it is that physical health, psychological well-being, and certain social factors influence each other. Thus, if one of them is altered, it is very likely that the other two will too.

The biopsychosocial model developed from health psychology, but has spread to many other related fields. For example, it helps to explain what psychological factors prevent some people from following a diet long enough to lose weight; or why stress can greatly increase your chances of getting cancer.

goals

Following the development it has undergone in recent decades, health psychology now has a host of different goals and objectives. Here we will see some of the most important.

-Understand the relationship between body, mind and society

We have already seen that the model currently used in the health field understands that physical, mental and social aspects are closely related and affect each other. However, there are still many unanswered questions in this regard. Answering them is precisely one of the objectives of this branch of psychology.

For example, today we know that mental illnesses like depression can be the product of poorly adaptive thinking patterns; but they can also arise due to chemical alterations in our brain or in the rest of the body. The relationship between the two causes is still not very clear.

On the other hand, it is currently known that factors such as poverty, low educational level or belonging to a disadvantaged social class can increase the chances of suffering from both physical and mental illnesses. In fact, in some circles it is even said that "poverty is contagious", although this phrase is not used in a literal sense.

Health psychology, therefore, has among its main objectives to understand how our physical health interacts with our mental processes; and how these two elements, in turn, relate to the different aspects of our life in society.

-Prevention of diseases

Health psychologists also have among their goals to help prevent all kinds of physical illnesses. This can be done in several ways. Many of them are related to research on the different factors that influence the appearance of different health problems and the effects of an unhealthy lifestyle.

Next we will see what are the main methods that health psychologists use to help prevent diseases of all kinds.

Behavior change

The most basic way in which psychologists in this branch can help their patients to avoid the onset of diseases is by making them change different habits that usually lead to all kinds of health problems. This, above all, is achieved using behavioral techniques such as reinforcing good habits and penalizing negative ones.

Although obviously a doctor or a psychologist does not have the power to "punish" their patients if they lead unhealthy lifestyles, they can, for example, design advertising campaigns that highlight the most negative aspects of elements such as tobacco, alcohol or alcohol. sugar. In this way, it seeks to improve the habits of the general population.

Search for factors of resistance to change

However, many people are perfectly aware that the way they act jeopardizes their physical well-being, and yet they choose not to change. Another function of health psychologists, then, is to discover what psychological or social factors are playing a role in maintaining these harmful habits.

Thus, within this field it has been discovered that the majority of tobacco users use this drug to escape their problems and negative emotions. Armed with this knowledge, healthcare professionals can design effective campaigns to solve the underlying problem and thus generate lasting change.

Improved mental health of patients

Finally, we have already seen that factors such as negative emotions or the appearance of disorders such as depression or anxiety make the appearance of physical conditions such as cancer or cardiovascular diseases more likely.

Due to this, another of the tasks that health psychologists can carry out to help in the prevention of diseases is to design strategies and intervention programs to reduce as much as possible the impact of all these types of psychological disorders on the general population.

-Teaching and training

Another of the most important objectives of health psychology is to transmit all these discoveries, strategies and knowledge to professionals who have to deal with patients on a day-to-day basis. Thus, psychologists in this field are often dedicated to providing training for other professionals in the field of mental health, physicians, and occupational therapists.

In these trainings, topics as diverse as the discoveries of the latest research regarding the biopsychosocial model, such as what are the best ways to communicate with patients or what can be done to reduce the risk factors for the appearance of various physical and mental conditions.

Application areas

Within the field of formal health care, this branch of psychology can be observed especially within three fields: pain management, improvement of adherence to medical treatments, and improvement of communication between specialists and patients.

Let's look at each of these areas.

Pain management

One of the latest areas to appear within health psychology is the field of pain management. According to the most recent research on this phenomenon, the psychological component plays a very important factor in the subjective experience of pain.

Thus, health psychologists have developed a multitude of techniques that can be used to reduce patient discomfort, ranging from those based on scientific therapies such as cognitive-behavioral to those with less traditional approaches, such as acupuncture.

Improved adherence to medical treatments

As we have already mentioned previously, much of the task carried out by health psychologists has to do with investigating the causes that lead patients to not follow their treatments or to change habits that could prevent the appearance of all kinds of diseases.

But in addition to investigating what are the causes that lead people to not adopt beneficial habits and designing interventions based on these discoveries, health psychologists can also carry out direct therapies focused on solving this problem.

Thus, for example, a specialist in this field could follow up on a patient who has to take a specific treatment and who has already stopped several times. Using techniques drawn from therapies such as cognitive-behavioral or acceptance and commitment, you could increase the chances that you will follow.

Improve communication between specialists and patients

Jobs related to the health area require particularly strong empathy and communication skills. This is due, among other things, to the fact that the way in which a doctor communicates certain news about their physical condition to their patient can greatly influence their future recovery.

In order to improve the communication, empathy and social skills of doctors and other health professionals, psychologists specialized in this area can carry out from training to personalized interventions, with a more therapeutic approach.

Evaluation instruments

Like any other scientific discipline, to know if an intervention carried out from health psychology has been effective, it is necessary to carry out measures that allow comparing the results that previously existed with those that have been obtained after the same.

Depending on the area to which we are referring, the evaluation of the effectiveness of different interventions will be carried out differently. For example, if an advertising campaign has been developed that aimed to reduce drug use among the adolescent population, it will be necessary to collect data on how many individuals within this group consume illegal substances before and after carrying it out.

Another area in which evaluations can be carried out within health psychology is when trying to increase the adherence of patients to a specific treatment, or when it comes to seeing if they have changed their habits. These results are difficult to measure objectively, but there are some tools that can help complete this task.

One of the most used is the writing of self-reports. These documents, written by the patients themselves, collect information about their habits and the way they have acted during the period that has elapsed between two visits to the doctor or psychologist. In it you can write, for example, what days you have taken the pills that have been prescribed, to see if your adherence is increasing.

Although self-reports are difficult to write, using evaluation tools of this type has been shown to help improve the results obtained by health psychology professionals.

References

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4. "An overview of health psychology" in: PsychCentral. Retrieved on: May 22, 2019 from PsychCentral: psychcentral.com.
5. "Health Psychology" in: Wikipedia. Retrieved on: May 22, 2019 from Wikipedia: es.wikipedia.org.