Introduction to Health Psychology

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Introduction to Health Psychology

• August 31, 2004

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Overview

• What is Health Psychology?
• Course Goals, Requirements, Policies
• The Mind Body Relationship A Brief History

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What is Health Psychology?

• The field that seeks to understand the behavioral
  and psychological factors that impact health
• How does behavior promote and maintain health?
• Why do some individuals become ill?
• How do individuals respond when they become ill?
• How do biological, psychological, and social
  forces interact to impact health outcomes?

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World Health Organizations Definition (1948)

• Health is a complete state of well-being
• Physical well being
• Mental well being
• Social well being
• Health is not merely the absence of disease or
  infirmity.
• This state of optimum health is called,
  wellness.

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Areas of Focus In Health Psychology

• Health Promotion and Maintenance
• Prevention and Treatment of Illness
• Etiology (causes) and Correlates of Health and
  Illness
• Health Policy and Health Care Service Delivery

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Course Goals

• Review the models of health specifically
  contrasting the biomedical and biopsychosocial
  models
• Understand psychological processes which
  contribute to physical health stress, individual
  differences, psychological quality of life
• Review health behaviors and related factors
• Analyze approaches to health promotion and
  intervention
• Explore factors affecting the patient/consumer
  utilization of medical services and relationship
  to providers
• Review factors related to coping with chronic and
  terminal illness
• Focus on social and structural factors affecting
  wellness

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Course Requirements

• Exams
• Four in-class exams
• Lowest exam score dropped
• No make up exams
• Cumulative final
• Brief Proposal and Annotated Bibliography
• In five to ten sentences you will propose a
  health-related research project or intervention.
• Read and annotate five articles from
  peer-reviewed journals
• Be specific about how the article relates to your
  proposed project or intervention
• Due by or before November 23rd
• In-Class Activities (12)
• Announced and Unannounced
• Lowest two scores dropped
• Students may have one relief assignment see
  syllabus for details

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Readings

• All readings are available online
• Log on the librarys website and then search for
  the journal by title.
• You must log on to a computer on campus.

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Policies

• Academic Integrity
• Each student is responsible for reviewing the
  scholastic dishonesty policy of Michigan State
  University.
• Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated this
  includes giving or received aid on exams, as well
  as plagiarism for text and electronic sources.
• All exams are closed-book exams
• General Policies
• No cell phones, pagers, cd/radios/ headphones or
  newspapers are allowed in class
• Please turn off all cell phones and pagers before
  class.
• There will be no make-up exams or assignments

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The Mind-Body Relationship

• What is the relationship between the mind and
  body?
• Are the body and mind completely separate?
• Do they interact? If so how?

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The Mind-Body Relationship A Brief History

• Ancient Times
• In ancient civilizations there was a belief that
  spirits influenced human conduct and natural
  phenomena.
• Illness was treated as a disturbance in the body
  caused by an evil spirit.
• Stone age skulls have been found with small holes
  in them (trephination) to release evil spirits.
• Shaman performs the treatment.

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The Mind-Body Relationship A Brief History

• Early Greek Medicine
• The early Greeks identified the role of the
  physical body in illness
• Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.)
• Disorders are caused by natural factors
• There are four humors in the body that need to be
  in balance for optimal health
• The body has the capacity to heal itself treat
  the total patient, not just the disease

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The Mind-Body Relationship A Brief History

• Galen (A.D. 130-200)
• Related Humoral Theory to personality

Humor Temperament Characteristic
Phlegm Phlegmatic Sluggish, unemotional
Blood Sanguine Cheerful
Yellow bile Choleric Quick-tempered, fiery
Black bile Melancholic Sad
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The Mind-Body Relationship

• Middle Ages Mysticism and demonology
• Disease was considered a punishment from God
• Evil is driven out of the body through torture
• The priest was the primary healer

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The Mind-Body Relationship

• The Renaissance
• Mind and body are two separate systems
• Dualistic concept of mind and body attempts to
  break away from superstitions of past centuries.
• Theologians, priests, philosophers treat the
  mind.
• Physicians heal the body.
• Physical evidence sole basis for diagnosis and
  treatment of illnesses.

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The Mind-Body Relationship

• Early technological advances separate the mind
  from the body
• Rejection of the Humoral Theory
• Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) microscopy
• Giovanni Morgagni (1682-1771) autopsies
• Physical evidence becomes the sole basis for
  diagnosing and treating illness.

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The Mind-Body Relationship

• Psychoanalytic contributions
• Conversion hysteria (Freud)
• The mind and body are linked
• Specific unconscious conflicts can lead to
  particular physical disturbances.
• This occurs through the voluntary nervous system.
  
• The conflict is converted into a physical symptom
  to release anxiety.
• Many of these conversions are biologically
  impossible i.e. glove anesthesia.

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The Mind-Body Relationship

• Psychosomatic Medicine
• Field developed in the early 1900s.
• Focus on the study and treatment of particular
  diseases believed to be caused by emotional
  conflicts.
• asthma, ulcers, hypertension

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The Mind-Body Relationship

• Psychosomatic Medicine (1930s-1940s)
• Flanders Dunbar and Franz Alexander
• Patterns of personality are linked to specific
  illnesses.
• Psychological conflicts produce anxiety which, in
  turn, has a physiological effect through the
  autonomic nervous system.
• Critiques of methodology used in this approach

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The Mind-Body Relationship

• Contemporary View
• Physical health is interwoven with mental health
  and the social environment.
• The mind and the body are connected in matters of
  health and illness.

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Next Time

• The Emergence of Health Psychology
• The Biopsychosocial Model
• Systems of the Body