Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine

By Kimberly Swanson, MS-Psy, CNA

Health Psychology research demonstrates how disease effects a patient’s behavior.   When a patient becomes ill, they may have some key behaviors that may assist doctors to properly diagnosing  a medical condition. 

Blending health and psychology  enables  medical professionals to bring about an effective solution to a problem.  Finding solutions may require a wider scope to enabling a patients to overcome their illness.

When a person has a health problem, a practitioner may put into place a medical care plan for the patient.  The psychologist's role is the following:

• To develop life style plans and adjustments
• To support groups and support systems in places,
• Counseling to help assist the patient in overcoming their illness or being able to better manage with their overall health (e.g. though education, awareness, and training through managed care).

Updated 9/16/16

Copyright in 2013-2016 by ©Messenger Publishing, Inc.

How to cite this article:

Swanson, K.  (2016).    What is post traumatic stress disorder?  Psychology Essence (Messenger Publishing, Inc.).  Retrieved from http://psychologyessence.blogspot.com/2013/04/heath-psychology-and-behaviorial.html

Word of the Week - Falsifiability

Falsifiability -fal·si·fi·a·bil·i·ty, noun   (In Psychology) - The inherent testability of any scientific hypothesis.  This definition was given by Karl Popper, a philosopher.

Karl Popper,

Philosopher

Health Psychology and Research

Kimberly Swanson, PsyM, LPC

Psychology applies to health through research because it explains human behavior factors regarding possible causes, effects, and solutions. When AIDS was first discovered, no one knew what it was. The only thing known about the disease was that it was spreading and was becoming an epidemic during the 1980s. The study of human behavior and health helped pinpoint the exact source of how AIDS was being applied. This is an example of how psychological research identified the root causes for the spreading of the disease. 

Updated 3/16/22

Copyright in 2013, 2016, 2022 by ©Purpoz Counseling & Wellness Center, LLC

What is a Health Psychologist?

By:  Kimberly Swanson, PsyM, LPC

Health psychologists conduct studies and research on health-related issues such as how patients cope while living with cancer.  An example is when a health psychologist gets to the root of the problem of a patient's situation.  The health psychologist would try to help the patient with trying to break their old smoking habits.  A medical doctor (e.g. physician or psychiatrist) may recommend medication for the patient to better cope with withdrawing from their smoking dependency, whereas the psychologist or psychotherapist may take a look into some possible lifestyle changes and adjustments.

Updated 3/16/22

Copyright in 2013-2022 by © Purpoz Counseling & Welliness Center, LLC

Word of the Week: Efficacy

Efficacy (ef-i-kuh-sec) (Noun) - Capacity of producing a desired result or effect (proven) effectiveness.  Plural - efficacies.

Education - Lifecoach/ NLP Practioner

https://cb533iwq4l9q0zcjw1o8tq4qiy.hop.clickbank.net/

Manifest Miracles  - Self Help (motivational/affirmational) https://e4090b5hqa1qfqabp7qgrp7y8u.hop.clickbank.net/

Health Psychology & Economics / By: Kimberly Swanson

Economic affect health psychology because it helps pin point or further explain the exact reason why a phenomena happens.  It gives a clearer or a more define explanation behind the purpose of human behavior.  It explains why people do certain things when it comes to their health.  There are three ways in which economics has a positive affect on health psychology:   it further explains human “(consumer) behavior”, “health disparity”, and the correlation between patients and their overall health within the healthcare system (Hanoch & Rice, 2010).

 The positive influence that economics has on health psychology is that it brings more depth to psychological research in human/consumer behaviors.   According to Hanoch and Rice, “economic thinking and methodology could supplement and enrich methods currently employed by health psychologists” (Hanoch & Rice, 2010).

One of the many issues that health psychologists explore is “health disparity” (Hanoch & Rice).  Economic research on health issues and topics literally blows the cover to health disparity along with the specific categories in which ethnicity or which socioeconomic group is greatly affected. 

Economic and psychological research both shows the correlation between patients and their over all health within the healthcare system.  Both sciences enhance the other and psychologists are able to develop more plausible theories and pinpoint factors that cause a person to develop certain illnesses.

 Economic studies also assist in showing possible solutions to resolving these problems.  Hanoch and Rice states, “To combine findings and approaches to both field, we believe, can provide policymakers and practitioners a richer perspective and better tools to battle theses serious and important problems (Hanoch & Rice, 2010).

Copyrighted 2013 by Kimberly Swanson (Messenger Publishing, Inc.) all rights reserved.

Reference

Hanoch, Y. & Rice, T. (2010). Health Psychology Meets Health Economics. In Suls, J. M., Davidson, K. W. and Kaplan, R. M. (Eds.) Handbook of Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine (pp. 290-302). Guilford.