1 - What is Health? Cultural and Historical Roots

What 4 main issues is the Society for Health Psychology dedicated to?

1. Advancing the contributions of psychology to the understanding of health and illness through basic and clinical research 2. Encouraging the integration of biomedical information about health and illness with current psychological knowledge 3. Promoting education and services in the psychology of health and illness 4. Informing the psychological and biomedical community and the general public about the results of current research and service activities in this area (APA, 2012)

Rene Descartes

"I think, therefore I am" - strengthened the Greek idea about the separation of the mind from the body

Hippocrates

A Greek physician often referred to as the father of medicine, who lived from 460 to 370 B.C. He based his medical practice on observations and on the study of the human body. He held the belief that illness had a physical and a rational explanation.

medical anthropology

A field committed to improving public health in societies in economically poor nations and examining biocultural factors

Ayurveda

Ancient system of medicine that focuses on the body, the sense organs, the mind, and the soul. It originated in India approximately 4,000 years ago.

epidemiology

Branch of medicine that studies the frequency, distribution, and causes of different diseases with an emphasis on the role of the physical and social environment.

Sigmund Freud

Founder of psychoanalysis, regarded by some as an early health psychologist

behavioral medicine

Interdisciplinary field of medicine that includes psychological, sociological, and biological views on health and illness. Behavioral telehealth health care delivered over the telephone or through other technical means such as the Internet.

socioeconomic status

Measure of an individual, family, or group's relative economic and social level most commonly measured by income and education level.

morbidity

Number of cases of a disease that exist at a given point in time.

mortality

Number of deaths related to a specific cause.

Galen

Physician of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Rome. Galen lived from 129 to 216. One of the most influential of the Greek physicians, he published a wide body of work that shaped Western biomedicine.

evidence-based treatments

Treatments that are dependent on critically evaluated research and are essentially empirically tested.

William James

Wrote the first psychology book (Principles of Psychology, 1897)

clinical health psychology

a broad specialty in professional psychology that spans (1) stress and coping, (2) health behaviors, and (3) issues in health care and in which clinical practitioners work

psychosomatic medicine

a field of study that emphasizes the role of psychological factors in disease

health (WHO definition)

a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being

culture

a unique meaning and information system, shared by a group and transmitted across generations, that allows the group to meet basic needs of survival, by coordinating social behavior to achieve a viable existence, to transmit successful social behaviors, to pursue happiness and well-being, and to derive meaning from life

health psychology

an interdisciplinary subspecialty of psychology dedicated to promoting and maintaining health and preventing and treating illness

biomedical approach to health and illness

disease is studied by examining only the biological factors of illness, neglecting contributing factors of psychological life and sociological context.

Franz Alexander & Helen Flanders Dunbar

established the first formal gathering of individuals interested in studying the influences of the mind on health

availability heuristic

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common

incidence rates

frequency of new cases of the disease during a year

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)

healing system that believes the interaction of people with their environment is most significant in creating health