Introduction to Health Psychology

Dualistic

Mutiara Budi Azhar

Reductionistic

Single-factor model

Mechanistic model

Disease oriented

The Changing Field of Health

Patterns of disease and death

Infectious versus chronic

disease

Contagious
versus
noncontagios disease

Transitional epidemiology
(in developing countries)

Escalating costs of medical care

DM,
heart
diseases,
hypertension etc

The need to employ

behavioral and lifestyle
changes before disease
develops.

Evolving View of Diseases

Anatomical pathology

Tissue pathology

World Health Organization Definition of

Health (1948):
A complete state of physical,
mental, and social well-being
and not merely the absence of
disease and infirmity.
Changing Models of Health
The Rise of Biomedical Model

Life resides in cells and

so cells must be the place
to look for disease (19th
century)

Germ theory

Discovery that particles

in the air that could not
seen
(e.g.,
bacteria)
could cause disease (19th
century)

Advantages
Model

Dualists:
Mind and body are separated
entities
Holists:

of

Rene Descartes a renaissance

dualists:
Body is part of physical world
while mind is nonmaterial,
much like the soul.

the

Medications
pathogens or
suffering.
Vaccines to
viral disease

Mind and body are one

Biomedical

that
destroy
ease pain and
protects

Medical
technology
diagnoses disease

against

to

New
surgical
procedures
(antiseptics & anaesthetics).
Limitations of Biomedical Models

The Biomedical Model

Dominant paradigm
medical profession

Specific
tissues
could
become diseased while
others remain healthy
(Late 1800s)

Cellular pathology

What is health?

Disease is localized in
anatomy (16th to 18th
Centuries)

of

Can be characterized as:

the

It is incomplete
Works well when applied to
contagious disease with specific

pathogens, but too limited to

take
into
account
the
interactions among social and
psychological factors.
There is link between poor
mental health and poor physical
health.
The Biopsychosocial Model
Favoured paradigm of health
psychology
Clinical
Implications
Biopsychosocial Model

Can be characterized as:

Multidimensional model

General systems model

Intuitive

the

Interdisciplinary team approach

to assessment and diagnosis
Prevention
and
treatment
should consider all three factors

Biopsychosocial Model
Psychological component:

of

Behaviour (adoption and

maintenance)

Emotional (feelings)

Cognition
beliefs, and
schemas)

Personality
characteristic ways
thinking and feeling

An effective patient-practitioner
relationship
can
improve
treatment
Health Psychology Research
Examples of studies:

(thoughts,
attitudes;

of

Immune function (Glaser

et al.)

Psoriasis
al.)

Breast cancer (Spiegel)

(Kabat-Zin

et