If you are a student of medicine, nursing, health, and social care, then this revised edition is an invaluable learning resource for you. Introduction to Health Psychology, 5th edition, is a must-read, widely praised textbook that provides the learning resources you need from theory and research to real-world examples, helping you develop a better understanding and critical thinking on the issues explored.
This revision provides a comprehensive guide on essential topics surrounding health, retaining its popular original structure of three multi-chaptered sections: 'Being and Staying Healthy', 'Becoming Ill', and 'Being Ill'. It also includes the useful final section, 'From Theory to Practice', which studies the need for theory-driven practice applications, making the most of the evidence available to support their study.
The edition offers you an insightful overview of a range of topics on health behaviour, from health-risk to health-protective habits, before exploring applications and healthcare intervention practices. It also discusses biological and psychobiological models and theories and the impact of stress on health, illness, and its progression, with extensive references to healthy diet and exercise.
The text also considers the role of key epidemiological updates and global health issues, cultural influences on health and health behaviour, and issues about health differentials, as seen in the illness experience.
Each chapter opens with a current real-world example and places the topic into context by introducing the outline and learning outcomes. Along with the increased use of case studies, its useful Glossary and a list of Further Readings, the content will offer food for individual reflection and group discussion, helping you fully engage with this applied area of psychology—an approach praised by lecturers and students alike!
Table of Contents:
Preface PART I BEING AND STAYING HEALTHY Chapter 1 What is health? - Learning outcomes
- Chapter outline
- What is health? Changing perspectives Individual, cultural and lifespan perspectives on health
- What is health psychology?
- Summary Further readin
Chapter 2 Health inequalities - Learning outcomes
- Chapter outline
- Health differentials
- Minority status and health
- Gender and health
- Summary Further reading
Chapter 3 Health-risk behaviour - Learning outcomes
- Chapter outline
- What is health behaviour?
- Smoking, drinking and illicit drug use
- Unprotected sexual behaviour
- Unhealthy diet Obesity
- Summary
- Further reading
Chapter 4 Health-protective behaviour - Learning outcomes
- Chapter outline
- Adherence behaviour
- Healthy diet Exercise
- Health-screening behaviour
- Immunisation behaviour
- Summary
- Further reading
Chapter 5 Explaining health behaviour - Learning outcomes
- Chapter outline
- Distal influences on health behaviour
- Models of health behaviour
- Socio-cognitive models of behaviour change
- Stage models of behaviour change
- Summary
- Further reading
Chapter 6 Changing behaviour: mechanisms and approaches - Learning outcomes
- Chapter outline
- Developing public health interventions
- Strategies for changing risk behaviour
- Summary
- Further reading
Chapter 7 Preventing health problems - Learning outcomes
- Chapter outline
- Working with individuals
- Using the mass media Environmental interventions
- Public health programmes
- Summary
- Further reading
PART II BECOMING ILL Chapter 8 The body in health and illness - Learning outcomes
- Chapter outline
- The behavioural anatomy of the brain
- The autonomic nervous system
- The immune system
- The digestive system
- The cardiovascular system
- The respiratory system
- Summary
- Further reading
Chapter 9 Symptom perception, interpretation and response - Learning outcomes
- Chapter outline
- How do we become aware of the sensations of illness?
- Symptom perception
- Symptom interpretation
- Planning and taking action: responding to symptoms
- Summary
- Further reading
Chapter 10 The consultation and beyond - Learning outcomes
- Chapter outline
- The medical consultation
- Factors that influence the process of consultation
- Moving beyond the consultation
- Summary
- Further reading
Chapter 11 Stress, health and illness: Theory Learning outcomes - Chapter outline
- Concepts of stress
- Types of stress
- Stress as a physiological response
- The stress and illness link
- Summary
- Further reading
Chapter 12 Stress and illness moderators - Learning outcomes
- Chapter outline
- Coping defined Stress, personality and illness
- Stress and cognitions
- Stress and emotions
- Social support and stress
- Summary
- Further reading
Chapter 13 Managing stress - Learning outcomes
- Chapter outline
- Stress theory: a quick review
- Stress management training
- The third wave therapies
- Preventing stress
- Minimising stress in hospital settings
- Summary
- Further reading
PART III BEING ILL Chapter 14 The impact and outcomes of illness: patient perspective - Learning outcomes
- Chapter outline
- The impact of illness
- Coping with illness
- Illness and quality of life
- Measuring quality of life
- Summary
- Further reading
Chapter 15 The impact and outcomes of illness: families and informal caregivers - Learning outcomes
- Chapter outline
- Illness: a family affair
- Expectancies of care
- Family systems and family members
- Consequences of caring for the caregiver
- Influences on caring outcomes
- Summary
- Further reading
Chapter 16 Pain Learning outcomes - Chapter outline
- The experience of pain
- Biological models of pain
- A psychobiological theory of pain
- Future understandings of pain: the neuromatrix
- Helping people to cope with pain
- Summary
- Further reading
Chapter 17 Improving health and quality of life - Learning outcomes
- Chapter outline
- Coping with chronic illness
- Reducing distress
- Managing illness
- Preventing disease progression
- Summary
- Further reading
PART IV FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE Chapter 18 From theory to practice - Learning outcomes
- Chapter outline
- The need for theory-driven practice
- Getting evidence into practice
- ...and finally, be positive
- Summary
- Further reading
Glossary References Index
About the Author :
About the Authors Val Morrison is a Professor of Health Psychology at Bangor University. She has taught health psychology since 1992 whilst publishing her research, investigating the psychosocial aspects of patient and carer illness experience and outcomes.
Paul Bennett is an Emeritus Professor of Clinical Health Psychology at the University of Swansea. He has published several books on health and clinical psychology, as well as multiple academic papers, and is presently working as a clinical psychologist with people who have psychological trauma after having health problems following the COVID-19 vaccination.
