Health Psychology

1
Health Psychology

• The bio-psycho-social approach to health!

2
Who is a health psychologist

• Someone who works to understand how various
  factors affect health
• Biological
• Behavioral
• Social

3
What do they do?

• They work in research and medical settings
• They conduct research and provide clinical
  services
• They often focus on prevention through research
  and clinical interventions
• Half do teaching and research half have clinical
  roles

4
What are some sample work settings?

• Primary health care programs
• Inpatient medical units
• Pain management centers
• Smoking clinics
• Headache management centers
• Colleges and Universities

5
What are some typical tasks they perform?

• They do lots of assessment and then develop
  interventions
• Various types of assessments (such as
  Cognitive/behavioral and psychophysiological)
• Inteventions planned (e.g. stress management
  relaxation therapy)
• Teach people to cope better
• Research (e.g. effect of lifestyle changes on HIV)

6
What are career opportunities like?

• Good, especially if the person is
• A good writer
• Has grantsmanship
• Has the right degrees
• Ph.D. or Psy.D.
• Licenses (licensed like clinical/counseling
  psychogists and board certified)

7
What courses should I take now to prepare?

• Social Psychology
• Learning Behavior
• Abnormal
• Physiological
• Health Psychology
• Anatomy Physiology
• Community Psychology