The M'Sc' Program in Health Psychology

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The M.Sc. Program in Health Psychology

• Co directors
• Dr Rona Moss-Morris
• Dr Christina Liossi

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Health Psychology staff

• Professor Lucy Yardley
• Professor Peter Coleman
• Dr Chas Skinner
• Dr Roger Ingham
• Dr Nigel North
• Dr Alyson Farmer

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What is health psychology

• Understanding human behaviour in the context of
• health
• illness
• health care
• Study of psychological factors which determine
• how people stay healthy
• why they become ill
• how they respond to illness and health care

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The Biomedical Model
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The Biopsychosocial Model
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Feel Bad Britain ..How we rate our health
(The Times, 8 October 2005)
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How long has health psychology been around?

• Health psychology first used in a book title by
  Stone, Cohen Adler in 1979.
• Officially defined at the Division of Health
  Psychology APA meeting in 1979

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Examples of topics in health psychology

• Psychological predictors of health and illness
• Can writing about your emotions have positive
  effects on health following a traumatic event?
• Do we get more colds when we are stressed?
• Do optimists cope differently than pessimists
  after surgery?
• Can funny films enhance immunity in children with
  leukemia?

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Examples of topics in applied health psychology

• Can we improve patients with asthma adherence to
  their medication?
• Does CBT help patients adjust to multiple
  sclerosis?
• Does graded exercise therapy reduce fatigue
  levels in CFS?

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The aims of this program

• To provide scientifically-based knowledge of the
  bi-directional relations between psychological
  and physical states
• To provide the tools to critically evaluate and
  plan research concerning such relations
• To provide preliminary skills for assessing and
  intervening in the link between psychological and
  physical states
• To learn and have FUN

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The structure of the M.Sc. program

• CORE UNITS
• Unit 1. Psychology health
• Unit 2. Psychology illness
• Unit 3. Delivery of health psychology
  interventions
• ADDITIONAL UNITS
• Research methods (2 terms)
• Thesis
• OPTIONAL MODULES (2/4)
• Psycho-oncology or Psychosomatics
• Paediatrics or Sexual health