Contribution of Psychology and Social Psychology to the Study of Health and Welfare Issues

Health psychology is a diverse career field; psychologists can be employed anywhere from hospitals to research to influencing health care. “Health psychologists… conduct clinical interviews and behavioral assessments. They may also participate in interventions with individuals or groups — for example, programs to help people reduce stress, quit smoking and avoid sedentary behaviors…They may study the causes of health problems and how to prevent them, or explore why certain groups don’t seek care when they need it. They may also help patients understand and come to terms with a diagnosis, or follow a treatment regimen in order to increase the probability of their full recovery (American Psychology Association). Health psychologists have a broad spectrum of people to treat as they treat people with mental disorders and create treatment plans for people; health psychologists need to understand all parts of psychology to provide effective care for their patients because health psychologists research, test people, and help their patients gain skills so they can better take care of themselves.

In this assignment I will concentrate on two theories of behaviour; health belief model (HBM) and the Theory of Reasoned Action. I will also look at factors that affect our approach to health and illness; poverty and age. Finally I will look at two different specific health issues; addiction and eating disorders, I will also look at the similarities and the differences between eating disorders and addictions.

In this task I will discuss the application/part of behaviorist perspectives in health and social care.

Psychology is defined as the study of the human mind and mental status in order to predict and also explain aspects of human behaviour. In regards to the behaviour concerning addiction, tobacco use is considered the most highly used (and abused) legal substance nationwide. It also has the highest leading risk factors causing considerable rates in morbidity and mortality and several types of cancer, respiratory disease and heart disease; relating to why promoting behavioural change (through aspects of psychology) is considered so imperative in today 's healthcare environment. In addition, the health promotion source that this essay will be examining is the National Tobacco Campaign, aimed at altering smoking behaviours, plus the associated advertisement strategies used, and lastly the psychological theories associated.

Use one specific example for each of the concepts in part A to explain how the concept might relate to either the development of or the continuation of a smoking habit. It is

It is the most common addiction throughout the world with 1.1 trillion people smoking currently, consisting about a third of the population over 15 years old. While nicotine is the addictive substance in the tobacco that causes addiction, tobacco will increase health risks of heart attack and vascular diseases. Nicotine dependency is a complex brain disease, and we need to start thinking of it as such. New ways of ingesting this substance have been created, that try to lure and appeal to demographic, particularly younger, to consume nicotine. Regardless of how many years someone has smoked, stopping at any point will valuable and improve your quality of life. Changing the public’s view on addiction is a subject of importance, so many of others can view this as a brain disease more than a personal decision. To fight this addiction, you have to rewire your behaviors in your brain and have a drive to overcome this horrific addiction. The brain can luckily keep changing and be trained to stop cravings with a multitude of different strategies. Anyone can be affected by addiction, we need start treating addicts with evidence-based practices rather than jailing them. Through more education and laws enforced, we can only hope that the number of tobacco users can decrease more and everyone can learn to live a healthier, full life without addiction and the painful diseases that derive from

In health and social care research tends to accept the methods of social science research because the projects often involve investigating people’s feelings, observations and attitudes, which do not lend themselves to investigation by scientific methodology.

This was really an aspiring week to start with for my health psychology course. I have never thought so deeply on what heath meant to me. Maybe just the meaning of staying away from illness? Why did I need to know what health was and why this related to psychology? It was until I tried to understand about the biopsychosocial model, I realized that the meaning of health varied among different individuals as a wide range of aspects regarding to biological, psychological as well as social and cultural aspects might have an impact on the ideas of staying healthy. What influenced me most was the psychological approach in the model where I found that people responded and behaved differently to their health condition was due to the variability of

However the psychodynamic model fails to take into consideration the effects of the environment as does the medical model both are concerned with the internal workings and defects. The Psychodynamic model has had a lot of opposition as it is difficult to define and research, as processes like the id, ego and superego operate on an unconscious level and therefore there is no real way of knowing for certain if they are indeed happening. Most of the evidence provided by this model has been individual case studies which in itself makes it difficult to generalise.

The scientific approach emphasizes that simplifying work allows development of expertise, and through repetition of tasks, workers become highly proficient whereas the psychological approach emphasizes that people should be provided with work that represents whole tasks with which they can identify. Both approaches are efficient in their own ways which makes me think that the best way to reconcile them in the health care industry is by hiring people who are comfortable in either of the approaches and encourage them to work as a team. Different people will have different abilities and different motivation styles, identifying the approach that works best for an individual is key to determining

Drawing on examples from chapters 3, 4 and 8 of Investigating Psychology, examine and assess the extent to which psychological research is of value to society.

What judgments do we make about others? Everyday we make judgments in our social interactions about why others act the way they do, which is known as

Prochaska & DiClemente. (1983). Stages and Processes of Self-Change of Smoking. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 390-395.

This essay will both critically discuss the extent to which psychological theories and methodologies are compatible, conflicting or co-existing as well as explore the nature of psychology and psychological research. It will include ontological positions as well as explanations and methodology about a range of topics for example: behavioural and drug addiction, social cognition, critical health psychology (OBE’s), risk taking and road traffic behaviour and what these tell us about psychology being a unified or fragmented discipline. (A unified theory of psychology would involve two theories coexisting together incorporating and explaining the existence of so many conflicting

You are working in a health care setting. You are referred a patient, Thomas, for noncompliance with medical recommendations. You read the medical chart and find out that Thomas is a 59-year-old patient with Type II diabetes. Thomas is overweight, eats mostly high fat processed foods, and never exercises (all risk factors for type II diabetes by the way). His blood sugar levels are dangerously high and have stayed that way in spite of the doctor’s repeated attempts to get them down. Thomas is married and has 3 grown children. He works as a janitor at a nearby office building. Thomas’ doctor complains that his patient does not do a good job checking his insulin level and taking the right doses of insulin. He also complains that Thomas makes no attempt to lose weight, eat a low