Health psychology

Health specialists believe that most diseases are preventable, and health psychology examines the impact of an individual’s mental states—including emotions, feelings, and behaviors—on their physical and mental health.
Health psychology is one of the main and newer branches of psychology, and it is possible to pursue doctoral studies in this field. Health psychology is somewhat interdisciplinary and combines psychology, biology, medicine, and sociology.
Unlike other branches of psychology that focus on treatment and improvement of disorders, health psychology concentrates on promoting mental health and preventing disorders and diseases by adopting appropriate approaches and strategies to prevent the occurrence of certain problems. Health psychology aims to prevent diseases by offering solutions such as exercise, lifestyle modification through diet and sleep regulation, addiction prevention, stress and anxiety reduction, and more. For example, you are aware of the harmful effects of smoking on heart and vascular health; health psychology strives to increase a smoker’s motivation to quit smoking and thereby prevent the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

What does health psychology examine?

Health psychology studies how genetics, psychological, and social factors affect an individual’s health and tries to minimize the resulting damages by providing appropriate solutions. It examines motivations, communications, behaviors, and generally all life factors that lead to certain behaviors in a person, and by investigating the relationships between feelings, behaviors, and consequences, it assists individuals with problems such as emotional issues or psychosomatic disorders.
Health psychologists work in clinical settings such as hospitals, rehabilitation centers, addiction treatment centers, and also collaborate with governmental organizations to develop the best preventive programs.
Health psychology is effective in addressing disorders such as anxiety disorders, child-related disorders, sexual disorders, sleep disorders, eating disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, premenstrual syndrome, various tension headaches, and other psychosomatic disorders.

Benefits of health psychology

Health psychology has many advantages. One of these is the maximum reduction of medical costs. As you know, today the costs of medical care, treatment, and maintenance are high and cause many difficulties for people; however, health psychology minimizes secondary costs related to patient care and treatment by preventing disease onset.
Another benefit is preventing the waste of time and energy. A sick person inevitably has to spend a lot of time undergoing treatment, but if disease prevention is achieved through health psychology, this amount of time and energy will not be needed. Nowadays, in developed countries, the focus is on prevention rather than treatment because this saves economic, human, and temporal resources. However, in our country, this field is still new and emerging and has much room for growth.
In addition to working with adults, health psychology can also influence children and, through necessary education, provide a foundation for raising adults with physical and mental health.

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Activities of Health Psychologists

• Conducting clinical interviews and behavioral assessments of patients
• Discovering why some patients do not follow medical recommendations or do not provide necessary conditions for their own improvement
• Guiding patients with serious illnesses to accept death
• Educating patients about making correct choices, such as healthy diet and exercise, even when facing psychological stress (i.e., avoiding stress and exercising to reduce stress)
• Implementing various interventions when necessary, such as addiction or unhealthy lifestyle

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Types of Health Psychology

Health psychology is divided into five areas:

1. Clinical Health Psychology: Clinical health psychology focuses on the individual treatment of patients. Clinical health psychologists use necessary training, behavior change techniques, and other psychotherapy methods to help individuals choose the best and healthiest behaviors and lifestyles and to promote their mental health.
2. Community Health Psychology: Community health psychology studies the effects of societal issues on its members and is an effective method to combat diseases that spread at the community or regional level. Since community health psychologists have sufficient expertise in prevalence, prevention, and health care, they can assist in identifying emerging and spreading diseases and implement necessary interventions.
3. Public Health Psychology: Public health psychology focuses on psychological and behavioral factors affecting the collective health of society members. Public health psychologists often collaborate with governmental and public organizations to develop long-term and collective programs to improve public health, working alongside geneticists, epidemiologists, and nutrition experts.
4. Occupational Health Psychology: The goal of occupational health psychology is to expand health and safety measures in the workplace. Occupational health psychologists cooperate with organizations, private companies, business owners, and employers to support the health and performance of employees, thereby benefiting the entire business and its members. Experts in this field provide counseling to employees to support their mental health.
5. Critical Health Psychology: Critical health psychology goes beyond the individual level and examines important and influential factors such as social, cultural, political, and historical aspects, paying attention to inequalities present in healthcare system policies. Critical health psychologists work with marginalized and vulnerable groups to show how physical, psychological, social, and economic environmental conditions significantly affect their overall health.