Chapter 15: careers in health psychology Flashcards
Role for Health Psychology in the Future
- People are living longer, but need help improving the quality of life
- Health problems arise because of bad habits/lifestyles. Which can impact whether a disease “activates”. Prevent diseases, and if a disease does “activate” health psychology can be used to reshape lives.
- Aid in patients understanding of health conditions, and how to optimize lifestyle change.
Goals of Health Psychology (for the future)
- Enhancing illness prevention and treatment (advances in research and tech)
- Improving efforts for helping patients cope
- Identifying evidence-based interventions and cost-benefit ratios
- Expanding psychologists’ roles in medical settings
What is the Cost-benefit ratio?
extent to which it saves more money in the long run than it costs
What are Evidence-based treatments?
intervention with strong efficacy that has clear support across many high quality studies (develop wellness programs or go into wellness programs already in place - to evaluate how successful programs are)
What is Efficacy?
degree to which the interventions has the needed effect
What is Effectiveness
how well the intervention works in the real-world setting
What is Translation research
testing interventions in the real world
Different areas of work in Health Psychology
- Number of psychologists working in health care is increasing (doubled form 1974-1985)
- Settings: Hospital, Schools,
Rehabilitation centres, Specialty clinics (pain, sleep), Private practice
Training to become a health psychologist
- Undergraduate (intro to psychology)
- Graduate (more specialized training)
- Post-graduate (clinical/research oriented, focuses on something very specific)
Types of Controversies Health psychology may help solve in the future
1, Environments impact our health
- Quality of life
- Ethical
- Definition of health as not just the absence of illness
Areas of Future Research
- Lifespan Factors (Prenatal, Caring for loved ones)
- Socio-cultural factors (minority groups - esp. aboriginal people, LGBT people)
- Gender differences and women’s health factors (much of research only on males, little research on genders beyond male female)
Factors affecting health psychology’s future
- Financial support for psychological services
- Education and training in health psychology
- Developments in medicine
Three main paths with Health Psychology Careers
- Working in clinical capacities with people (working with patients, small groups)
- Working in public health (designing and implementing large scale interventions in a workplace/school)
- Working in academia or research (Conducting research, teaching)
What are some advancements in research?
- Ecological momentary assessment (researcher randomly sends messages to participants asking what they’re doing right now and asking them questions about their interests)
- Expanding theories to include:Biological and social perspectives & Lifespan perspectives
What are some advancements in technology?
Telehealth, Social media, Wearable technology (e.g., Fitbit), Apps (e.g., headspace), Videogames for health
