/DEF: Health psychology is concerned with understanding how biological, psychological, environmental, and cultural factors are involved

in physical health and illness. FOUNDATION OF HEALTH PSYCOLOGY: Foundations for Contemporary Health Psychology In ancient times and the middle ages there was a belief that spiritual disturbances caused disease. The development of early Greek Medicine and the advent of the Renaissance brought about a focus on physical causes for disease. Scientific advances in microscopy and human anatomy further advanced medicine. The contemporary view focuses on the balance between physical and mental well-being in the context of the social environment. The Emergence of Health Psychology The Modern Problem Life style choice APA division in 1978 Patterns of illness are changing. People are less likely to die from acute disorders and communicable disease (with the exception of AIDS). People are living longer with chronic diseases The Biomedical foundation to health and illness Dominant model for the past 300 years All illness can be explained on the basis of aberrant somatic process Reductionism Illness is reduced to microlevel processes i.e. chemical imbalances. Single-factor model Illness is due to one factor: a biological malfunction. Mind-body dualism The mind and the body are separate entities. Emphasis on illness over health Diseases come from outside the body and invade it, causing internal physical changes or Diseases originate in the body as internal, involuntary physical changes.

 Diseases are caused by chemical imbalances, bacteria, viruses or genetic predisposition. Individuals are not responsible for their illnesses, which are from biological changes beyond their control. People who are ill are victims. Treatment should consist of vaccination, surgery, chemotherapy or radio therapy, all of which aim to change the Physical state of the body. Responsibility for treatment lies with the medical profession, Health and illness are qualitatively different. You are either healthy or ill; there is no continuum between them. Mind and body function independently of each other. The abstract mind relates to feelings and thoughts and is incapable of influencing physical matter. Illness may have psychological consequences, but not psychological causes.

Illnesses Related Psychological and Behavioral Factors:

Stroke Heart disease HIV/AIDS Cancer Birth defects and infant mortality Infectious diseases

Current Issues in Health Psychology:

Stress reduction Weight management Smoking cessation Improving daily nutrition Reducing risky sexual behaviors Hospice care and grief counseling for terminal patients

DISEASE: An impairment of the normal state of the living or A pathological condition of a part, organ, or system of an organism resulting from various causes, such as infection, genetic

defect, or environmental stress, and characterized by an identifiable group of signs or symptoms. concept: Disease is a term for any condition that impairs the normal functioning of an organism or body.They can be divided into three categories.. 1.intrinsic, or coming from within the body 2.extrinsic, or emerging from outside it 3. unknown origin.

THEORIES: Theories about health and illness deal with the ideas people use to explain how to maintain a healthy state and why they become ill. Anthropologists often divide theories of illness into two broad categories: personalistic and naturalistic. In a personalistic system, illness is believed to be caused by the intervention of a sensate agent who may be a supernatural being (a deity or dead ancestor) or a human being with special powers (a witch or a sorcerer). The sick person's illness is considered to be a direct result of the malign influence of these agents. In naturalistic causation, illness is explained in impersonal terms. When the body is in balance with the natural environment, a state of health prevails. However, when that balance is disturbed, illness results. Often, people invoke both types of causation in explaining an episode of illness, and treatment may entail two corresponding types of therapy. PERSONALISTICS THEORY: According to personalistic theories of illness, illness may be linked to transgressions of a moral and spiritual nature. If someone has violated a social norm or breached a religious taboo, he or she may invoke the wrath of a deity, and sicknessas a form of divine punishmentmay result. Possession by evil spirits is also thought to be a cause of illness in many cultures. This may be due to inappropriate behavior on the part of the patient failure to carry out the proper rituals of respect for a dead ancestor, for exampleor it may be simply due to bad luck. Sometimes, one person's envy of another's good fortune is believed to exert a malign influence through the "evil eye," which can result in illness or other calamities. Witches and sorcerers are malevolent human beings who manipulate secret rituals and charms to bring calamity upon their enemies. Recovery from an illness arising from personalistic causes usually involves the use of ritual and symbolism, most often by practitioners who are specially trained in these arts. NATURALISTICS THEORY: Naturalistic theories of disease causation tend to view health as a state of harmony between a human being and his or her environment; when this balance is upset, illness will result. The humoral system is a naturalistic approach to illness whose roots are over two thousand

years old. Humoral concepts of health and illness are widely found in India, southeast Asia, China, and, in a somewhat different form, in Latin and South America. Maintaining humoral balance involves attention to appropriate diet and activity, including regulating one's diet according to the seasons. Illnesses may be categorized into those due to excess heat and those due to excess cold. Treatment of an illness of overheat would involve measures such as giving cooling food An important set of theories about health and illness, often called "vitalist" theories. When vital forces within the body flow in a harmonious pattern, a positive state of health is maintained. Illness results when this smooth flow of energy is disrupted, and therapeutic measures are aimed at restoring a normal flow of energy in the body. In China this vital force is known as "chi"; in India it is called "prana." In China the ancient art of acupuncture is based on this understanding of the body. Acupuncture needles are inserted at various points along the "meridians," or energy orientations, of the body. The stimulation of the needles helps to restore a proper flow of energy within the body. In India, yoga (particularly hatha yoga, the physical form of yoga) is used therapeutically to restore a balanced energy flow through body and mind. GERM THEORY:Biomedicine (modern traditional medicine) is founded on a naturalistic set of theories about the body, and these theories are continually evolving. One of the core theories of contemporary biomedicine, the germ theory of disease, is of relatively recent origin. According to an older biomedical concept, the miasma theory of disease, poisonous emanations from rotting vegetation or carcasses were believed to cause disease. By the mid-1800s, controversy still raged as to whether miasma or a waterborne pathogen was the cause for cholera. The "body-as-machine" metaphor has been a powerful way of conceptualizing the body within biomedicine, and a core assumption of the value system of biomedicine is that diagnosis and treatment should be based on scientific data. However, treatment approaches are often not rigorously analyzed scientifically before being employed therapeutically. For example, angina pectoris has been treated in a variety of ways, including with the use of xanthines, khellin, vitamin E ligation of the internal mammary artery, and implantation of this artery. These treatments were used for many years before controlled trials finally showed that the efficacy of these treatments were no better than placebo alone (Helman). Ritual and symbolism play important roles in the healing process in biomedicine, as they do in other healing systems. Taking a prescribed medication, for example, has a symbolic as well as a pharmacological effect. Symbolically, taking the medication may indicate to others that the person is unwell and is deserving of concern and sympathy. Surgical treatments such as coronary bypass surgery employ complex equipment and are performed in specialized settings. These settings and equipment all have powerful symbolic associations as well as technical functions. Rituals are patterned forms of behavior that have symbolic significance, that often help to provide a context of meaning in a strange or frightening situation. Both patients who undergo the surgery and surgeons who perform the surgery are involved in rituals that serve to order a life-changing event (i.e., major surgery). The processes of obtaining informed consent, getting a patient prepped for surgery, and complex stages of post-operative care all have ritual as well as technical functions.