Social Psychological Foundations of Health and Illness is a summary of current research in social-health psychology. The chapters, written by distinguished leaders in the field, provide brief surveys of classic developments in each area of study followed by extended discussion of the authors’ research programs. Includes state-of-the-art descriptions of new findings and theories concerning social aspects of physical health and illness. Discusses virtually all of the major topics studied in the contemporary field of social-health psychology. Contains chapters written by leading figures in the field that discuss their own research within the context of classic efforts.

Uniquely integrative and authoritative, this volume explores how advances in social psychology can deepen understanding and improve treatment of clinical problems. The role of basic psychological processes in mental health and disorder is examined by leading experts in social, clinical, and counseling psychology. Chapters present cutting-edge research on self and identity, self-regulation, interpersonal processes, social cognition, and emotion. The volume identifies specific ways that social psychology concepts, findings, and research methods can inform clinical assessment and diagnosis, as well as the development of effective treatments. Compelling topics include the social psychology of help seeking, therapeutic change, and the therapist–client relationship.

This open access book is a systematic update of the philosophical and scientific foundations of the biopsychosocial model of health, disease and healthcare. First proposed by George Engel 40 years ago, the Biopsychosocial Model is much cited in healthcare settings worldwide, but has been increasingly criticised for being vague, lacking in content, and in need of reworking in the light of recent developments. The book confronts the rapid changes to psychological science, neuroscience, healthcare, and philosophy that have occurred since the model was first proposed and addresses key issues such as the model’s scientific basis, clinical utility, and philosophical coherence. The authors conceptualise biology and the psychosocial as in the same ontological space, interlinked by systems of communication-based regulatory control which constitute a new kind of causation. These are distinguished from physical and chemical laws, most clearly because they can break down, thus providing the basis for difference between health and disease. This work offers an urgent update to the model’s scientific and philosophical foundations, providing a new and coherent account of causal interactions between the biological, the psychological and social.

This book is intended as a core textbook for courses in public health that examines current issues in health from a social and behavioral science perspective. It is a cross-disciplinary course (public health, medical sociology, health psychology, medical anthropology) and thus there are many ways to teach the course based on a particular instructor's perspective. The authors wrote the book because they were dissatisfied with the way other texts apply social science to public health and found that many texts being used were from related fields such as medicine, nursing or general health.The authors are planning to do a major revision based on reviews they have collected and the reviews we have collected. We believe the revised edition will essentially be a new text based on rich feedback. They will include new theory, new cases, new research, and a rich ancillary package. They will also reduce the frameworks presented to make the book more readable to students.

An introduction to how social psychological theories, methods and interventions can be applied to manage real-world social problems.

The field of public health is primarily concerned with understanding and improving physical health from a large group perspective (i.e., communities and whole populations). The field of social neuroscience, on the other hand, is primarily concerned with examining brain-behavior relationships that unfold in a social context. Both of these are rapidly developing fields of inquiry, and their boundaries have only recently begun to overlap. This book discusses collaborative research findings at the intersection of social neuroscience and public health that promise to fundamentally change the way scientists, public health practitioners, and the general public view physical health within the larger social context. Eighteen chapters are organized under the following major sections: cognition and health outcomes; neuroscientific aspects of health communication; health behavior and the neurobiology of self-regulation; neurobiological processes in health decision making; ecological and social context; neuroscience methods; and future directions.

Health psychology is the scientific study of psychological processes related to health and health care. Although the field is only 25 years old, it has burgeoned into a major scientific and clinical discipline. Health psychology has excellent scientific journals, thousands of scientists and practitioners, and many students. Yet, there has not been a sufficient statement or explication of the foundational concepts upon which this flourishing field is built.Foundations of Health Psychology brings together top experts to provide a much-needed conceptual base for this rapidly expanding field. Rather than take a medical model approach, the volume examines health psychology from a theoretical, conceptual, and psychological perspective. After presenting an overview of the field's history and methods, the contributors address core concepts of the biopsychosocial approach to health and then discuss applications to health promotion and illness prevention and treatment.Providing a deep understanding of the intellectual foundations of health psychology, this volume will be invaluable for both new and experienced researchers, as well as students and other scholars seeking a firm basis for successful research and practice.