Health psychologists seek to identify the behaviors and experiences that promote health, lead to illness,
influence the effectiveness of health care, and recommend improvements to health policy in their life. There
are many examples of this. Smoking, diet, and lack of regular exercise all contribute to the formation of
disease. There are some minor associations between illness and individual characteristics such as personality.
For example, it is claimed that individuals with thrill seeking personalities are more likely to drive fast,
making them more likely to injure themselves in car accidents. And also that people distrustful of physicians
will not get regular checkups.
Factors that lead to the behaviors that cause illness are of interest because they help psychologists to predict
who is most susceptible to illness and why. There are many contributing factors that help determine our
behaviors, and all of the dimensions of the Biopsychosocial model can be applied to understand these
interconnections. Biologically, physical addiction plays an important role in smoking cessation. As does the
psychological dependency on tobacco brought about largely by seductive advertising and other forms of
tobacco promotion. Psychologically, people with high stress jobs are more likely to develop cardiovascular
disease. Socially, people with low incomes have less access to health resources and screening processes.
They also are exposed to greater environmental toxigens, lower levels of education, poorer housing, less
healthy foods, higher smoking prevalence, and many other toxic socially determined living conditions.
Health psychologists also aim to change health behaviors for the dual purpose of helping people stay
healthy and helping patients adhere to disease treatment regimens. Cognitive behavioral therapy and
behavior modification are techniques often used for this purpose.
influence the effectiveness of health care, and recommend improvements to health policy in their life. There
are many examples of this. Smoking, diet, and lack of regular exercise all contribute to the formation of
disease. There are some minor associations between illness and individual characteristics such as personality.
For example, it is claimed that individuals with thrill seeking personalities are more likely to drive fast,
making them more likely to injure themselves in car accidents. And also that people distrustful of physicians
will not get regular checkups.
Factors that lead to the behaviors that cause illness are of interest because they help psychologists to predict
who is most susceptible to illness and why. There are many contributing factors that help determine our
behaviors, and all of the dimensions of the Biopsychosocial model can be applied to understand these
interconnections. Biologically, physical addiction plays an important role in smoking cessation. As does the
psychological dependency on tobacco brought about largely by seductive advertising and other forms of
tobacco promotion. Psychologically, people with high stress jobs are more likely to develop cardiovascular
disease. Socially, people with low incomes have less access to health resources and screening processes.
They also are exposed to greater environmental toxigens, lower levels of education, poorer housing, less
healthy foods, higher smoking prevalence, and many other toxic socially determined living conditions.
Health psychologists also aim to change health behaviors for the dual purpose of helping people stay
healthy and helping patients adhere to disease treatment regimens. Cognitive behavioral therapy and
behavior modification are techniques often used for this purpose.
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