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Health Psychology

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Health Studies

Overview

Psychology focuses on what people believe and how they behave; health psychology explores how these beliefs and behaviours relate to health and illness. This chapter focuses on the beliefs that individuals have about health and illness and how these beliefs relate to their health behaviours and subsequently their health status. Part 1 explores the contribution of psychology to studying health and illness, describing the background to psychology and highlighting the importance of beliefs concerning health and illness on the part of laypeople and health professionals. Pain is used as an example of the role of psychology in the experience of illness. Part 2 describes the models that have been developed within health psychology, in particular focusing on the structured models of health beliefs and the self-regulatory model of illness behaviour. Finally, the case study on diet, eating habits and obesity explores in depth how psychological theories can be applied to a topical health issue.

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Further Reading

  • Connor, M., & Norman, P. (Eds.). (2015). Predicting Health Behaviours (3rd ed.). Open University Press. Thorough description of social cognition models and the extent to which they influence health related behaviour.

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  • Ogden, J. (2010). The Psychology of Eating: From Healthy to Disordered Behaviour (2nd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. Detailed account of the relevant literature if you are interested in eating disorders or obesity.

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  • Ogden, J. (2018). The Psychology of Dieting. Routledge. This book was written for health care professionals to outline the psychology behind overeating and the factors that infuence the failure and success of dieting and obesity management.

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  • Ogden, J. (2019). Health Psychology: A Textbook (6th ed.). McGraw Hill. Comprehensive overview of health psychology covering a range of health psychology areas of research and theory. The current chapter was based on this book.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

    Jane Ogden

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  1. Jane Ogden
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Correspondence to Jane Ogden .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health, Community & Policy Studies, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK

    Jennie Naidoo

  2. London South Bank University, London, UK

    Jane Wills

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Ogden, J. (2022). Health Psychology. In: Naidoo, J., Wills, J. (eds) Health Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2149-9_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2149-9_6

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