Health Psychology

Definition of health psychology

It is nothing but understanding psychological and behavioural processes in health, illness and healthcare.

Why is health psychology important?

It is important because it promotes the learning of both mind and body. They both have an impact on each other in both beneficial and detrimental ways. Every illness in the body has a connection with the mind. It is difficult to understand their relations. This relationship is effectively taught to people as well as doctors by health psychologists.

Health psychology has its classification and goals. The below content gives you what health psychology actually does in the society.

^{Health Psychology: Source: Activewin}

Goals of health psychology

• It's first and foremost goal is to prevent illness.

• Performing investigation on the impacts of diseases.

• Doctor-patient communication is improved

• Preventive measures are being researched

• Research have done on new diseases in order to find it's recovery.

• Awareness and proper guidance are given

Focuses on health psychology

• Clinical psychology

• Public psychology

• Community psychology

• Critical psychology

Clinical psychology

It is concerned with assessment and treatment of mental illness and abnormal behaviour.

^{Clinical Psychology- Source: BatraHospital}

What clinical psychologist do?

• Identify psychological and emotional behaviour of the people.

• Diagnose psychological, emotional or behavioural disorders.

• Develop and help clients to manage their emotions

• Teach the clients about their emotions and psychological behaviours

• Monitoring the clients through regular meetings.

• They understand their client's behaviour by conducting interviews and interactive sessions with their clients.

• Then they make a report on their client's emotions and behaviour in order to give better treatment to their clients.

How will this benefit the people in the society?

• It helps them to understand their self-potential.

• They learn to handle their emotions and stresses.

• It helps students to concentrate on their studies by attaining a self-control.

Public psychology

It focuses on health at the population level as opposed to individual health.

What public psychologist do?

• They aim to deal with emotional behaviours and illness at population levels.

• They mainly concentrate on a large population.

• They try to minimise smokers and other nutritional disorders.

• They collect information over a population by conducting surveys and research.

• They also work for private consultants and organizations.

• They develop programs to educate the people about the relations between emotional and psychological behaviours.

How will this benefit the people in the society?

• They benefit the society by conducting campaigns.

• For example, if the ill effects of smoking are taught to the crowd, there will be a chance to quit smoking.

• This leads to a reduction in smoking at population levels.

• Likewise, they conduct campaigns and programs with accurate statistics to educate the people at population levels.

• As a result, the common people acquire some knowledge about specific prevailing diseases and try to prevent them from those diseases.

Community psychology

It concentrates more on the health factors of the individual.

What community psychologist do?

• As they are more concerned about individual health, they try out figure health habits from school level.

• They also concentrate on health and wellness

• They tend to play multiple roles as educators, program planners, professors, consultants according to the needs of the individual.

• They analyse government, civic life and workplace settings in order to understand and improve fair participation.

How will this benefit the people in the society?

• As they try to take care of the children, they tend to learn their disabilities, behaviours.

• It helps the children to stay positive even with disabilities

• As a result, it paves the way for a positive future generation.

• Their moral support and concern towards the children as well as adults with disabilities build a positive community.

• Health and wellness awareness paves the way to a healthy community.

^{A Festival of Community Psychology- Source-TheBritishPsychologicalSociety}

Critical psychology

Their aim is to give importance to all people in spite of their racial minorities, age, gender. They take care of their health and treat them as equally important.

What critical psychologist do?

• They deal with creative, mental, personality well being of the individual.

• They give equal preference to the poor people.

• They work for the empowerment of the people.

• It tries to find the social cause for the psychological problem.

How will this benefit the people in the society?

• As they give importance equally to everyone, the poor people also improve their health.

• They come forward to tell their health issues

• This paves the way for the overall development of the society in spite of rich and poor.

• They strongly emphasise on the health of all gender and race.

Benefits of psychology in the society

^{Benefits of Psychology: Source- Prezi}

^{5 Pillars of Psychology: Source: Lumen}

Health-related facts of psychology

• Our reaction to a situation literally has the power to change the situation itself.

• When you are near a tree or plant, your brain secrets certain chemicals which boosts your thinking capacity.

• Even eating an orange reduces stress.

• Reading for at least 30 minutes a day can help you live almost two years longer.

• Your brain does more creative work when you are tired

• Optimistic beliefs about the future can prevent people from physical and mental illness

• Research has found that good relationships are more important for a longer life than exercise

• Depression is a result of overthinking. Mind creates new problems which didn't even exist.

^{Facts on Health- Source: ScoopWhoop}

By knowing the focused areas of health psychology, one's life pattern could be changed in a better way. It promotes healthy living for a person. So health psychology is more important to live healthy and to prevent illness.

"Psychology is meant for only mental illness", this is a myth. It is meant for all people for emotional, health, psychological behaviours.