338 Pages
    by Routledge

    338 Pages
    by Routledge

    The new edition of Health Psychology is the perfect introduction to this rapidly developing field. Throughout the book, the psychological processes that shape health-related behaviors, and affect core functions such as the immune and cardiovascular systems, are clearly explained. These relationships provide the foundation for psychological interventions which can change cognition, perception and behavior, thereby improving health.

    The book is split into five sections, and builds to provide a comprehensive overview of the field:

    • the biological basis of health and illness
    • stress and health
    • coping resources: social support and individual differences
    • motivation and behavior
    • relating to patients

    Extensively revised to include new material on behavioral change, the role of stress, resilience and social support, recovery from work, and the care of people with chronic disease, the book also includes a range of features which highlight key issues, and engage readers in applying what we have learned from research.

    This is essential reading for any undergraduates studying this exciting field for the first time, and the perfect primer for those embarking on postgraduate study.

    Series Preface.  Preface.  1. Introduction to health psychology  Section 1: Biological bases of health and illness  2. Biopsychosocial pathways to health and illness  Section 2: Stress and health  3. Stress theory and research  4. Stress and health in context  Section 3: Coping resources: social support and individual differences  5. Coping and social support  6. Personality and health  Section 4: Motivation and behaviour  7. Health cognition and health behaviours  8. Changing motivation  9. Changing behaviour  Section 5: Relating to patients  10. Relating to patients  11. Future directions, roles and competencies.  References.  Index

    Biography

    Charles Abraham is Professor of Psychology Applied to Health at the University of Exeter Medical School.

    Mark Conner is Professor of Applied Social Psychology at the University of Leeds.

    Fiona Jones is Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of Psychological Sciences, University of Leeds.

    Daryl O'Connor is Professor of Psychology at the University of Leeds.

    This is an incredibly useful text, suitable for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in Health Psychology. It covers all of the core issues in contemporary Health Psychology, and the authors have combined expertise which spans the many different facets of the discipline which are covered in this book. Dr Michael Smith, Northumbria University, UK