Applications of Health Psychology

8/8/2019 Applications of Health Psychology

1/13

Applications of Health Psychology

[edit] Improving doctor-patient communication

Health psychologists attempt to aid the process of communication between physicians

and patients during medical consultations. There are many problems in this process, withpatients showing a considerable lack of understanding of many medical terms,

particularly anatomical terms (e.g., intestines).[19] One main area of research on this topic

involves 'doctor-centered' or 'patient-centered' consultations. Doctor-centered

consultations are generally directive, with the patient answering questions and playingless of a role in decision-making. Although this style is preferred by elderly people and

others, many people dislike the sense of hierarchy or ignorance that it inspires. They

prefer patient-centered consultations, which focus on the patient's needs, involve thedoctor listening to the patient completely before making a decision, and involving the

patient in the process of choosing treatment and finding a diagnosis. [20]

[edit] Improving adherence to medical advice

Getting people to follow medical advice and adhere to their treatment regimens is a

difficult task for health psychologists. People often forget to take their pills or are

inhibited by the side effects of their medicines. Failing to take prescribed medication iscostly and wastes millions of usable medicines that could otherwise help other people.

Estimated adherence rates are difficult to measure (see below); there is, however,

evidence that adherence could be improved by tailoring treatment programs toindividuals' daily lives.[21]

[edit] Ways of measuring adherence

Health psychologists have identified a number of ways of measuring patients' adherence

to medical regimens.

Counting the number of pills in the medicine bottle - although this has problemswith privacy and/or could be deemed patronizing or showing lack of trust in

patients

Using self-reports - although patients may fail to return the self-report or lie about

their adherence Asking a doctor or health worker - although this presents problems on doctor-

patient confidentiality

Using 'Trackcap' bottles, which track the number of times the bottle is opened;however, this either raises problems ofinformed consent or, if informed consent

is obtained, influence through demand characteristics.[22]

[edit] Managing pain
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Health_psychology&action=edit&section=9http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_psychology#cite_note-18%23cite_note-18http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_psychology#cite_note-19%23cite_note-19http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Health_psychology&action=edit&section=10http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_psychology#cite_note-20%23cite_note-20http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Health_psychology&action=edit&section=11http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informed_consenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_characteristicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_psychology#cite_note-21%23cite_note-21http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Health_psychology&action=edit&section=12http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Health_psychology&action=edit&section=9http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_psychology#cite_note-18%23cite_note-18http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_psychology#cite_note-19%23cite_note-19http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Health_psychology&action=edit&section=10http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_psychology#cite_note-20%23cite_note-20http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Health_psychology&action=edit&section=11http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informed_consenthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demand_characteristicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_psychology#cite_note-21%23cite_note-21http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Health_psychology&action=edit&section=12


2/13

Health psychology attempts to find treatments to reduce and eliminate pain, as well as

understand pain anomalies such as episodic analgesia,causalgia,neuralgia, andphantom

limb pain. Although the task of measuring and describing pain has been problematic, thedevelopment of the McGill Pain Questionnaire[23] has helped make progress in this area.

Treatments for pain involve patient-administered analgesia, acupuncture (found by

Berman to be effective in reducing pain forosteoarthritisof the knee[24]

),biofeedback,andcognitive behavior therapy.

in philosophy, any theory that mind and body are distinct kinds of substances or natures.

This position implies that mind and body not only differ in meaning but refer to different

kinds of entities. Thus, a dualist would oppose any theory that identifies mind with thebrain, conceived as a physical mechanism.

The modern problem of the relationship of mind to body stems from the thought ofRen

Descartes, a 17th-century French philosopher and mathematician, who gave dualism its

classical formulation. Beginning from his famous Cogito, ergo sum (Latin: I think,

therefore I am), Descartes developed a theory of mind as an immaterial, nonextendedsubstance that engages in various activities such as rational thought, imagining, feeling,

and willing. Matter, or extended substance, conforms to the laws of physics inmechanistic fashion, with the important exception of thehuman body, which Descartes

believed is causally affected by the human mind and which causally produces certain

mental events. For example, willing the arm to be raised causes it to be raised, whereasbeing hit by a hammer on the finger causes the mind to feel pain. This part of Descartess

dualistic theory, known as interactionism, raises one of the chief problems faced by

Descartes: the question how this causal interaction is possible.

This problem gave rise to other varieties of dualism, such as occasionalism and some

forms of parallelism that do not require direct causal interaction. Occasionalismmaintains that apparent links between mental and physical events are the result of Gods

constant causal action. Parallelism also rejects causal interaction but without constant

divine intervention. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, a 17th-century German rationalist andmathematician, saw mind and body as two perfectly correlated series, synchronized like

two clocks at their origin by God in apreestablished harmony.

The Western concept of the Mind-Body Connection

went through five different stages:

1. Natural Philosophies always start with the Physical,2. The birth of Holism,

3. Interest in the Stresses of Modern Life,

4. Development of the Wellness Movement, and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analgesiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causalgiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causalgiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causalgiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuralgiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_limb_painhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_limb_painhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGill_Pain_Questionnairehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_psychology#cite_note-22%23cite_note-22http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_psychology#cite_note-22%23cite_note-22http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analgesiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acupuncturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteoarthritishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteoarthritishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteoarthritishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_psychology#cite_note-23%23cite_note-23http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofeedbackhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavior_therapyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavior_therapyhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/158787/Rene-Descarteshttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/158787/Rene-Descarteshttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/158787/Rene-Descarteshttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/124443/cogito-ergo-sumhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/275485/human-bodyhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/275485/human-bodyhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/275485/human-bodyhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/424157/occasionalismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/166602/divine-interventionhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/335266/Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibnizhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/474606/preestablished-harmonyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analgesiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causalgiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuralgiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_limb_painhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_limb_painhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McGill_Pain_Questionnairehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_psychology#cite_note-22%23cite_note-22http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analgesiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acupuncturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteoarthritishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_psychology#cite_note-23%23cite_note-23http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofeedbackhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavior_therapyhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/158787/Rene-Descarteshttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/158787/Rene-Descarteshttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/124443/cogito-ergo-sumhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/275485/human-bodyhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/424157/occasionalismhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/166602/divine-interventionhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/335266/Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibnizhttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/474606/preestablished-harmony


3/13

5. Formulation of the complete Biopsychosocial

Model of Health, Wellness, and Illness.

in its historical development.

Contents of a History of the Mind-Body Connection

"For centuries and long before the first glimmerings of modern science,physicians and non-physicians alike have acknowledged that the waypeople felt in their minds could influence the way they responded in theirbodies. When prevailing medical theory denied the very possibility of suchinteractions, common experience and sometimes quite startling clinicalencounters suggested otherwise."[32]

1. The Greek Period2. The Greco-Roman Period3. The 1500s--the Renaissance4. Modern life begins between the 1870s and 1880s5. Progressive Era of Health Care Reform (1890-1920)6. The Next Millennium (2000-)7. References

History of the Old World"The close relationship of emotions to disease [has] been

... central to the long history of medical

practice."[33]

The Greek Period

Health could be maintained in the eyes of the ancient Greeks by adopting atemperate lifestyle of moderation. Health, beauty and happiness were the mostimportant goals in life for the ancient Greeks. Physical fitness was seen by them as its

own reward.

{Start with the Physical}"This story begins as did so manyother components of our culture, in Greek and Roman
http://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/history-mind-body-connection.html#Greek%20Period%23Greek%20Periodhttp://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/history-mind-body-connection.html#Greco-Roman%20Period%23Greco-Roman%20Periodhttp://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/history-mind-body-connection.html#1500s--the%20Renaissance%231500s--the%20Renaissancehttp://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/history-mind-body-connection.html#Modern%20life%20begins%20between%20the%201870s%20and%201880s%23Modern%20life%20begins%20between%20the%201870s%20and%201880shttp://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/history-mind-body-connection.html#Progressive%20Era%23Progressive%20Erahttp://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/history-mind-body-connection.html#The%20Next%20Millennium%20(2000-)%23The%20Next%20Millennium%20(2000-)http://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/history-mind-body-connection.html#References%23Referenceshttp://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/history-mind-body-connection.html#Greek%20Period%23Greek%20Periodhttp://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/history-mind-body-connection.html#Greco-Roman%20Period%23Greco-Roman%20Periodhttp://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/history-mind-body-connection.html#1500s--the%20Renaissance%231500s--the%20Renaissancehttp://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/history-mind-body-connection.html#Modern%20life%20begins%20between%20the%201870s%20and%201880s%23Modern%20life%20begins%20between%20the%201870s%20and%201880shttp://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/history-mind-body-connection.html#Progressive%20Era%23Progressive%20Erahttp://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/history-mind-body-connection.html#The%20Next%20Millennium%20(2000-)%23The%20Next%20Millennium%20(2000-)http://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/history-mind-body-connection.html#References%23References


4/13

antiquity where medicine first emerged as a secularactivity independent of religion. There Hippocrates (ca. 460B.C.Bca. 370 B.C.) and his followers combined naturalisticcraft knowledge with ancient science and philosophy to

produce the first systematic explanations of the behaviorof the human body in health and illness. ... They made thefirst attempts to understand emotions as mental

phenomena which had surprising and complexconnections to physiological order and pathologicaldisorder."[34]

o "Emotional factors played only a minor role in thesubsequent development of classical medicalthought because authors after Hippocrates continuedto rely primarily on humoral-reductionism and did not

actively pursue emotional causal elements."[34] {Start with the Physical}Plato, throughout his writings,

emphasized the importance of bodily exercise for developingthe mind. His ideal was the harmonious perfection of the body,mind, and psyche. Bodily exercise was one of the methods thatPlato advocated in his Republic.

The Greco-Roman Period

The Greco-Roman culture encouraged the development of physical perfection.

{Start with the Physical}Roman motto: Mens sana in corporesano, A sane mind in a sound body.

The 1500s--the Renaissance

The humanistic revival of classical art, architecture, literature, and learning that

originated in Italy and later spreads throughout Europe. "Ideas about the 'balance ofthe passions' were popular in the Renaissance and early modern

periods."[34]

{Holism}Paracelsus (1493-1541), the father of modernmedicine, insisted on treating the whole being ratherthan merely the part displaying disease. Of course littleelse of Paracelsian medicine is desirable. His teachingemphasized toxic pharmaceutical preparations of poisonousmetals like mercury, lead, arsenic and antimony. The human


5/13

mind will eventually be viewed as being a part of thewhole person. The concept of holism will evolve,beginning at the end of the 19th century, to include thenotion that stress, or our mental states, has an impactupon our physical health.

History of the New World

The 1700s--the Colonies

The system of medicine prevailing in the Colonies in the years immediately preceding the

American Revolution, was that of the Dutch physician and teacher Hermann Boerhaave

(1668-1738). The Boerhaavian theory of disease explained it in terms of chemical andphysical qualities, such as acidity and alkalinity, or tension and relaxation. The

Boerhaavian system was increasingly being challenged in the second half of the 18thcentury by the theories ofWilliam Cullen (1710-1790), a Scottish physician and teacher.Cullen held that an excess or an insufficiency of nervous tension was the cause of all

disease. Too much tension was often characterized by a fever, to be treated by a

depleting regiment including bleeding, a restricted diet, purging, and rest and sedation. Acold or chill, on the other hand, indicated too much relaxation and called for restorative

measures

.

Antebellum America--Age of Romanticism

"By the mid-nineteenth century, however, a place was secured foremotions in connection with disease even as post mortem anatomy andcellular pathology advanced. Already in the eighteenth century WilliamCullen had noted that patients with certain major disorders -- 'insanity', forexample -- did not always show the expected organic lesions upon postmortem dissection. ... Cullen and Robert Whytt were two of the many

physicians who turned to the nervous system to find a physiologicalconnection between emotions and disease. ... By the 1840s and 1850s,functional disorders of the nervous system (also called "neuroses") andthe emotional causes that precipitated them had become a major area of

clinical study."[34]

1800s>{Medicine}"Intellectuals and lay people alike werestrongly committed to these ideas in the seventeenth andeighteenth centuries. While certain philosophical fashionswithin the medical community changed to reflect theScientific Revolution going on around it, much medical


6/13

practice remained traditional and fundamentally unaltered.Consideration of the role of the imagination and of strongemotions in the onset and course of illnesses continuedinto the nineteenth century."[34]

1840s-1850>{Medicine}"By the 1840s and 1850s hysteriawas a serious subject in medical textbooks and inseparate, often massively detailed studies."[35]

Americans who lived through the second half of the

nineteenth century experienced the most

fundamental changes in how people experienced

reality since the start of Western civilization.

Postbellum America

Health care is centered on the individual practitioner, rather than on the institution or in

science.

1859>{Science}Charles Darwin publishes his On the Origin ofSpecies, in LondonA growing loss of faith and anacceptance of the authority of Science accompanied

Darwinism."In this turbulent [American] society, whichstressed individualism over community, the psychologist

[would soon] replace the priest, as people sought respitefrom their confusion and unhappiness."[17]

1865>{Medicine}The Civil War comes to an end. "In the post-war period, physicians developed an interest in war-induced stress, and soon identified similar syndromes inthe normal population."[17]

Modern life begins between the 1870s and 1880s.

The pace of life begins to speed up. People began to notice how the acceleration of the

perception of the duration of time and the apparent shortening of physical distances was

inducing stress in them. Americans who lived through the second half of the

nineteenth century experienced the greatest, most fundamental changes ever

experienced by mankind: electricity, telephone, telegraph, and the railroad.[1]

Western notions of stress was a direct consequence of theses technological accelerations


7/13

that began to really take off during the second half of the 19th century. People in ourmodern times have to do more things, with less and less time to do them in.

1869>{Modern Stress}George Beard, MD, a neurologist, wrote:Neurasthenia, or nervous exhaustion, an article published in a

medical journal. Neurasthenia, or Nervous Exhaustion, wasdefined as a condition of general malaise, and was attributed byBeard to the stresses of modern life. Beard completed his pre-med studies at Yale in 1862, and received his medical degreefrom New York's College of Physician's (now known asColumbia University) in 1866. He became a member of theCollege of Physicians and Surgeons of New York in 1886. Beard,a real physician, was one of the most important Americanelectrotherapists of the 19th century. His contemporary criticsreferred to him as the P.T. Barnum of medicine. Beard'snervous exhaustion of neurasthenia would eventuallydevelop into the modern concepts of Chronic-Fatigue-Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and Multiple ChemicalSensitivities.[2],[13]

1876>{Faster is Better?}Alexander Graham Bell patents thetelephone.

1876>{Faster is Better?}Wind-up alarm clocks were firstintroduced by Seth Thomas.

1881>{Modern Stress}George Beard, MD wroteAmerican

Nervousness. Neurasthenia was first described as Americannervousness. Beard saw a significant correlation between

American social organization and nervous illness. Beard wrote:"American nervousness is the product of Americancivilization."Unlike other countries, America offered itsinhabitants the possibility of unlimited freedom which resultedin unlimited ambition among the populace. Beard wrote: "It haslong seemed the especial province of Americans to abuse theirnerves from the cradle to the grave."A deficiency in nervousenergy was the price exacted by industrialized urban societies,competitive business and social environments, and the luxuries,

vices, and excesses of modern life. "The chief and primarycause of ... [the] very rapid increase of nervousness ismodern civilization, which is distinguished from theancient [civilizations] by these five characteristics:steampower, the periodical press, the telegraph, the


8/13

sciences, and the mental activity of women."Americannervousness was alarmingly frequent "among the well-to-doand the intellectual, and especially among those in the

professions and in the higher walks of business life, whoare in deadly earnest in the race for place and power."[14]

1881>{Faster is Better?}Frederick Taylor (1856-1915)introduces time-motion studies, where workers' movements aredictated in order to maximize efficiency and boost speed.

1884>{Modern Stress}George Beard, MD, wrote: PracticalTreatise on Nervous Exhaustion (Neurasthenia). It was one ofthe first books to express the concept that your mentallife can have a profound negative impact upon yourphysical health.[15]

1884>{Wellness} Julia Anderson Root published the Healing

Power of the Mind.

Progressive Era of Health Care Reform (1890-1920)

"The late 19th century spawned the psychoanalytical enterprise, the shiftfrom priest to therapist, and the abnegation of personal responsibility inthe face of social turmoil. By medicalizing neurosis, the early

psychologists and physicians initiated a disturbing trend that has nowreached crisis proportions."[17] "By the turn of the 20th century,neurasthenia had become a medical phenomenon on both sides of the

Atlantic and neurologists found themselves sharing authority over the

illness. Homeopaths, eclectics, general practitioners, and gynecologists inEurope and America tried their hand at treating the condition, each puttingtheir discipline's own spin on the illness. ... Cases of neurasthenia reacheda peak near the turn of the 20th century, and by the 1930s fewer and fewer

physicians were diagnosing the disease. There are a number ofexplanations for this decline, including modern medicine's abandonmentof the 'nervous energy' model of health and the rise of Freud's

psychoanalysis as a way of explaining and treating psychosomaticdisorders."[4]

{Biomedicine} During the Progressive Era, medicine chose to

look to the biological roots of disease rather than to the illnessas experienced by the patient. The basic structures oftwentieth-century American medicine--its focus onbiomedical science, its reliance on technologicallybased hospital care, and its systems for medicaleducation and training--were firmly in place by the endof the Progressive Era.[5]


9/13

1890s>{Faster is Better?}The popularity of new sportsgoverned by the clock, like football and basketball, growsdramatically.

1893>{Psychoanalysis}Sigmund Freud and Josef Breuerpublish their paper On the Psychical Mechanism of HystericalPhenomena in Europe, marking the beginning of thepsychoanalysis movement. Hysteria was thought to be caused

by undischarged emotional energy.o "The next major stage in the unfolding of the

relationship between emotions and disease beganwith the deeper exploration of one of the neuroses:hysteria. This complex disorder was long known inmedicine but not until the seventeenth andeighteenth centuries was it seriously associated with

the nervous system or emotional causation."[35] 1902>{Wellness} William James in his The Varieties of

Religious Experience wrote: "The Religion of Healthy-Mindedness has recently poured over America and seemsto be gathering force every day."[8]

1909>{Mind-Body Connection}Richard Cabot, MD (1868-1939)publishes his Social Service and the Art of Healingand wrote:"I found myself constantly baffled and discouraged when itcame to treatment. Treatment in more than half of thecases...involved an understanding of the patient'seconomic situation and economic means, but still more ofhis mentality, his character, his previous mental andindustrial history, all that brought him to his presentcondition in which sickness, fear, worry, and poverty werefound inextricably mingled."[6]

1909>{Psychoanalysis}The psychoanalysis movement firstreceives public recognition in the United States when SigmundFreud and Jung were invited to give a series of lectures at ClarkUniversity in Worcester, Mass.

1920s-1930s>{Medicine}"In the 1920s and 1930s conversionhysteria gained popularity as a general medical notion, as

psychoanalysts joined internists and other physicians inexploring the meaning of hysterical symptoms."[35]

1920s>{Psychosomatic Medicine} Walter Bradford Cannoncoined the phrase fight or flightresponse when he discovered the


10/13

relationship between the stress of perceived danger andneuroendocrine responses in animals.[18]

1936s>{Psychosomatic Medicine}Hans Selye coined the phraseGeneral Adaptation Syndrome where stressors like cold andheat produce a generalized response in biological organisms asthey respond with automatic somatic reactions.[23]

1937>{Mind-Body Connection}Joseph Pilates publishes hisYour Health where he writes about achieving a "balance ofmind and body"and "the natural development ofcoordinated physical and mental (normal) health and the

prevention, rather than the cure of disease."In 1945 hewrote Return to Life where Pilates wrote for the first time aboutthe the stresses of modern life. Pilates was ahead of his time inhis booklets on a number of different issues, such as the mind-

body connection, wellness, the benefits of mind-body exercise,and functional exercise.[6]

1938>{Psychosomatic Medicine}Dr. E Jacobson in hisProgressive Relaxation book developed a relaxation techniquethat claimed anxiety is caused by skeletal muscle contractions.

1940s>{Psychosomatic Medicine}"World War II acceleratedthe growth of psychosomatic medicine even further."[35]

1940s>{Psychosomatic Medicine}Henry Beecher coined thephraseplacebo effect. He discovered during World War II thatpain experienced by wounded soldiers could be controlled withsaline injections. Subsequent research will soon show that up to35 percent of a therapeutic response to any medical treatmentcould be attributed to the power of belief.[19]

1940s>{Wellness}During the 1940s the self-help movementbecame increasingly more psychologically oriented and wasdevoid of religious overtones.[9]

1940s>{Psychosomatic Medicine} Harold G. Wolff moved fromCannon's fight-or-flightself-defense disease model to a moregeneralized notion of stress and disease where people respond

to stressful situations or events.[20] 1950s>{Psychosomatic Medicine} Medicine started to abandon

all ideas derived from psychoanalysis (i.e.., role of unconsciousemotions, early childhood experiences, etc.).[21] Psychotherapy

was replaced by stress reduction and increased reliance on thedrug therapy of biomedicine.[22] The public, however, soughtto fight off the effects of modern stress in two different basic
http://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/joseph-pilates.htmlhttp://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/your-health.htmlhttp://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/return-to-life.htmlhttp://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/joseph-pilates.htmlhttp://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/your-health.htmlhttp://naturalhealthperspective.com/tutorials/return-to-life.html


11/13

ways. Either normal people sought out psychotherapyfor help or they turned to the wellness movement. Onefamous example of the psychotherapy approach is the filmdirector Woody Allen

1950s>{Psychosomatic Medicine} Hans Selye became the bestknown proponent of the role played by stress in psychosomatictheory.[24] Selye published forty books and over 1,700scientific papers in the course of his career. He wrote for thepublic books like The Story of the Adaptive Syndrome (1952),The Stress of Life (1956 and 1976), and Stress Without Distress(1974).[25]

1950s>{Wellness}"However fashionable psychosomaticmedicine became, it was by no means the only way Americans

pursued their interest in the relationship between emotions and

disease.A long-standing tradition of mental self-help, notdirected by physicians and concentrating on overt and

positive rather than covert and negative feelings, began inthe late nineteenth century and was still strong in the1950s and 1960s. This tradition had consistently focusedattention on proactive ways people could become more

positive and optimistic about life, master their moods, andfix their physical ills without taking medications. Peoplecould align their thoughts and constructively adjust theirattitudes. Because mind and body were assumed to beclosely interconnected ... it was taken for granted thatharmonizing one's emotions in a positive way would,unquestionably, improve one's physical well-being."[36]

1950s>{Wellness}Halbert Dunn, a physician, began using thephrase high level wellness in the fifties, based on a weeklyseries of thirteen lectures at an Unitarian Universalist Church in

Arlington, Virginia, in the United States.[11] 1961>{Wellness}Halbert Dunn published High Level Wellness.

Wellness comes to mean a new concept of health where there is

more to health than a mere absence of disease.Wellness nowrefers to a healthy balance of the mind-body and spiritthat results in an overall feeling of well-being. Themodern concern with wellness did not, however, become reallypopular until the 1970's.[11],[12]

1969>{Psychosomatic Medicine}Neil E. Miller, a pioneer inbiofeedback research, showed that it was possible to apply the


12/13

principles of operatant behavior shaping towards alteringinternal bodily functions, like heart rate. Miller's Viscerallearning would later come to be known as biofeedback. Millerestablished that man could learn to control hisinvoluntary or autonomic nervous system.[37]

1970s>{Modern Stress} It was becoming increasinglyclear to the public that the stresses of modern life, thework place, and your home life could adversely affectyour health. More researchers were also starting tointroduced biofeedbackas a practical method of managinghypertension and a variety of other health conditions withoutthe use of drugs.[30]

1972>{Psychosomatic Medicine}George Engel coined thephrase conservation-withdrawalas an alternative to the current

stress model. He conceptualized psychobiological threats to anindividual s well-being in terms of losses and deprivationsthat caused the organism to become withdrawn, depressed andshut-down with depressed physiological functions that createda pathway to illness and death.[26]

1974>{Mind-Body Connection} Meyer Friedman and RayRosenman published Type A Behavior and Your Heart.[28]

1974>{Mind-Body Connection}Herbert Benson coined thephrase relaxation response.[29] And publishes a book on it in1975 which promoted it as a counter to modern stress. Benson

viewed the relaxation response as being opposite to the fight-or-flightresponse. Both of these responses involved physiologicalchanges in the brain's hypothalamus. The fight-or-flightresponse provokes feelings of anxiety and increased levels of

blood-lactate. While the relaxation response was presentedas a method, more practical than biofeedback, thateffectively counters inappropriate elicitation of thefight-or-flight response.[31] Patients could elicit therelaxation response through what he called "a non-cultic

psychological technique,"which was a form of concentrationmeditation.According to Benson, four basiccomponents were necessary to elicit the relaxationresponse: 1)a quiet environment, 2)a mental device, 3)apassive attitude, and 4)a comfortable position. And, heoffered a choice of 3 different mental devices:


13/13

1)concentrating on breathing, and repeating 2)amantra or 3)an affirmation.[31]

1977>{Mind-Body Connection}George L. Engel, MD (1913-1999) first proposed the biopsychosocial model of health,

wellness, and illness. The simplistic biomedical model(mentioned above) assumes that all disease is caused bystructural anatomic or biochemical abnormality. Thephysician's responsibility is limited to finding the abnormalityto be cured. But without an easily discovered abnormality, as inthe functional gastrointestinal disorders, the simplistic

biomedical model fails. In contrast, the complexbiopsychosocial model is concerned with illness, the subjectivesense of suffering or reduced capacity to function. Thebiopsychosocial model is a much more complex, systems

theoryapproach to health, wellness, and illness. It does notlook for single, specific causes for illness, but seeshealth, illness and healing as resulting from theinteracting effects of events of very different types,including biological, psychological, and social factors.

All of these are seen as systems that affect on another andinteract with one another to affect individual health. In the pastdecade, even as medical technology has advanced rapidly, therehas been an increased appreciation of the value of the mind-

body connection systems approach to managing both functional

disorders and chronic disease.

The Next Millennium (2000-)

2003>{Wellness} The economist Paul Pilzer in WellnessRevolution writes that the wellness industry is already a 200

billion-dollar business, with most of its revenue coming fromvitamin sales and health club memberships.[16]

Applications of Health Psychology

Documents

Transcript of Applications of Health Psychology