The characteristics of health psychology

The characteristics of health psychology

The characteristics of health psychology come from scientific and experimental psychology, address the psychic aspects of health and illness, and consider the specific impact of psychosocial factors on health.

Sarafino (1990), in her book Health Psychology, assigns to this discipline three fundamental objectives:

promoting healthy behaviors and lifestyles;
disease prevention and treatment;
improving patient care.


Scope

Health psychology focuses on the role of psychic factors on health behaviors, as well as that of psychic factors on the onset and course of disease.

It integrates psychological and social dimensions into the understanding of health and illness.