An Open Access Course - University of the People

The Psychology of Health and Illness: An Open Access Course

Jane Ogden

This course is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. *2018 ? edited by University of the People Course Development, under the terms of the license, to correct typos, grammar issues, and to convert British English spellings to American English.

The Psychology of Health and Illness: Jane Ogden

Overview

For centuries health professionals have recognized that there are psychological consequences of being ill. A diagnosis of cancer or diabetes can make people anxious or depressed. This course will draw upon health psychology, public health, and community psychology to emphasize how psychology can also contribute to the cause, progression, experience, and outcomes of any physical illness. This course will highlight the many roles that psychology plays in physical illness from i) being and staying well and the role of health behaviors and behavior change; ii) becoming ill with a focus on illness beliefs, symptom perception, help--seeking and communication with health professionals; iii) being ill in terms of stress, pain, and chronic illnesses such as obesity, coronary heart disease, and cancer; iv) the role of gender in health, and v) health outcomes in terms of Quality of Life and longevity.

Learning objectives and outcomes

By the end of this course students will be able to:

1. Describe the key theoretical frameworks which underpin a psychological approach to

physical health

2. Understand the role of health behaviors in explaining health

3. Describe the psychological factors involved in the onset, maintenance, and change

of health behaviors

4. Describe the role of illness beliefs and symptom perception in help--seeking and

consultation

5. Describe the psychological factors involved in the stress/illness link and the

perception and treatment of pain

6. Describe the ways in which health behaviors, illness beliefs, symptom perception,

stress, and pain are key to chronic illnesses

7. Describe how health varies by gender

8. Understand the importance of psychological health outcomes including Quality of

Life and health status

About the author

Jane Ogden is a Professor in Health Psychology at the University of Surrey in the UK where she teaches psychology, dietician, nutrition, medical and vet students to think more psychologically about health and illness. Jane's research interests focus on eating behavior and obesity management, communication, and women's health. She is the author of over 180 academic papers and 7 books including "Health Psychology: A Textbook" (published by McGraw Hill), "The Psychology of Eating" (published by Blackwell), and "The Psychology of Dieting" (published by Routledge). She is also a regular contributor to the media and has been involved in many TV and radio programs and articles for a range of magazines and newspapers.

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The Psychology of Health and Illness: Jane Ogden

Contents

1. Introduction to the Key Theoretical Frameworks of Psychology and Health

2. The Role of Behavior in Health

3. Behavior Change

4. Becoming Ill and the Role of Illness Beliefs, Help--Seeking, and Communication

5. Being Ill and the Experiences of Stress and Pain

6. The Role of Psychology in Chronic Illnesses such as Obesity, CHD, and Cancer

7. Gender and Health

8. Health Outcomes and Quality of Life (QoL)

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The Psychology of Health and Illness: Jane Ogden

Unit 1: An Introduction to the Key Theoretical Frameworks of Psychology and Health

Overview

Health psychology is the study of physical illness and addresses problems such as obesity, diabetes, cancer, and coronary heart disease (CHD) with a focus on health behaviors (eg. diet, exercise, sleep, help-seeking, medication adherence), illness beliefs, behavior change, and health outcomes. This first unit will describe the background to health psychology and how it compares to a more traditional biomedical model. It will explore the 4 key theoretical frameworks used in health psychology: the biopsychosocial model, health and illness as a continuum, the direct and indirect pathways between health and illness, and the focus on variability.

The Background of Health Psychology

Health psychology is the study of the role of psychology in any physical health problem including coughs and colds, cancer, coronary heart disease, HIV, obesity, and diabetes. It is best understood by comparing it to the more traditional biomedical model using 5 simple questions as follows: The Biomedical Model The biomedical model can be understood in terms of its answers to the following 5 questions:

? What causes illness? According to the biomedical model, diseases either come from outside the body, invading the body and causing physical changes within the body, or originate as internal physical changes. Such diseases may be caused by several factors such as chemical imbalances, bacteria, viruses, and genetic predisposition. 4

The psychology of health and illness: Jane Ogden ? Who is responsible for illness? Because illness is seen as arising from biological changes beyond their control, individuals are not seen as responsible for their illness. They are regarded as victims of some external force causing internal changes. ? How should illness be treated? The biomedical model regards treatment in terms of vaccination, medication, chemotherapy, and surgery, all of which aim to change the physical state of the body. ? Who is responsible for treatment? The responsibility for treatment rests with the medical profession. ? What is the role of psychology in health and illness? Within traditional biomedicine, illness may have psychological consequences, but not psychological causes. For example, cancer may cause unhappiness but mood is not seen as related to either the onset or progression of cancer.

Health Psychology

Over the twentieth century thinking changed and it became obvious that the mind and body were more connected than assumed by the biomedical model. In addition, the greatest risk to health was no longer acute conditions such as TB or flu but chronic illnesses such as coronary heart disease (CHD), cancer, obesity, and diabetes all of which have a clear behavior role. As a result health psychology was developed, which can be understood in terms of the same 5 questions that were asked of the biomedical model:

? What causes illness? Health psychology suggests that human beings should be seen as complex systems and that illness is caused by a multitude of factors and not by a single causal factor. Health psychology, therefore, attempts to move away from a simple linear model of health and claims that illness can be caused by a combination

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