Health Psychology is a relatively new field dedicated to understanding what makes us healthy, or unhealthy. Why is this important? Because 100 years ago we lived on average about 25 years less than we do now. A lot has changed since then about how we live our lives, what we know about ourselves biologically, and how such things affect our long-term health outcomes.

We know now that we have the choice to ignore the problems contributing to poor health, perpetuate them, or to become agents of change committed to preventing, alleviating or contributing towards the solution of recognized health outcomes. Health Psychology is committed to this goal by understanding how biological, psychological and social factors interact to promote and maintain health, as well as to prevent and treat illness.

This class will provide an overview of the field of Health Psychology, including a discussion of behaviors that help and hurt our health, stress and coping, management of pain and chronic illness, health care delivery, and patient-provider communication. We will also discuss the psychosocial aspects of living with conditions such as cancer, diabetes and HIV/AIDS.

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

• Demonstrate through activities and assignments an understanding of history, and different theories and concepts of health psychology
• Demonstrate through activities and assignments an understanding of the methods used to study health, and have an ability to locate, understand, and articulate information in research articles related to health and health behaviors
• Demonstrate through activities and assignments comprehension of physiological , psychological, cognitive, and emotional aspects of health psychology