Commentary - (2022) Volume 10, Issue 1
Assessments and statistics in clinical and health psychology
Kenneth Morrison*Received: 03-Mar-2022, Manuscript No. MACR-22-60249; Editor assigned: 05-Mar-2022, Pre QC No. MACR-22-60249 (PQ); Reviewed: 20-Mar-2022, QC No. MACR-22-60249; Revised: 24-Mar-2022, Manuscript No. MACR-22-60249 (R); Published: 07-Mar-2022, DOI: 10.51268/2736-1888-22.10.136
Description
Clinical Health Psychology is a professionally recognized discipline that studies and conducts clinical services in diverse populations and environments to promote health and welfare and prevent, treat and manage illnesses and disorders. Clinical health psychology is also known as behavioral medicine, medical psychology, and psychosomatic medicine. It is a psychological specialty primarily related to meeting the needs of intersections between physical and emotional illnesses and understanding and treating those intersections. Health psychology is the study of psychological and behavioral processes in health, illness and healthcare. It is about understanding how psychological, behavioral and cultural factors contribute to physical health and illness. Psychological factors can have a direct impact on health. For example, chronic environmental stressors that affect the hypothalamus-pituitaryadrenal system can cause cumulative health problems. Behavioral factors can also affect a person's health. For example, certain behaviors can impair health (smoking or excessive alcohol consumption) or improve health (exercise) over time. Health psychologists take a biopsychosocial approach. In other words, health psychologists consider health not only as a product of biological processes (viruses, tumors, etc.), but also psychological (thoughts, beliefs, etc.), behavioral (habits, etc.), and social processes (social economics, etc.). Psychology can make important contributions to the prevention and treatment of chronic illnesses. To address this challenge, new areas of health psychology have emerged over the last three decades. Health psychology is one of the most rapidly developing areas of modern academic psychology. It is currently the sixth largest of the 56 divisions of the American Psychological Association. The Department of Health Psychology of the British Psychological Society and the European Society of Health Psychology has also been successful.
Understanding behavioral and contextual factors
Health psychologists are conducting research to identify behaviors and experiences that promote health, cause illness, and affect the effectiveness of health care. They also recommend ways to improve public health policies. Health psychologists have been working on developing ways to reduce smoking and improve daily nutrition to promote health and prevent illness. They also investigated the relationship between illness and personal characteristics. For example, health psychology has found a link between personality traits, impulsivity, hostility / anger, emotional instability and depression in thrillseekers and dangerous driving.