Essential Health Psychology - 9780340759714

Mind-body relationships are the essence of health psychology, and Essential Health Psychology takes this relationship as its central focus in exploring and explaining the topic to students. The books presents psychological factors in health and illness causation through the concept of 'holism', which posits that health states, health behaviors and cognitions are created by the interaction of other factors or processes within the human condition.
This textbook assumes no prior detailed knowledge of psychology, and works through a series of topics and debates towards an understanding of human health and the psychological nature of it. A wide range of health psychology issues are covered clearly, such as pain, stress, health behaviors and communicating with patients, as well as the more unusual but salient topics of palliative care and psychometric testing in a health context. All these areas of investigation are illustrated with examples of real illness states and the psychological contributions to them, including some dental health examples, a topic largely overlooked by other health psychology texts.