Special Topic: Health Psychology

Catalog description

This course is designed to build your ability to think critically about the health psychology and its applications. Health and behavior are complex and inter-related concepts that are integral parts of human experience. There are many definitions of health and many perspectives on the of health-related behavior. In this course we will examine the key principles of the psychology of health, focusing on essential theories of health behavior; cross-cultural perspectives and the roles that individuals, their social networks, communities, health care and public health systems play in health-related behavior, the experience of illness, health promotion, and the disease prevention. We will study to how these concepts are influenced by the places (urban vs. suburban, nation vs. region/state, continent vs. hemisphere) where people live. We will also examine definitions of wellness as they relate to concepts of gender, geographic origin, (race/ethnicity), and sexual orientation, Whenever possible we will look at the health of special populations such as LGBTQ persons, older adults, economically disadvantaged individuals, recent migrants and immigrants. Finally, we will analyze the effect of public policy on health, consider how public health communications are created and disseminated, and designed our own health communications messages.