Health Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Health Psychology - Essay Example In its true sense health psychology encompasses clinical health psychology, public health psychology, community health psychology and critical health psychology (Marks, 2005). In the present scenario psychology finds its way in medical and physiological aspects, contributing to innovation in thoughts in terms of health and care facilities. The thought further gained strength from the acknowledgment of genetic predisposition along with behavior of the individuals encompassing ability to combat stress, beliefs of the individual about staying healthy, the positive attitude towards life and the kind of lifestyle an individual is leading. All these paradigms are essential in deciphering the nature of individual and the ability to combat disease of any critical condition. Along with these characteristics, social conditions like the attitude of family members, relationships in family, financial conditions, cultural and traditional values an individual possesses, the kind of co-operation an individual seeks from the social set up, the grooming of individual and the perception of the individual for life. All these are essential for the comprehensive understanding about the health psychology which is concerned with behavior of the individual and the kind of medication an individual is taking. Two major issues that emerged in understanding health psychology are- the extent to which the healing is explicit (the placebo problem) and the echelon to which they are executed (the adherence to regimen) (Blackwell, 1976). It is evident that most of the reimbursement of medications could not be procured as they are not performed to their completion. It is essential that the patient adhere to the treatment regimen. Since 1973 research is being carried out to establish the factors serving as stumbling blocks in the path of adherence to treatment regimen. Theories have been formulated to overcome these hurdles and