Health Psychology

Health Psychology
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Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Relationship between the biological and social factor and behaviour in different life stages
and ages.......................................................................................................................................3
M1, Analyse the influence of biological and social factors on health, illness and health
behaviours....................................................................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P2 Discuss the role of different health beliefs in the development of health behaviours............5
M2, Analyse the effectiveness of theories of health behaviour in informing our understanding
of different behavioural disorders................................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P3, Review how different forms of assessment are used to identify and support individuals
with specific health conditions....................................................................................................6
M3, Analyse the effectiveness of different assessments and interventions used to improve an
individual’s long-term health outcomes......................................................................................8
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
P4 Review the role of the current professional regulatory and advisory health psychology
framework in supporting the work of healthcare practitioners....................................................8
P5 Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of current legal and ethical obligations in terms of
their impact on the work healthcare practitioners........................................................................9
M4, Justify the integration of health psychology in improving health and wellbeing outcomes
for individuals with different health and behavioral issues.......................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12
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INTRODUCTION
Health psychology mainly refers to the studying the behavioural and psychological process in
term of illness, health and heath care. It focuses toward understanding how the behavioural,
cultural and psychological factor contribute toward the illness and affect the physical health, so
that these factors can eb used in positive manner to cure the illness (Sarafino and Smith, 2014).
The current study is based on the studying about several aspect of health psychology where it
discusses about the relationship between the biological and social factor within different stages
of life. Additional it also discusses about different health belief model, different form of
assessment used for specific health condition. Despite of this it also makes a discussion about the
current professional regulatory role in supporting the work of healthcare practitioners and
strength and weaknesses of several legal obligations that affect the work of healthcare
practitioners.
TASK 1
P1 Relationship between the biological and social factor and behaviour in different life stages
and ages
Health psychology is mainly concern with the psychology of an individual with different kind of
health-related behaviour which usually changes over a period of time due to biological and social
factor that in bring changes within behaviour related with the healthy eating, lifestyle, stress,
healthy belief etc. These biological behaviour as well as influence of social factor varying
throughout the life span of individual. A life span is basically some stages I which a life of an
individual is divided in some age group where changes in biological factor can be found (Leka,
2014). In this first stage is Infancy which is categories from birth to two year where the care and
behaviour is highly connected with the care giver as at this stage the infant totally depend over
the adult and this relation of infant with care giver is important for developing psychological
characteristics and emotional development. The second stage is childhood which belong to the
age category of two-ten years where children become independent from their parents and gain
self-control. During this stage the cognitive skill of children get developed and they started
understanding wrong or right, but the influence of social factor over health is relatively lower. In
stage three, adolescence where the thought process of child is more logical, idealistic and
complex. At this stage, individual started getting socialise and get influence by other too which
in turn influence their behaviour in term of health. After that in stage 4, Earl adulthood which is
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consider between the age group of 20-40 years. In this stage an individual get developed over
their mind and get matured. Additionally they also get much concern about the health and
lifestyle and due to this they started focusing over their regular practices that help in developing
a better well-being (Bishop, 2015). In this people are highly socialised and their behaviour also
get influenced by the people comes under reference group, they take suggestions and try to cut
off their bad habit and choose good one to improve lifestyle so the relations between the
biological factor with social factor and behaviour is very high.
After all this, stage five is known as middle age which is categorise under 40-65 years this period
is consider as the time of social as well as personal involvement and responsibility. This is the
stage where people usually opt for health living behaviour in order to develop their better living
in near future mainly for the old age. At this stage people are getting more influenced by their
social network and people with they live which in turn develop tehri behaviour. After that the
last stage is consider to be older age which cover the group of sixty-five plus years. Here, this
period is consider to be a stage which bring a considerable adjustment to change in one’s life and
self-perception. Here the interaction with the health care practitioners are relatively higher which
ensures that people more diverted toward health tips and also maintain in their life.
M1, Analyse the influence of biological and social factors on health, illness and health
behaviours
The biological and social factor have a great influence over the health and well being of an
individual. The external biological contribution in term of health mand well being are affected by
the environmental factor such as micro organism which creates specific disease. For this it can be
said that a particular infection is consider to result only from bacteria while others sort of illness
is mainly arises due to viruses, accidents, toxins, person’s genetic makeup etc. It also includes
other factors like pollution, smoking, respiratory issues (Cooper, Quick and Schabracq, 2015).
On the others side, social factor also influences the health behaviour of an individual such as an
emotional level or peer group support an individual to feel happy by removing tehri loneliness
which in turn reduce stress, depression and develop a sense of belonginess and self-confidence.
This in turn reduce stress and depression as well as boost up the happiness which further help a
individual to take care of themselves and develop positive healthy habits.
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