Psychology of Health and Illness: A Critical Analysis of Fatima's Case

This write-up aims at critically analyzing the situation and examines the psychological constructs at the various stages of health but in relation to Fatima’s situation. It also discusses the biopsychosocial model and its relation to psychology health.

Psychology of health and illness
Psychology of health and illness
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Psychology of health and illness
The case presented here is that of Fatima, a 30 year old who lives with her children. Their
life is that of struggles and they cannot afford a good meal, she does not smoke either but one
day she collapses and is diagnosed with hypertension. This write-up aims at critically analyzing
the situation and examines the psychological constructs at the various stages of health but in
relation to Fatima’s situation.
Healthy psychology is basically the study of all possible physical illness and it in particular
addresses problems such as that of obesity. Well, for our case, we can simply conclude that
Fatima suffers some aspect of obesity (Laher & Ismail, 2012).This is evident since we are told
that she works 50hours a week and cannot afford fresh fruits and vegetables for their meals and
as a result they mostly eat processed foods.
As we all know, no one is actually responsible for their illness. This is because of the fact
that illness often arises from various biological changes that are beyond the control of an
individual, an individual is thus regarded more as a victim (Ogden, 2012). Health psychology
suggests that some certain factors are actually responsible for illnesses in the human body. It’s
not just a single factor but rather a combination of several factors. Like for this case of Fatima,
hypertension maybe as a result of quite a number of factors. Her age here comes into play, she 30
years old with two young children and to make matters works she works 50 hours a week. Her
diet is might also be another possible cause. We are told that Fatima cannot afford fresh fruits
and vegetables for dinner and most of the times they buy processed foods.
Psychology health aims at monitoring and looking keenly at quite a number of things. For
instance, it tries to assess the role of behavior in the development of various illnesses, it also

Psychology of health and illness
predicts unhealthy behaviors and most importantly it tries to understand the experiences of
various illnesses (Costello, 2013).
Behavior for instance plays a very crucial in the longevity. It can be categorically
considered as a determinant of the time that a person could possibly live. Statistics have it that
diet contributes about 35% the amount/period of time a person can live (McGuffin & Murray,
2013).A proper diet is therefore necessary for any person whatsoever. Fatima’s case was quite
distinct as we can see that young family could not afford to have a decent diet. This is a reason
and can be pegged to the hypertension that she was diagnosed with when she collapsed.
It is also important to practice good health behaviors. This can be looked at in terms of not only
diet but also smoking, alcohol drinking, exercises and also sleep. The term health behaviors here
have been used to refer to all the possible behaviors that are related to the health status of an
individual which can be both directly or indirectly.
Fatima’s case was quite significant. It portrays a family that did not observe at a greater extent
and degree the issue of good heath behavior. Fatima herself worked for about 50 hours a week
and we are not told that she had some good/ample time to rest. One of the main causes of
hypertension is stress. Lifestyle factors also are one way to explain and address hypertension
(Gould, Brown, Bramwell, 2010).
Finally and most importantly when looking at psychological constructs at the various
stages of health it is important to note quite a number of aspects that actually form a major
section of the whole concept of psychological health. One of the most important aspects is the
biopsychosocial model.

Psychology of health and illness
The Biopsychosocial Model-This is a model that was specially designed to try and bring a match
between psychological and the environment and the traditional biomedical concepts. Here the
bio contributing factors consisted of viruses and genetics among others, physco aspects of the
other hand were categorically those that related to cognition or emotions. Social aspects of health
consists those that related to social norms and behaviors such as smoking among others.
The biopsychosocial model is kind of related to the issue of psychology health in that it
incorporates with it the concept of social behavior just like psychology health does. These two
are quite distinct however in the sense that the later is less complex and focused more on
behavioral health (Schaie & Willis, 2010).
Generally, it can be concluded that psychology health is quite complex and it examines the
effects of various aspects on the health of individuals as the case of Fatima who was diagnosed
with hypertension.

Psychology of health and illness
References
Costello, M. S. (2013). Imagination, illness and injury: Jungian psychology and the somatic
dimensions of perception. Routledge.
Gould, R. V., Brown, S. L., & Bramwell, R. (2010). Psychological adjustment to gynaecological
cancer: Patients’ illness representations, coping strategies and mood
disturbance. Psychology and Health, 25(5), 633-646.
Laher, S., & Ismail, A. (2012). South African Muslim Psychologists' Perceptions of Mental
Illness. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 22(4), 667-669.
McGuffin, P., & Murray, R. (Eds.). (2013). The new genetics of mental illness. Butterworth-
Heinemann.
Ogden, J. (2012). Health Psychology: A Textbook: A textbook. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
Schaie, K. W., & Willis, S. L. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of the psychology of aging. Academic
Press.