Health Psychology Report: Biological, Social, and Ethical Aspects

This report delves into the multifaceted field of health psychology, examining the intricate interplay of biological and social factors across different life stages and their profound influence on health behaviors. It analyzes the role of health beliefs, such as those articulated by the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Transtheoretical Model, in shaping individual perceptions and actions related to health. The report reviews diverse assessment methods used to identify and support individuals with specific health conditions, including case studies. Furthermore, it explores the current professional regulatory framework, ethical obligations, and their impact on healthcare practitioners, ultimately justifying the integration of health psychology to improve health and wellbeing outcomes. The report underscores the importance of understanding the psychological aspects of health to promote better patient outcomes and inform effective healthcare practices.

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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TASK 2
P2 Discuss the role of different health beliefs in the development of health behaviours
The health belief that people or reference group have, brings up a huge influence over a
perception of an individual and contribute toward developing a health behaviour among people.
This is so because the health belief that people usually follow or being heard from tehri reference
group forms up their thought and perception about following a particular habit related with
health. The role of health belief in development of health behaviour can be better understood
using following models like,
Theory of planned behaviour explains all the behaviour over which an individual have the ability
to exert self-control. The TPB model is consider to be successful in predicting the health
behaviour and intension such as smoking, drinking, cancer etc. As per TPB the behavioural
achievements are highly depend over the motivation as well as ability i.e. behavioural control
(Johnson and Acabchuk, 2018). For example, if a women is having a breast cancer and
behavioural intension is to get over of it by having a regular check-up and screening. Then her
attitude will automatically develop to getting regular screening done as it is good for her. This in
turn help her in taking regular actions toward maintain the treatment which in turn further
support in getting recover from this quickly by adopting healthy habit.
Another model is transtheoretical model which put emphases over a concept that the people do
nit change their behaviour quickly rather the changes in behaviour specially related with habit
mainly occur with a cyclic process. This can be determined with the smoker lifestyle, where one
an individual get in habit of smoking due to his reference group then in precontemplation is
starting stage where not intent is develop to take action toward it for foreseeable future as they
don’t found an issue in it. later on in contemplation stage people think of adopting a health
lifestyle by giving up bad habits. In preparation stage. Smoker take action toward leaving this
habit by minimising intake of cigarette. In action stage, he quite smoke for remaining healthier
and in last stage maintenance he try to maintain it by identifying eth positive sign of this new
behaviour.
Attribute theory which represent that people make certain inference regarding some cause of
event and behaviour in order to understand the experience (Reed and Lloyd, 2018). These
inference are of two type internal and external, where within internal it is consider that person’s
behaviour is due to some personal factor like ability, feeling or train and external involve
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inference that event happen due to situation. This can be connect with obesity, is an individual
get an idea that the main cause behind his obesity is unhealthy dietary habit which is due to his
carelessness then he would be able to change his habit due to internal inference and of he
consider it not in his control as a external inference then he will not take any action toward
cutting down unhealthy habits.
M2, Analyse the effectiveness of theories of health behaviour in informing our understanding of
different behavioural disorders
These health belief theories plays a significant help in developing the understanding about the
different behavioural practices which affect the health belief and help an individual in dealing
with a particular unhealthy habit. According to these theory the behaviour or thought process of
an individual plays a significant role in developing their positive or negative attitude toward
healthy habits which in turn encourage them to take particular action. As per these theories a
person can not cut off his/her unhealthy habit at a single attempt rather it take some time for this
(Murray, 2014). So when they get a inference which is internal and they found that their illness is
because of their own mistake they become able to develop a positive attitude toward the
intervention suggested to them and they started gradually reducing tehri unhealthy habit and after
sometime be able to cut off those habit which provide them with a healthy lifestyle. Hence it can
be said that these all model put light toward the ability of self-control of an individual which
only arises when people get developed over their psychology that what is unhealthy habit they
are following which in turn influence them to take actions toward interventions for developing
healthy habit and thus it hep in understanding the different behavioural disorder.
TASK 3
P3, Review how different forms of assessment are used to identify and support individuals with
specific health conditions
There are several different ways through which the health condition of an individual who is
suffering from a disease. Each practitioner are different in term of dealing with patient and
providing them treatment as per their health condition. It can be understand with the help of
following case studies. A case of 55 year old John who has unhealthy eating habits and also
having an obesity issues. His wife asked him to lose weight but he only get serious when GP told
that he is in risk group of having diabetes (Liu and et. al., 2016). The GP will diagnose the
situation of John in order tto provide then exact idea about what issue he may face due to this
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increasing obesity. Other than this he provide him with some medicines to reduce weight and
also suggest to cut off unhealth food and adopt healthy food habit. But he is not much sure about
the diet which he must maintain for this he book an appointment for dietician. The dietician will
assess his condition on the bases of diagnoses made by the GP and according to that the dietician
will prepare a diet chart for eating schedule for each day which help him in cutting off unhealthy
food habits and be able to deal with obesity. The third health professional can be consider as
physiotherapist who after determining the health condition of John will provide him some
suggestion regarding range of exercise which John can do on regular bases in order to reduce the
fat in healthy manner and can also remain free from diabetes issue. The forth health practitioner
for this can be consider as clinical psychologist will firstly spent talking to determine the
difficulties and health issue John is facing and on basis of this it make some short questioning
process. After that he try to distress John by reducing the fake belief and perception which is
creating anxiety and tension, so that he can focus over suggested diet chart and other
interventions.
Another case study to consider is of Terrance who is 70 year old who is in habit of smoking
since teenage. Now it has been found that he is suffering from lung cancer and recommended to
quite smoking but according to him it is too late and impossible. So, he can be treated by for
health care professional like he can visit GP who will diagnoses his health condition and provide
their with information regarding what kind of heath issues he may face due to this and actions to
be taken at that time. Other than this GP provide him with medicines and suggest about therapy
(Hagger and Luszczynska, 2014). On other side, health psychologist will assess the whole health
condition as per the report given by GP and discuss it with Terrance and perform a questionnaire
practice with him so that his perception can be changed in order to influence him to quite
smoking and adopt a healthy life. On other side the social worker will work closely with patient
where he tried to maintain good relation with Terrance so that he feel free to discuss about the
issue which help in relieving him from tension and also help in modifying the behaviour by
encouraging them to quite smoking and try to improve health condition. The fourth professional
cam be considered as occupational therapist who are usually skilled professional in particular
area and help in finding solution to health issues. In this case the occupational therapist will
make the environmental observation to consider all physical, social, psychological and
environmental need of Terrance and try to read them accordingly.
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M3, Analyse the effectiveness of different assessments and interventions used to improve an
individual’s long-term health outcomes
The health care professional are different in term of adopting their intervention and assessments
practices but all work over a single aim to improve the quality of life of people by providing
them better treatment and changes their life practices so that they can live with better practices
which help in recovering them from illness they are facing from a long time. The main
effectiveness of these different assessment and intervention is that it help in behavioural
modification where the behaviour of an individual is altered by health care practitioner with the
help of some learning techniques biofeedback, reinforcement etc. in order to develop a health
living habit among patients to improve their health conditions (De La Cancela, Chin and
Jenkins, 2016). There are range of interventions which are adopted by health care practitioner to
improve the health outcome of patient. These interventions mainly includes educational
programmes where people are being awarded about maintain a better health. Other than this it
alos includes environment improvement of health care centre, changes in policy, health
promotion campaign etc. these all help in improving the quality of health care services delivered
to the patients. As by changing environment patients feel better to stay there till they are getting
treated and changed in policy let the health care practitioner to improve the standard of their
service offering.
TASK 4
P4 Review the role of the current professional regulatory and advisory health psychology
framework in supporting the work of healthcare practitioners.
For ensuring the high quality health services the professional regulatory plays a significant role
as they ensure that each health care practices must be performed while considering all the
standards and norms which are fixed by regulatory body so that fairness and equality must be
maintain in health care services. There are several health care professional regulatory that work
in this regard some of them are BPS (British Psychological Society), HCPC (Health and care
professional council) and DPH (Division of Health Psychology).
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Among them BPS is a representative body of the psychologists within UK and also consider as
the registered charity. The main role of BPS is to promote the excellence as well as ethical
practice within education, science and application of discipline. It is also responsible for ensuring
eth development of psychology for wellness of public by setting up standard for research and
knowledge. Addition to this also responsible for ensuring that psychology services remain
available to all and each practice must get performed in high standard. On the other side the
Division of Health Psychology is responsible to study the psychological process underlying
health, health care and illness in order to apply these findings to promotion as well as
maintenance of health so that health care system can be improved to prevent the illness and
disability (Cheung and Hong, 2017). The DPH is responsible in increasing the profile and health
psychology influence with the healthcare commissioners, policy maker, public, employers etc.
by creating a portfolio of evidence based health psychology. Additionally, ot also aim toward
promoting health psychology related public engagement work.
Despite of this the Health and care professional council is a regulatory body which put emphases
toward protecting the public by regulating around 15 health care professionals which mainly
includes practitioner psychologists. The main role of HCPC is to develop standards for the
professional training, practices and education, and taking corrective actions where the health care
professional do not meet with standard. Addition to this the HCPC also regularly consult with the
service users and carers, health care professional as well as other stakeholders to get their view
over work which ultimately make the underlying core values, collaboration, transparency and
responsiveness.
P5 Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of current legal and ethical obligations in terms of their
impact on the work healthcare practitioners
For maintaining the quality of health care services there are certain legal and ethical
obligations are prepared that are required to be followed by health care practitioners. Some of
them are Equality Act 2010, Data protection Act 1998, health and Safety act etc. Among them
Equality Act is for keeping people protected against the unfair treatment, prevent discrimination
and help in promoting equality among people. It biggest strength is that it involve all the public
bodies, it emphases toward promoting equality among people in term of providing equal access
to treatment and one of its strength is that it give people with more rights and help in raising
awareness among them. The strength of Equality Act is that it bind the health and social care
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organisations to not practice discrimination among the patients while treating irrespective of their
age, gender, occupation, culture etc. as it is unlawful and any things found related with it then the
strict actions are taken toward it. Another strength of this law is that one can not refuse to take a
person as a service user or patient they must provide best possible treatment as per the condition
of patient. On the other side the drawback of this is that there remains lack of understanding of
ethnic group which in turn ignore the diverse need and using one size fit for all notion (Aldwin
and et. al., 2017). The weakness of this law is that victim can only be able to take action against
the culprit if they have a proof or have understanding about the legislation. Another weakness of
this can be seen as that equality doesn’t come without efforts. Even after this law many people
still have to face same level of stereotype in term of their characteristics. So fully execution fo
this law the health nad social care institutions are required to develop environment which accept
or implement the law within its practices. Addition to this its lack of culturally appropriateness
also affect the psychotherapy services. Another weakness is that this Act allow use of norm
referred test which remain more biased toward certain ethnic group.
Addition to this, Data Protection Act legislation is also very much common in healthcare
practices which focuses toward protecting the confidential data to patients to being shared among
other people who are not authorised to access the information. The main strength of this is that it
encompasses the physical data security, access control and record management. Another strength
is that it also psychologist to prevent any personal data that get accidentally compromised. Other
than this, data protection Act also allow the patients to have an idea regarding how their data is
being used by the health care organisation and who can access the personal data, as there are
appropriate guidelines issued by government with this law about to way information should be
using and when it to be erased. But it also holds some weakness, as when data is restricted to
access which can be used as reference of other treatment may affect the quality of treatment
provided (Parschau and et. al., 2014). Another weakness is data protection is challenged and
mainly influenced by the advancement in technologies and institutional setting, so if it get failed
in maintaining data effectively then it can harm the confidentiality of patients and also make the
health care practitioner in risk.
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M4, Justify the integration of health psychology in improving health and wellbeing outcomes for
individuals with different health and behavioral issues
The health psychologist plays a significant role in improving the health and well being of
people by improving their perception toward their health and chancing their behavior toward
unhealthy practices in order to influence them to adopt the health habits for better life. The health
psychologists mainly work with cognitive pattern of people and make them realize about the
things which they are perceiving in wrong manner and try to change it into healthy life habits.
The Health psychologist are mainly the experts who mainly apply the psychologist knowledge
and interventions in order to promote the health care system and informing a well health care
policy. They usually work with patients, health community members and health care professional
within group, individually or in organization (Papies, 2016). They mainly health people with
serious health conditions by helping them to deal with normal emotional reactions to illness
which support in improving their quality of life.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned report it can be summarised that health and care practices plays a
significant role within one’s life by working toward improving their health and well being. There
are several kind of factors which directly influence the health condition of n individual such as
biological, social factor along with their behaviour which form up perception fo individual
toward a particular health intervention. There are several ethical and legal regulatory bodies are
formulated by the government which can keep eye over the health practitioners and guide them
to perform better practices by applying several ethical and legal standards within their practices.
This in turn not only help in improving eth quality of services, rather such regulatory bodies are
also responsible for creating awareness regarding health among people and make health care
services accessible to them. These authorities are BPS (British Psychological Society), HCPC
(Health and care professional council) and DPH (Division of Health Psychology).
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REFERENCES
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