Health psychology

• The basics of health psychology & the principles of health psychology
• The profession of health psychologist
• Illness cognitions & representations
• Health and well-being at the population level
• Health behaviors and health beliefs
• Biopsychosocial aspects of health conditions: stress, cancer, obesity, HIV, coronary heart disease, pain
• Biopsychosocial aspects of health behaviors: smoking, alcohol consumption, eating behavior, physical exercise, screening

The goal of this class is to familiarize students with the general concepts of health psychology.

In terms of learning outcomes, the course is designed to allow students to:

• be able to identify the biopsychosocial variables and their interactions through various observational and analytic methods (A1).
• be able to select the appropriate theoretical and methodological approaches necessary to understand illness or prevent its occurrence  (partim A2).
• be able to understand and describe the main prevention and intervention methods in health psychology (B1).  
• be able to identify the factors and persons involved in the prevention and intervention programs (partim B2).
• become aware of the organizational and deontological aspects specific to research and practice in health psychology (E3).
• be able to use hypothetic-deductive and inductive reasoning, to understand the advantages and the limitations of the various methods (E1), and to make the distinction between science and common sense in health psychology (E2).

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.