Aims

- to familiarize the students with the principles and theories in health psychology, the coverages, the methods of intervention and of research. The course will present the contributions of health psychology for the health promotion and care, of its place and contributions in medical interventions.

Main themes

- historical approach of the psychological models and theories concerning health and illness and link with the connected fields, namely medicine and clinical psychology
- definition of the objectives of health psychology and presentation of the concepts and current problems in the field: the stress and its relations with health, the various manners to face illness (coping), the social support, the risk factors, the self-representation as "ill being", the psychological impact of hospitalisation, the revalidation and the social reinsertion.
- the current research in health psychology: models and results
- intervention and evaluation of intervention in health psychology
- psychological peculiarities related to specific medical disorders
- integrated psycho-medical interventions in chronic illnesses.

Content and teaching methods

The course allows to acquire some knowledge on the cognitive, emotional, bej-havioural, biological and social aspects exerting some influence on health. The course will present theoretical models (e.g. biomedical, psychosomatic, bio-psycho-social), methods of intervention and fields of application of health psychology.
The course will especially tackle:
1. the beliefs and representations of health and illness
2. the environment factors affecting the physical, psychical and social health of the persons
3. the invidual factors of vulnerability and of protection in front of the illness
4. the mediators of the relations between individual and environmental previous history and the health criterions (including well-being and quality of life)

Other credits in programs