Psychological Science: Intro to Health Psychology

Psychology of the cause, treatment, and prevention of physical illness and disability. Topics include: stress, health behavior, medical compliance, patient-provider relationships, coping with illness. Prerequisites: PSYS 2000 or PSYS 2002; PSYS 2500.

Prereqs: PSYS 2002 and PSYS 2500; Asynchronous online

Course Overview This course is designed to introduce the theory and research in the burgeoning field of Health Psychology. We will be learning about the contribution of psychological research to the understanding, prevention, and treatment of a variety of health concerns. The topics covered emphasize the biopsychosocial model and will provide students with an understanding of the intricate interplay of biological, environmental, and behavioral factors in health and illness. There is a fair amount of human biology in this class as you would expect from a 3000-level class related to health and wellbeing. The goal at the end of the semester is that you can explain the etiology of a disease or disorder and the possible interventions and preventions for each of the health issues discussed in class.

Learning Goals The major requirements of the course will assess both your mastery of the course material (lectures and readings) and your ability to integrate the material by making connections between different topics that we have discussed.

Weekly quizzes- question are from the material from the lecture notes and the readings for that week. Two assignments each week. This can be a short answer question, a reflection, or a short review of the assigned research articles for that week.