Public health and health psychology: Two cats of Kilkenny?

In this article I describe the opposition of concepts underlying the public health and health psychology disciplines. The considerations of active versus passive and individual versus population approaches to prevention currently divide the two disciplines. Some writers for the public health model vigorously advocate the passive, structural intervention as the most important strategy while deprecating the fundamental tenets of health psychology and behavioral health. This attitude is discussed in terms of finding the most comprehensive, effective, acceptable, and implementable strategy to achieve preventive health benefits through a multifaceted approach targeted at numerous levels of intervention involving both active and passive and both individual and population approaches. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An ecological-transactional understanding of community violence: Theoretical perspectives.

Community violence has emerged as a major risk factor for the development of mental health problems in children and adolescents. If mental health providers are to meet the needs of children and communities dealing with community violence, then they will need to integrate principles from various subdisciplines in psychology (e.g., developmental psychology, school psychology, developmental psychopathology) as well as disciplines outside of psychology (e.g., sociology, public health, medicine) to understand fully the developmental impact of exposure to community violence. The development of such a model is necessary to identify the pathways, risk, and protective factors on which prevention and intervention programs can be built. The goal of this article is to present an ecological-transactional model of community violence as a conceptual framework for understanding the existing literature and for guiding future research on community violence exposure and child development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward a viable community health psychology: Caveats from the experiences of the community mental health movement.

Discusses opportunities and pitfalls in the development of a health psychology, with particular reference to the community mental health movement and community psychology. Health psychology in its preventive rather than curative aspects is stressed. Health psychology should adopt a community or public health perspective rather than an individual disease or individual treatment model. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Using psychology to promote human welfare: A conceptual analysis of the role of community psychology.

Analyzed according to a conceptually developed matrix the approaches by which psychology can be used to enhance human welfare. The approaches include clinical psychology, community mental health, community psychology, and public policy psychology. Each approach is examined in terms of the intended target, the content of the intervention, the process involved in the intervention approach, and the knowledge base necessary for attempting such interventions. The differences between community psychology and community mental health are emphasized, and it is concluded that community psychology should disengage itself from the community mental health movement to fulfill its most important functions of interfacing with the social systems of deviance control and of socialization and support. (51 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Integrating psychology and public health: Challenges and opportunities.

Psychology has made significant strides in developing applications relevant to public health. However, improvements are still needed to integrate psychology into the public health infrastructure. The challenge for public health is to recognize psychology's special contributions to policy and practice, especially to prevention of disease and injury. The challenge for psychology is to assure coherent integration of relevant theories, knowledge bases, and public health practice. Recommendations to address these challenges include (a) demonstrating how psychology incrementally improves public health service systems; (b) developing middle range and small theories of public health problems and practice (Lipsey, 1993; Merton, 1968); (c) developing intervention models in partnership with nonpsychologists so that the effects can become widespread; and (d) ongoing scrutiny of the intervention models to assure that theory has been operationalized well. Psychology's unique role in public health is to act as the steward of a correct application of behavioral knowledge and theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Community psychology in the Canadian psychological family.

Reviews the status of community psychology in the history of psychology in Canada, emphasizing the early precedents of applied mental health and community interventions. Findings are presented from inquiries into undergraduate and graduate training in community psychology in Canada. After assessing current problems in the subdiscipline, the author makes recommendations for future directions and discusses the potential usefulness of community psychology to professional psychology in meeting the challenges of public mental health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexism in the theory and practice of clinical psychology.

Examines the major schools of clinical psychology with regard to implications for the psychology of women. Theoretical orientations are compared in terms of the emphasis placed on biographical vs social determinants of personality development and psychopathology. It is concluded that a purely psychological approach is indadequate and that a model integrating sociological and psychological factors is necessary for understanding and treating mental health problems in women. The attitudes and values of individual professionals will be a major influence in maintaining or eliminating sexism in clinical psychology. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comorbidity of Chronic Pain and Mental Health Disorders: The Biopsychosocial Perspective.

An exciting period in mental and physical health research is beginning, resulting from a paradigm shift from an outdated biomedical reductionism approach to a more comprehensive biopsychosocial model, which emphasizes the unique interactions among biological, psychological, and social factors required to better understand health and illness. This biopsychosocial perspective is important in evaluating the comorbidity of mental and physical health problems. Psychiatric and medical pathologies interface prominently in pain disorders. Important topics in the biopsychosocial approach to comorbid chronic mental and physical health disorders, focusing primarily on pain, are presented. Though this biopsychosocial model has produced dramatic advances in health psychology over the past 2 decades, important challenges to moving the field forward still remain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perspectives on the interface between psychology and public health.

Suggests that scientific psychology can make a unique contribution to the understanding of mechanisms linking behavior and health. This understanding in turn provides a knowledge base for generating and directing needed public health interventions. It is further suggested that the public health perspective provides a corrective for the individual orientation of psychology and facilitates the application of psychology to policy issues. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental health consultation and Operation Head Start.

Presents the view that in most settings in which a psychotherapy model was used in consultation in Head Start, the consultation was at best disappointing. A model for community consultation is suggested as an alternative, noting the approach of Gerald Caplan which emphasizes diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. However, a more comprehensive theory of social environment and its effects on behavior is considered necessary. This would include findings from a number a fields, i.e., psychology, sociology, anthropology, education, and public health. The appropriate academic setting would be in the behavioral sciences unit of a school of public health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Editorial: The Forest Primeval.

Canadian psychologists have been deplorably remiss in the matter of public education about their discipline. We must from now on be less short-sighted and give more effective expression to our sense of social responsibility. We must do everything possible to give both the general public and those who make policy decisions a more accurate understanding of contemporary clinical psychology, the branch of applied psychology that receives most public attention. We must make them aware of the other branches of applied psychology, unconnected with the health sciences, whose existence is barely appreciated. We must draw attention to the many areas of social concern in which new areas of applied psychology could fruitfully grow up. And some of our knottiest problems stem from misapprehensions regarding the nature and functions of non-applied psychology, of fundamental research on psychological processes. We hope that more accurate conceptions of the nature and potential role of Canadian psychology will gradually establish themselves. We must certainly give a high priority to the problems of public education over the next few years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Health psychology at the crossroads.

Reviews the books, Handbook of psychology and health, volume I: Clinical psychology and behavioral medicine: Overlapping disciplines, edited by R. J. Gatchel, A. Baum, and J. E. Singer (see record 1985-97683-000); Handbook of psychology and health, volume II: Issues in child health and adolescent health, edited by A. Baum and J. E. Singer (1982); and Introduction to medical psychology by J. C. Norton (1982). The conflict between the traditional medical model and the biopsychosocial model threatens to prevent the establishment of health psychology's principles and identity. This conflict clearly characterizes the volumes presently under review. James C. Norton's Introduction to medical psychology aims to introduce mental health professionals to medicine, to teach behavioral treatments for disease, and to address issues of health promotion. The Handbook of psychology and health is a much more ambitious attempt to meet the same goals. The volumes are "intended for investigators, clinicians, teachers, and both graduate and undergraduate students." Given tradition, simplicity, inertia, and existing status structures, the traditional medical model has an almost overwhelming allure. Unfortunately, the traditional medical model also is inadequate, and its deficiencies cannot be remedied by forcing psychological and behavioral problems into its mechanistic clutches. By carefully reviewing and evaluating complex issues in health psychology while simultaneously endeavoring to prescribe clinical and medical treatments, the volumes under review delineate the dilemma facing health psychology; but they do little to resolve it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A national imperative: Public funding of psychological services.

This article discusses the history of Canadian psychology and the publicly funded health care system. Reasons are provided for the current situation, in which psychology is largely not publicly funded, and the current situation in psychology is contrasted with that history, to make the argument that modifications are possible. Different models and methods of funding, related to service providers, service recipients, and the actual services themselves are reviewed. An argument is made that public funding should be provided to clinical psychologists who provide empirically supported services to patients with diagnosable mental health problems. The article concludes with a response to some anticipated criticisms of the position taken, and ideas about political advocacy to advance the agenda of public funding of psychological services. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Health psychology in the 21st century: Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome as a harbinger of things to come.

An increasing focus on the HIV is important given the role of health psychology in preventing further spread of the epidemic and in maintaining quality of life in the estimated 1,500,000 Americans who are now infected. HIV presents health psychology with challenges reflecting 5 trends in medicine that have broad implications for the future, which extend beyond HIV: (1) the early identification of people who are at risk for disease, (2) the rising expectations for successful behavior change programs, (3) the growing populations of those who are coping with chronic disease, (4) the increasing shift to include community and public health perspectives, and (5) the emerging need to address health problems on a global scale. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Editorial: Psychology in the Public Forum.

With this issue, I am pleased to announce a new section of the American Psychologist entitled "Psychology in the Public Forum," with Patrick H. DeLeon as the associate editor for this section. Psychology in the Public Forum intends to provide psychologists with perspectives concerning the public arenas in which psychology must exist. Such a forum approach should aid our understanding of those public issues that both affect psychology and provide opportunities for psychologists to bring their expertise to bear as scientists, as practitioners, and as educators. I am very pleased to have two quite distinct articles appearing this month to inaugurate this section. Senator McGovern provides a broad-ranging view from a 20- to 30-year perspective of a number of intertwined issues that have in his view influenced the course of our society, and Mary G. Hager covers science and health in the Washington area for Newsweek magazine. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology doctoral training in work and health.

Psychology as a profession has an opportunity and obligation to advocate for and develop healthy work environments. This will require the design and conduct of doctoral-level training in occupational health psychology. A model for training might well be based on the assumptions that there is a viable role for occupational health psychologists trained at the doctoral level for both academic and applied work settings, and that doctoral training would be based on the integration of health psychology and public health. Issues remaining to be addressed in the development of doctoral training programs include appropriate predoctoral training, academic standards, the interdisciplinary nature of faculties, and appropriate settings for training. Future directions in establishing doctoral training in occupational health psychology will best be taken in dialogue with several other professions and institutions that share a common interest in reducing leading work-related disease and injuries and promoting public health in the workplace. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology and public policy.

Discusses ways to increase the involvement, awareness, knowledge, and education of psychologists in the public policy process. Psychologists have functioned effectively in a variety of roles that are relevant to the policy sector. For example, they are increasingly called upon as expert witnesses. There is a great need for people who can translate the findings of psychology and the behavioral sciences into language and recommendations easily comprehended by the public. Probably the most common role for a psychologist in public policy is that of researcher or evaluator, which uses the psychologist's methodological skill to help policymakers determine whether a program, intervention, or treatment was effective. Psychologists have also increasingly taken positions as administrators in education, health, mental health, welfare, correctional, and human service organizations, where they are directly responsible for the formation and implementation of social policies. Psychologists can also function as activist-collaborators by advocating solutions to social problems. It is concluded that greater involvement of psychology in the public policy process will facilitate the growth of psychological knowledge and the application of that knowledge to the world of which psychology becomes continually a larger part. (44 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The public health approach to youth violence and child maltreatment prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Millions of people in the United States suffer the consequences of violence, including physical injuries, psychological trauma, and death. Solutions to violence have traditionally been reactive. Through the lens of the public health perspective, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) views violence as predictable based on various contributing factors, and thus as preventable. Within CDC, the Division of Violence Prevention (DVP) leads efforts to prevent injury, death, and disability, and to reduce the suffering and medical costs caused by violence. DVP employs a multidisciplinary, public health approach to identify factors associated with violence, and to develop, evaluate, and disseminate preventive interventions. Psychology is one discipline that has contributed to our approach. The authors present a series of violence prevention initiatives funded by the CDC that are framed within a public health perspective, with attention to the contributions of psychology to youth violence and child maltreatment prevention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of work in psychological health and well-being: A conceptual, historical, and public policy perspective.

The primary theme of this article, which serves as the introductory contribution of a special section of the American Psychologist, is that work plays a central role in the development, expression, and maintenance of psychological health. The argument underlying this assumption is articulated at the outset of the article in conjunction with a historical review of vocational psychology and industrial/organizational psychology. The article follows with an overview of contemporary vocational psychology and a presentation of the psychology-of-working perspective, which has emerged from critiques of vocational psychology and from multicultural, feminist, and expanded epistemological analyses of psychological explorations of working. Three illustrative lines of inquiry in which research has affected the potential for informing public policy are presented. These three lines of scholarship (role of work in recovery from mental illness; occupational health psychology; and working, racism, and psychological health) are reviewed briefly to furnish exemplars of how the psychological study of working can inform public policy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)