Sağlık Bilimlerine Psikolojinin Büyük Katkı Yapacağı Bir Alan: Sağlık Psikolojisi

Health Psychology was first described by Matarazzo, and it is a relatively new field of psychology aiming at the reduction of illnesses and related dysfunctions and “via psychotherapy” promoting the development and maintenance of health. The increasing frequency of chronic illnesses throughout life, the understanding of the impact of psychological factors as well as the biological and physiological factors on diseases, increasing the body of research and the involvement of psychologists in health services have been all become important factors in the emergence of health psychology. Health psychologists can do preventive work (women’s health, eating disorders, smoking cessation units), or they can work at various clinical departments in hospitals (oncology, pain management, dialysis units) or in rehabilitation and pain centers Pain Rehabilitation Center (PRC). They can conduct behavioral evaluations, clinical interviews and psychotherapeutic interventions. They can contribute to public policy studies to develop and maintain health. They can work in departments of psychology at universities as researchers and educators in Faculty of Medicine or Health Sciences. Especially in the USA, a standardization is being tried to be established in health psychology education. Although not very common in Turkey, master degree programs and doctoral studies of Health Psychology have been tried. Due to increasing research and health psychologists’ contribution to health at different levels, the interest in the field is also increasing.