Psychology,health and health care

This article traces the development of the World Health Organization's emphasis on psychological and behavioural factors in health and notes its encouragement of recognition of these factors by member states. The article further outlines the reasons for this increasing recognition and stresses the important role of psychological and behavioural factors in the maintenance of health and prevention of illness.     

Personality,risky health behaviour,and perceived susceptibility to health risks

We examined the relations between personality (Five‐Factor Model), risky health behaviours, and perceptions of susceptibility to health risks among 683 university students. The hypothesis was that personality would affect perceptions of susceptibility to health risks in two ways: directly, irrespective of risky health behaviours, and indirectly, through the effects of personality on risky health behaviours. The students were surveyed about smoking, being drunk, drunk driving, risky sexual behaviour, and perceptions of susceptibility to related health risks. In path‐analytical models we found the expected direct and indirect effects. The personality dimensions of Agreeableness and Conscientiousness had negative direct effects on perceptions of susceptibility as well as negative indirect effects through risky health behaviours. Neuroticism was the only personality dimension to show positive direct effects on perceptions of susceptibility as well as negative indirect effects. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Justice, health, and healthcare

Healthcare (including public health) is special because it protects normal functioning, which in turn protects the range of opportunities open to individuals. I extend this account in two ways. First, since the distribution of goods other than healthcare affect population health and its distribution, I claim that Rawls's principles of justice describe a fair distribution of the social determinants of health, giving a partial account of when health inequalities are unjust. Second, I supplement a principled account of justice for health and healthcare with an account of fair process for setting limits of rationing care. This account is provided by three conditions that comprise "accountability for reasonableness."     

Transpersonal psychology,physical health,and mental health: Theory,research, and practice

Abstract

Throughout its existence, transpersonal psychology has held a strong interest in exploring the implications of consciousness and spirituality for health, both physical and mental. This article provides a brief overview of the theoretical, empirical, and clinical contributions of transpersonal psychology to the understanding and facilitation of human health and well‐being. It also critiques the methodological basis of some of these contributions, concluding that transpersonal psychological studies of the relationship between spirituality and health are still in their infancy and that practitioners interested in using approaches based on these findings need to exercise caution as well as excitement about the interesting developments unfolding at an ever increasing rate.     

Hassles, health, and personality

College undergraduates (N = 211) responded to a "decontaminated" hassles scale plus measures of trait anxiety, reactivity, perceived stress, psychiatric symptomatology, and minor physical ailments. All but the anxiety and reactivity scales were time referenced to the past month. Major findings were as follows: (a) Hassles and trait anxiety both contributed positively to perceived stress, jointly accounting for 58% of the variance; (b) hassles and reactivity both had a significant positive impact on minor ailments, together explaining 23% of the variance; and (c) hassles and trait anxiety had a significant interactive effect on psychiatric symptomatology, which along with the nonsignificant marginal main effects accounted for 67% of the variance. The positive impact of hassles on psychiatric symptomatology increased as trait anxiety rose; likewise, the pathogenic effect of trait anxiety increased with greater exposure to hassles.     

Gender, stress, and health

Studying men and women and differences between them has long been a goal for researchers in health psychology. Recent advances in this endeavor, reflected in this special issue on the topic, have led to important information about the relationships between health and behavior. Of particular interest are possible differences in psychophysiological response, stress, and immune function. Clearly, more inclusive research strategies hold great promise for future scientific discoveries.     

Dreaming,religion, and health

Summary Dreaming has been presented as a universal human phenomenon. Ancient as contrasted with modern peoples have viewed the dream as a mysterious, powerful, yet comprehensible experience within the context of their theological world view. After hypothesizing that our contemporary state of alienation and fragmentation is related to our tendency to dichotomize experience into real and unreal, I reviewed psychoanalytic and depth psychological approaches to dreaming, concluding that an ego-analytic-depth approach is most compatible with theological perspectives. Following a review of empirical dream research supporting the hypothesis that dream process is related to health, I presented a structural model linking six ego and theologically analogous constructs: integration-creation, synthesis-dependence, selection-choice, cognitionincarnation, regulation-redemption, and anticipation-eschatology. Finally, I presented a patient's dream, suggesting how the model might be applied for a more comprehensive view of the dreaming process.This article is a revised version of a series of lectures presented as part of a Nursing Education Workshop on Using Dreams with Patients at the Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans Administration Hospital in 1976–1977.     

Neuroeconomics,health psychology,and the interdisciplinary study of preventative health behavior

The goal of this article is to introduce readers to theories, tools, and evidence from the field of neuroeconomics and to describe how health psychology and neuroeconomics can be mutually informative in the study of preventative health behaviors. Preventative health behavior here refers to both individual actions that impact one's health (e.g., exercise) and broader behavioral patterns, such as those captured in personality constructs. Although neuroeconomic researchers have begun to incorporate health‐relevant behaviors into their studies, the full potential of this research to inform preventative health models is as yet unrealized. What is needed to “translate up” is the unification of rich theoretical content from health psychology with investigations by neuroeconomic researchers of the decision‐making process during health‐relevant choices. We identify choice as a central, shared feature across models of preventative health behavior that can serve as an inroad for neuroeconomics to contribute to existing models and highlight commonalities that might not otherwise be apparent. A central premise of our argument is that, because health decisions are nearly always multiply determined, a more precise and mechanistic understanding of how choices are made is an important but understudied topic in health psychology. A partnership between health psychologists and neuroeconomic researchers can yield valuable insights into how preventative health choice is made and to identify targets and methods for intervention.     

Spiritual health,illness, and death

This essay outlines a view of spiritual health in middle life, particularly as it relates to an individual's confrontation with mortality. It was originally offered as part of a symposium on “Living and Dying” at the twenty-fifth reunion of the Harvard-Radcliffe Class of 1968 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in June, 1993.     

Dual brain,creativity, and health

Abstract

The importance of the specialized functions of the right and left hemispheres is reviewed, with applications to education, treatment, creativity, and research duly noted. Experimental studies serve as indications of how alexithymia and creativity of the so‐called dual brain has been examined. Patients with com‐missurotomies, patients in psychotherapy, priests, creative subjects, and normal controls have been compared through a variety of experimental methods in terms of hemispheric specialization. The results indicate that creative and healthy subjects tend to have freer access to mutual interaction of both hemispheres without marked inhibitory or disinhibitory effects from either cerebral hemisphere.     

Creativity,mental health,and alcoholism

Abstract

Findings from a research project on the creative process spanning a 25‐year period are applied to considerations regarding mental health and creativity. Two specific creative functions are described: (a) homospatial process‐actively conceiving two or more discrete entities occupying the same space, a conception leading to the articulation of new identities; and (b) janusian process‐actively conceiving multiple opposites or antitheses simultaneously. Both of these processes are healthy, adaptive ones, indicating that mental illness does not facilitate creativity but interferes with it. Verbatim data from intensive interviews with the author, fohn Cheever, are presented to illustrate the relationship of that author's alcoholism to the writing of his outstanding creative achievement, the novel Falconer.     

Culture,ethnicity, and mental health

Conclusion This is the important point, I think, both in the research field and in the research-policy-administrative-political field that might be characterized by the collective interests of people in these fields. Our discussions do not suggest unalterable directions for our efforts, and whatever answers we may come up with do not suggest final conclusions. If we are able to trust one another and our institutions-and I feel that trust is one of the key issues in any discussion about mental-health topics—then we have to admit that perhaps we are all correct. And our progress in the area of ethnicity, culture, and mental health will be promoted by our continued co-operation.the National Institute of Mental Health, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.This paper is the substance of an address given at the Conference on Culture and Ethnicity-Mental Health Services for a Pluralistic Society held under the sponsorship of the Institute on Pluralism and Group Identity, American Jewish Committee of New York, and the Maurice Falk Medical Fund of Pittsburgh, at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, on October 13, 1976.     

Psychotherapy,sin, and mental health

The authors contend that there are important consistencies between the Judeo-Christian tradition and psychotherapy. Empirical findings suggesting a weak correlation between religiosity and mental health are discussed in terms of there being both healthy and unhealthy aspects of religion. The crucial balance may involve the shame engendered via the awareness of sin vs. the assurance of ultimate acceptance or grace. Also discussed are issues that arise when psychiatry and religion seemingly conflict.     

Affectionate communication,health, and relationships

A robust body of research attests to the mental and physical health correlates and consequences of affectionate communication. Like much research on personal relationships, however, this work may overrepresent certain portions of the population, may underrepresent others, and may not effectively account for intersections of identities. We define intersectionality as comprising the unique effects of two or more social identities interacting with each other. To assess this literature with an eye toward intersectionality and representation, the present article reports a systematic review of 86 individual empirical studies representing 26,013 participants. The review concludes that there is no explicit or implicit attention to intersectionality in the existing research on affectionate communication and health, and that U.S. Americans, women, younger individuals, white individuals, and students are overrepresented in research samples. The review ends with future directions to encourage more inclusive research on this topic.     

Abuse, health locus of control, and perceived health among HIV-positive women.

This study of 230 predominantly poor Hispanic and African American women aged 25 to 61 years living with HIV/AIDS in New York City revealed high levels of both sexual (39%) and physical (44%) trauma before the age of 16. Both types of early trauma were correlated with later trauma, and all forms of trauma were significantly associated with current perceived health. In multivariate analyses controlling for relevant covariates, the Powerful Others and Internal Control subscales of the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scales (K. A. Wallston, B. S. Wallston, & R. DeVellis, 1978) acted as independent predictors of perceived health rather than (as hypothesized) mediators of the association between trauma and perceived health. Findings underscore the importance of addressing trauma and perceptions of control over one's physical health in the provision of health services to HIV-positive women.