Health PsychologyMINDFIELD PSYCHOLOGY · 6 TOPICS

Health Psychology

How thoughts, behaviour, and social context shape physical health — and how psychology helps people stay well, change habits, and cope with illness. Pick a topic below; each opens its own detailed page with an interactive, worked explanations, and a self-test.

1
Foundations

What Health Psychology Is

Biomedical vs biopsychosocial model, the mind–body link, the WHO definition of health, aims & scope, and Indian/Eastern roots. Interactive biopsychosocial model.

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2
Changing habits

Health Behaviour & Its Models

Health Belief Model, Theory of Planned Behaviour, and the Stages of Change — why habits are hard to change and what predicts it. Interactive stages cycle.

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3
The big one

Stress

Selye's GAS, the transactional appraisal model, the HPA axis & cortisol, psychoneuroimmunology, and how stress is measured. Animated GAS curve.

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4
Managing it

Coping & Stress Management

Problem- vs emotion-focused coping, social support, resilience & hardiness, and evidence-based techniques. Interactive coping matcher.

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5
Staying well

Health Promotion & Prevention

Primary/secondary/tertiary prevention, health-enhancing vs compromising behaviours, and positive well-being. Interactive prevention sorter.

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6
Living with illness

Pain, Chronic & Terminal Illness

Gate-control theory of pain (interactive), psychoneuroimmunology, chronic & terminal illness, grief, and treatment adherence.

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💡 New: topics are now split into separate pages (thanks to student feedback) so you can study one at a time and go deeper on each. Each page ends with a quick self-test.

🎴 Flashcards

Tap a card to flip.

📝 Quick quiz

📁 Case studies

Sources
Core texts: Taylor, S. E. (2018), Health Psychology (10th ed.), McGraw-Hill · Sarafino, Smith, King & De Longis (2020), Health Psychology: Biopsychosocial Interactions, Wiley · Ogden, J. (2023), Health Psychology: A Textbook, McGraw-Hill · Ghosh, M. (2015), Health Psychology, Pearson India.
Engel, G. L. (1977) — biopsychosocial model · Selye, H. (1956) — GAS · Lazarus, R. & Folkman, S. (1984) — transactional model · Rosenstock (1974); Ajzen (1991); Prochaska & DiClemente (1983) — behaviour models.
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