Author: Deborah Fish Ragin, PhD
Publisher: Pearson – 493 pages
Book Review by: Sonu Chandiram
Health psychology is the study of psychological and behavioral processes in health, illness, and healthcare. This branch of psychology looks at how psychological, behavioral, and cultural factors contribute to our physical health and illness.
Our thoughts are part of the psychological factors that affect the way we feel and our actual physical condition. Psychological factors can and do affect our health directly.
Behavioral factors can also affect a person’s health. For example, certain behaviors such as excessive smoking and alcohol consumption can undermine our health over time. Certain other behaviors such as exercise and a low fat diet can help improve our health.
Health psychologists take a bio-psycho-social approach to health. In other words, health psychologists understand health to be the product not only of biological processes such as a tumor or virus but also of psychological (thoughts and beliefs), behavioral (habits), and social processes (socioeconomic status and ethnicity).
The author points out that today, in addition to studying the effects of psychological, behavioral, and cultural factors, health psychologists also look at physical environment, health systems, and health policy. And Dr. Ragin goes even further by asserting that we also “consider the role of related disciplines such as anthropology, biology, economics, environmental studies, medicine, public health, and sociology on health outcomes.”
Indeed, there is a lot to consider when studying health psychology. And so her book looks at numerous issues that affect the psychological health of people. The book covers an extensive range of topics, as gleaned from the titles of its 13 chapters:
- An Interdisciplinary View of Health
- Research Methods
- Global Communicable and Chronic Disease
- Theories and Models of Health Behavior Change
- Risky Health Behaviors
- Emotional Health and Well Being
- Stress and Coping
- HIV and AIDS
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Chronic Pain Management and Arthritis
- Cancer
- Health Care Systems and Health Policy: Effects on Health Outcomes
- The Health Psychologist’s Role: Research, Application, and Advocacy
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The title of the book has in it the phrase “interdisciplinary approach.” Dr. Ragin asserts that it is only through this approach “that we can come to understand how health affects the individual on a mental and emotional level, and how the individual responds to the challenges.” She adds that an increasingly larger number of health psychologists now believe that “a more comprehensive and integrated approach” to health psychology will help us better understand the role each factor plays in arriving at desirable health outcomes.
The material is well laid out in the chapters with a Chapter Outline, Chapter Objectives, and visual learning aids such as boxes, photos, and tables. You’ll also find at the end of each chapter other features to help you retain, remember and recall what your learned, such as a Summary, a Personal Postscript with Activity boxes, Questions to Consider, and Important Terms.
This is a great book on the relatively new and growing field of health psychology by a pioneer named Deborah Fish Ragin.
Deborah Fish Ragin is a Professor of Montclair State University. She is a graduate of Vassar College, where she earned an AB in psychology and Hispanic Studies in 1978. She continued her studies of psychology at Harvard University, where she earned her MA in 1984 and her PhD in 1985.
Dr. Ragin served on the faculty of Hunter College at the City University of New York, and on the faculty of Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine (New York City), where she currently holds a position as Adjunct Associate Professor. She continues to do research at and occasionally teaches at Mount Sinai.
Her professional service includes a five-year appointment as an American Psychological Association’s (APA) Representative to the United Nations, where she focused on global efforts to address the psychological impact of HIV/AIDS. She completes a three-year term as President of the APA’s Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence (Division 48 Peace Psychology) in 2009.
She recently completed a three-year term as a board member of the American Psychological Association’s Committee on Divisions and APA Relations. She currently serves as a member of the Health Research Council of the Health Psychology Division (Division 38) of the American Psychological Association.
Dr. Ragin’s research focuses on health systems and health policy, and examining disparities in health care. She is the author of numerous articles on HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, health care disparities, healthy communities, and research ethics.
