Topic > Future of Health Psychology

The future of health psychology is still unknown, but there are some important goals that health psychologists must address for the future development of the discipline. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Starting from the basic ideal for professional health psychologists that all people have the right to health and healthcare (WHO, 1995), there are still differences in health around the world, including highly influential parts like Europe. Health inequalities reflect social inequalities (Kawachi, 1999) and every work of a health psychologist should be oriented towards trying to reduce them. Health inequalities also exist when it comes to accessing education and health services due to differences in gender, age, ethnicity, beliefs and sexual orientation; health psychology should target those people with less access or greater need for healthcare and work to cover their needs (Michie, 2007). Moving on to more specific aspects of the discipline, the future development of health psychology should orient empirical work through theories that already exist; this would lead to the rejection of those theories that are proven to be incorrect and the development of evidence-based theories and techniques to reduce health-risk behaviors and increase health-protective behaviors (Michie & Abraham, 2004). In the area of ​​research and intervention, while substantial effort has been invested in designing interventions to change behavior and promote health, HPs need to pay more attention to developing and researching efficient methods to promote their use (Michie & Abraham , 2004). This suggests that, although there are some promising health interventions, HPs should be more specific in describing intervention programs so that they can be implemented in other contexts. As last but not least future improvement for health psychology, this is based on the personal choices of each professional. Individual health psychologists may develop in a particular area of ​​research; however, they should never stop learning and should be aware of discoveries in other areas so that they can link one theory to another to improve treatment and research into the psychological and social processes that impact our health (Abraham, 2007 ). These ways of future development of health psychology suggest that for the discipline of health psychology to continue to grow, new health psychologists must move closer to the prevailing health reality and keep an open mind to the needs and demands of society (Garzón & Caro , 2013). Research and development in health psychology can also make a contribution to society through the promotion of a series of values ​​connected to the discipline. Murray and his colleagues (2004) identified that, in addition to health promotion and disease prevention, the practice and development of health psychology is a way to create a more equitable society and improve care, compassion and collaboration within community members. This is evidence of the relevance of socioeconomic status as a major factor in predicting people's disease and health. Another issue that health psychologists need to be aware of is the influence that societies have on people's cognition and behavior (Carroll et al., 1993). Kennedy and Kawachi (1999) argued that health could be influenced by the distribution of income within society,.