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Health has been defined inadequately as an absence of sickness or illness. How is this correct and incorrect?
We can be less than healthy even when we have no signs/symptoms of illness...
AND
we can be relatively healthy even when quite sick .
definition of health that is more accurate
A comprehensive and dynamic status, comprising physical, mental, social, and spiritual well - being
major historical developments in western conceptions of health: humoral theory (Hippocrates)
Cause of illness is knowable
Wellness = balance among humors (four bodily fluid: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm) through diet and lifestyle
‘Better to know the patient... than the disease’ → attention to individual differences in illness
Guidance on ethics (‘Hippocratic Oath’); do no harm, confidentiality, boundaries of competence
major historical developments in western conceptions of health: Galen
• Early contributions to understanding anatomy
• Revived Hippocrates’ focus on humors
– Humors’ qualities associated w/ illness states
major historical developments in western conceptions of health: Renaissance
Spiritual conceptions of illness dominated the Middle
Ages (~476 - 1450, CE); e.g., plaque as punishment
Renaissance (early 16th Century): relaxing prohibitions against dissection.
• Vesalius (1514 - 1564): Flemish Anatomist & Artist
– De Humani Corporis Fabrica : authoritative volumes of human anatomy » dispelled many misconceptions
Cartesian (mind-body) dualism
Mental and physical human nature are separate... (Kagan, 2007)
Body subject to physical/mechanical forces; mind is not
cartesian dualism benefits and drawbacks
» Inspired further examination of human physiology
Medicine informed by science and rationality
» But this cemented a split b/t mental and physical conceptions of health
how historical technology contributed to advancements in health
– Advances in microscopic observation
– Rise of Cellular and Germ Theory : Disease → cellular death or ‘pathogens’ invade.
1800s: exploding discovery of microorganisms.
– Biomedical model : Illness has a biological cause.
Disease results from a pathogen (virus, etc.): Illness reduced to simple cause.
Mind/body dualism
Health = “absence of disease”
historical shit that highlighted the limitations of the biomedical model
Alexander (1940s): Repressed energy directed inward;
» Specific illnesses result from specific ‘conflicts’ (e.g., dependency → ulcers).
– “corrective emotional experience”
The case of ‘Anna O’ (Freud and Breuer)
• Caring for dying father, Anna developed neurological problems (e.g., cough, mutism)
• Autohypnotic states : Self-induced trances → would then feel better
e.g., With expressed emotion; symptoms lessened.
• A. couldn’t ‘will problems away’ (real).
If there is no physiological basis, must have psychological basis
Note the implications for dualism...
describe the shift in the leading cases of death in the US how this might have contributed to the maturation of health psychology as a discipline
– Vaccinations, antimicrobials, antibiotics, indoor plumbing shaped mortality...
– Health and death linked to lifestyle, behavior, and social determinants more than ever.
– Health was redefined as multifactorial → reductionistic biomedical model has limitations...
describe what it means to view health as a biopsychosocial phenomenon.
Health and illness/wellness encompass the:
• Biological : pathophysiology , genetics, immune function, etc.
• Psychological : attitudes, beliefs, emotions, personality, learning, etc.
• Social : Life circumstances, cultural beliefs & circumstances, socioeconomic status, etc.
health psychology
The application of psychological principles and research to the enhancement of health and the prevention and treatment of illness.
health disparities
Preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations.
germ theory
the idea that bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms that invade body cells cause them to malfunction.
biomedical model
The dominant view of twentieth-century medicine that maintains that illness always has a physical cause
biopsychosocial model
The dominant view of twentieth-century medicine that maintains that illness always has a physical cause
pathogen
A virus, bacterium, or some other microorganism that causes a particular disease.
chronic illness
An illness that lasts a long time and is usually irreversible.
psychosomatic medicine
A branch of psychiatry that developed in the 1900s and focused on the diagnosis and treatment of certain diseases believed to be caused by emotional conflicts.
alexythymia
no words for emotions
biopsychosocial perspective
The viewpoint that health and other behaviors are determined by the interaction of biological mechanisms, psychological processes, and social influences.
etiology
The scientific study of the causes or origins of specific diseases.
epigenetic effects
The effects of environmental forces on how genes are expressed.
health literacy
The capacity to obtain and understand health information and services, and to use them to make appropriate decisions about one’s health.
birth cohort
A group of people who, because they were born at about the same time, experience similar historical and social conditions.
