The Surgeon General reports recommend that behavioral risk factors (e.g., drug and alcohol use, high risk sexual behavior, smoking, diet, a sedentary lifestyle, stress) be the main focus of efforts in the area of health promotion and disease prevention.

About Division 38

Our Mission

The Division of Health Psychology is focused on:

• Advancing contributions of the psychology discipline toward understanding health and illness through basic and clinical research and by encouraging the integration of biomedical information about health and illness with current psychological knowledge;
• Promoting education and services in the psychology of health and illness; and
• Informing the psychological and biomedical community, as well as the general public, on the results of current research and service activities in this area.

Established to facilitate collaboration among psychologists and other health science and health care professionals interested in the psychological and behavioral aspects of physical and mental health, Division 38 supports the educational, scientific, and professional contributions of psychology to:

• Understand the etiology and promotion and maintenance of health in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of physical and mental illness,
• Study psychological, social, emotional, and behavioral factors in physical and mental illness,
• Contribute to improving the health care system, and
• Formulate health policy.

Current Directions

The many areas of research and service delivery illustrate the richness of the field of Health Psychology. Reports by the Surgeon General's Office indicate that the leading causes of mortality in the U.S. have substantial behavioral components. These reports recommend that behavioral risk factors (e.g., drug and alcohol use, high risk sexual behavior, smoking, diet, a sedentary lifestyle, stress) be the main focus of efforts in the area of health promotion and disease prevention.

Given its emphasis on behavior and behavioral change, psychology has a unique contribution to make. For example, Health Psychologists are currently conducting applied research on the development of healthy habits as well as the prevention or reduction of unhealthy behaviors. The impact of behavior on health and the influence of health and disease states on psychological factors are being explored. Psychosocial and physiological linkages in areas such as psychoneuroimmunology, cardiovascular disorders and other chronic diseases are being defined. Ground breaking work is being conducted in psychopharmacology, as the neurological bases of behavior are being mapped.

This is a period of rapid change in health care delivery. Division 38, as part of the American Psychological Association, is working to establish liaisons between legislators, researchers and psychologist practitioners to ensure access to health psychologists as part of quality health care. Active research is being conducted to better understand the impact of health policy and health service delivery reforms on patient health and well being.

© 2012, APA Division 38
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