CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY OF HEALTH
Academic Year 2023/2024 - Teacher: Maria Catena Ausilia QUATTROPANIExpected Learning Outcomes
Clinical health psychology concerns the set of educational, scientific and professional contributions of the clinical psychological disciplines for the promotion and maintenance of health and the prevention and treatment of disease. The psychology of disease risk prevention and the psychology of health promotion represent essential activities of clinical health psychology. The training objectives of the course concern the acquisition of adequate knowledge with respect to the potential of health prevention and promotion perspectives and the necessary operational methods capable of providing adequate responses to requests in different contexts, intervening in collaboration with the hospital and local structures of the national health service, public and private bodies and local institutions. The teaching is aimed at promoting the development of clinical-psychological knowledge and skills based on the current orientations of clinical health psychology, which involve supporting the prevention of the state of illness, interventions for the culture and promotion of health and the valorisation of the person, through the promotion of psychological and relational development.
At the end of the course the student:
You will obtain the knowledge necessary to operate in the field of clinical health psychology and the skills relating to specific assessments and interventions. They will have gained knowledge relating to the different topics covered by the lessons and will understand the connection between theoretical approaches, research results, evaluation tools and intervention planning. He will be able to compare different approaches, highlighting strengths and weaknesses of different theoretical orientations. The student will acquire the skills to intervene with specific psychological-relational tools on health promotion and make use of specific prevention interventions in different institutional and non-institutional contexts (hospital, local services, family, school, community, etc.).
Course Structure
Required Prerequisites
Attendance of Lessons
Detailed Course Content
Course aims to present the theoretical and empirical bases of evidence-based prevention programs and health promotion interventions. Methodological options and intervention tools with effective results will be introduced, to understand their use in clinical setting, as well as the cognitive skills for the evaluation of specific risk factors and protective factors, according to the guidelines of American Psychological Association for prevention in psychology. Course will also focus on the analysis and improvement of health protection systems; identification of causes and diagnostic correlates for health and disease; development of practices for psychological growth and the benefit of communities, groups, families and individuals; post-traumatic growth; different strategies for maintaining and promoting health and preventing and treating disease.
Health policies that support the health and well-being of entire population: will be explored in depth multidisciplinary team work in different areas in which the clinical psychologist operates.
Textbook Information
1. Larry C. James, William O'Donohue, Jeanne Wendel. Clinical Health Psychology, Springer, 2022
| Author | Title | Publisher | Year | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P. Gremigni e A. Gorini (a cura di) | Psicologia e salute. Teorie e ambiti di intervento | Carocci | 2022 | 978-88-290-1469-9 |
Course Planning
| Subjects | Text References | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Culture of health, promotion of psychological well-being in different contexts according to the biopsychosocial model and positive psychology | #1 |
| 2 | Primary, secondary and tertiary prevention interventions: evidence-based models | #1 |
| 3 | State of health, quality of life, psychological well-being | #1 |
| 4 | Psychological representations of health and illness | #1 |
| 5 | Emotions, emotional regulation, personality and health | #1 |
| 6 | Personal resources and health behaviors: reference models and theories | #1 |
| 7 | Stress and coping; psycho-neuro-endocrine-immunology, psychosocial risk factors | #1 |
| 8 | Lifestyles, risk behaviors and self-protective behaviors | #1 |
| 9 | Promoting health from a life-span perspective: resilience | #1 |
| 10 | Somatic pathology: quality of care and communication with patients | #1 |
| 11 | Community interventions for health promotion and communication and prevention campaigns on health risk | #1 |
| 12 | Occupational health psychology | #1 |
| 13 | Psychological intervention in emergency and bereavement situations | #1 |
Learning Assessment
Learning Assessment Procedures
The evaluation criteria are based on:
- acquisition of the main concepts and theoretical approaches of clinical health psychology;
- clarity of presentation;
- competence in use of specialist vocabulary
Examples of frequently asked questions and / or exercises
Contexts of health psychology
Biopsychosocial model
Health-related quality of life
Wellbeing and positive psychology
Representations of health and illness
Emotions, emotional regulation and health
Influence of personality
Personal resources and health
Health behaviors: reference models and theories
Stress and coping
Lifestyles and risky behaviors
Adherence and self-protective behaviors
Psycho-neuro-endocrine-immunology
Psychosocial risk factors
Health and positive functioning throughout life
Resilience
Health and positive and active aging
Quality of care and communication with patient in somatic pathologies
Community interventions for health promotion
Communication campaigns on health risk
Clinical psychology of occupational health
Psychological intervention in emergency and bereavement situations