Becoming a Health Psychologist provides an overview of the different training paths students can take to prepare themselves for graduate school and careers in the field of health psychology. You'll find tips on how to choose and apply for graduate programs as well as numerous practical examples such as emails to potential advisors and questions to ask during interviews. Throughout, the authors provide examples of different health psychology careers, along with references, resources, and first-hand experiences. It details what is involved in becoming a health psychologist, what a health psychology career entails, and how to reach that goal. The inclusion of tips from a diverse group of successful students, early career, and senior health psychologists makes this book an invaluable resource for anyone looking to start their career or for advisors who are counselling students about career choices. For many readers, this book may serve as "the mentor they never had".

The healing power of the bond between men and dogs is explored in this unique book. Three important themes emerge: attachment, loss, and continued bonds with canine companions for males across the life span and from various contextual backgrounds. The contributors replace common assumptions with needed context pertaining to men's emotions and relationships, starting with the impact of gender norms on attachment, and including robust data on how canine companionship may counter Western culture socialization. The chapters engage readers with details pertaining to ways in which dogs help men develop stable, caring relationships, process feelings, and cope with stress - within a variety of environments including home, school and treatment programs for veterans, prisoners, and youth. The book also address men's loss of companion animals, and the need for building new ways of sustaining the memory and meaning of the bond in males' lives, referred to as a "continuing bond." From these various vantage points, therapeutic insights and relevant findings bring a new depth of understanding to this compelling topic. Included in the coverage: Masculine gender role conflict theory, research, and practice: implications for understanding the human-animal bond in males' lives. At-risk youth and at-risk dogs helping one another. An examination of human-animal interaction as an outlet for healthy masculinity in prison. Exploring how the human-animal bond affects men's relational capacity to make and sustain meaningful attachment bonds with both human and animal companions .< Older adults and companion animals: physical and psychological benefits of the bond. Continuing the bonds with animal companions: implications for men grieving the loss of a dog. Probing the deeper concepts behind "man's best friend," Men and Their Dogs provides a rich clinical understanding of this timeless bond, and should be of special interest to health psychologists, clinical psychologists, academicians, social workers, nurses, counselors, life coaches and dog lovers.

British Psychology Society Textbook of the Year 2020 Why do people who are more socially connected live longer and have better health than those who are socially isolated? Why are social ties at least as good for your health as not smoking, having a good diet, and taking regular exercise? Why is treatment more effective when there is an alliance between therapist and client? Until now, researchers and practitioners have lacked a strong theoretical foundation for answering such questions. This ground-breaking book fills this gap by showing how social identity processes are key to understanding and effectively managing a broad range of health-related problems. Integrating a wealth of evidence that the authors and colleagues around the world have built up over the last decade, The New Psychology of Health provides a powerful framework for reconceptualising the psychological dimensions of a range of conditions - including stress, trauma, ageing, depression, addiction, eating behaviour, brain injury, and pain. Alongside reviews of current approaches to these various issues, each chapter provides an in-depth analysis of the ways in which theory and practice can be enriched by attention to social identity processes. Here the authors show not only how an array of social and structural factors shape health outcomes through their impact on group life, but also how this analysis can be harnessed to promote the delivery of 'social cures' in a range of fields. This is a must-have volume for service providers, practitioners, students, and researchers working in a wide range of disciplines and fields, and will also be essential reading for anyone whose goal it is to improve the health and well-being of people and communities in their care.

What would it be like to feel good about your body? Does anyone really fully appreciate their body? If diverse body shapes and sizes were shown in the media, would this change your perception? While this book addresses all of these questions and more, it is not simply a standard scientific exploration of poor body image. Instead, it examines a new movement focused on understanding what it is that leads people to love, appreciate, take care of, and embrace their bodies. Featuring chapters written by leading, international experts in the science and practice of body image, Body Positive is a provocative and engaging look at how we feel about our physical selves in the twenty-first century - and how we can all come to feel better than we currently do.

By taking an ethnographic approach to medical travel, this important book uses critical perspectives to understand inequalities in healthcare access and delivery, including gender, class and ethnicity, and explore how these are negotiated. In this key text Vindrola- Padros presents a comprehensive overview of the work carried out on this topic to date, highlights the gaps that remain and suggests strategies for enriching medical travel research in the future. Drawing from the author's research on internal medical travel to access pediatric oncology treatment in Buenos Aires, Argentina and other research from across the globe, this book presents four dimensions of medical travel that can be explored through a critical (im)mobilities lens: infrastructures, differential mobility empowerments, culture and affective dimensions of care and travel. Vindrola-Padros encourages the reader to critically explore processes of medical travel by considering the structures that shape travel, individual capacities for travel, the role emotions play in decisions and experiences of movement and service delivery and the ways in which culture(s) influence both travel and care. This book will be important reading for scholars across medical sociology, anthropology and critical health studies.

By presenting a holistic and integrated health and wellbeing approach to personalised care through wellness coaching, this handbook provides theory, insights, best practice, case studies and CPD activities in order to deepen practitioners' knowledge and experience. Integrative wellness is about working in collaboration and is a partnership between the professional and the patient with the latter understanding that they can take as much control as is possible for their own health and wellbeing. This book helps form this collaboration by exploring the co-creation of personalised care plans, effective coaching skills and cognitive-behavioural interventions including motivational coaching for patient activation, as well as flexible ways to provide wellness coaching. Exploring how the mind-body connection can improve the patient's journey, Integrative Wellness Coaching is an invaluable guide for any healthcare practitioner who wants to embrace their patients' lifestyle choices and mindsets towards their own health.

This book explores the history, effects, diagnosis and treatment of chronic fatigue as well its significant links to other illnesses. Fatigue is a difficult symptom to accurately assess and quantify due to its subjective nature. Marie Thomas discusses the uncertainties and difficulties in its diagnosis as well as the broader effects of fatigue on quality of life. Fatigue is an increasingly reported problem in primary care, and one that is associated with other chronic conditions as a secondary symptom. Using several case studies, this book describes how in many cases, a patient's primary condition can be managed; however General Practitioners are left unable to address the fatigue experienced, especially in older adults. Chapters consider the interventions that exist to manage fatigue - especially in the case of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) - before highlighting the lack of strategies in primary care for dealing with the problem. In the final chapter Thomas discusses potential interventions and gives recommendations for future research regarding fatigue. This book will be of interest to academics and practitioners in healthcare and psychology, as well as to patient groups and those who care for individuals with fatigue.

This book asserts that women attain higher levels of health in the mothering role when they achieve increased control over their own health, lifestyle and environment. Reflecting the philosophy of health promotion, it explores the meaning of the positive coping experience for new mothers, identifying the essential features of resilience in a new coping model based on ground-breaking analytical techniques. Further, the book discusses preventative strategies for building resilience and quality of life during the period of new motherhood, opening new horizons and dialogues related to what "coping" can actually mean when underpinned by a well-being paradigm.

The brain-gut connection has been increasingly implicated in biopsychosocial well-being. While there are numerous factors that directly and indirectly impact on how the gut and the brain interact, there is a growing awareness that gastrointestinal conditions need to be viewed and treated as part of a multidisciplinary approach. Psychogastroenterology for Adults: A Handbook for Mental Health Professionals is the first book to provide mental health professionals with an evidence-based, practical guide for working with patients living with gastrointestinal conditions. Timely and accessibly written, this book provides a unique, comprehensive introduction to psychogastroenterology, offering a step-by-step guide to evidence-based psychological treatment protocols. Broad in scope and expertise, the book is divided into four parts. It opens with an overview of the field, moving on to outline psychological concerns and conditions in gastroenterological (GI) cohorts. Further, it covers various approaches to psychogastroenterology, including psychopharmacological and eHealth practices. In closing, the book looks to the future, providing guidance on supervision in psychogastroenterology, and exploring challenges in the field. Written by experts in the field, this book will be an indispensable resource for those who wish to enhance their knowledge and practice of psychogastroenterology in the mental health profession, including psychologists, psychiatrists, psychosomatic medicine specialists, nurses and social workers.

The adult patient diagnosed with or at risk for a neurogenetic disease has many questions and concerns for the genetic counselor, the neurologist, and other practitioners. Because of the emotional and potentially life-altering impact of these diseases on the patient and family, counseling can be especially challenging. A rare hands-on guide to the subject, Genetic Counseling for Adult Neurogenetic Disease deals with core issues that differentiate adult neurogenetic counseling from its more familiar pediatric counterpart. This innovative book with accompanying videos is designed to fill in deficits in this area typical of training programs in genetic counseling (which have pediatrics and prenatal concentrations) and neurology (which rarely cover genetic counseling). For each condition featured, chapters include a detailed overview of genetic symptoms, diagnostic criteria, and management, plus guidelines for asking, and answering, pertinent questions. The major concentration, however, is on genetic counseling issues and case histories illustrating these issues. As an added dimension, the accompanying videos depict representative issues and challenges in genetic counseling for specific diseases in addition to the basics of a neurological examination. Among the conditions discussed: Movement disorders, including Parkinson's disease. Dementias, including Alzheimer's disease. Stroke. Motor neuron diseases. Neuropathies and channelopathies. Adult muscular dystrophies. Neurocutaneous syndromes. Plus a section on neurological and neuropsychological evaluation. This is information that will stay relevant as technologies change and genetic understanding evolves. Genetic Counseling for Adult Neurogenetic Disease offers advanced clinical wisdom for genetic counselors as well as neurologists, neuropsychologists, and other referring clinicians.

Stigma leads to poorer health. Edited by Brenda Major, John F. Dovidio, and Bruce G. Link, The Oxford Handbook of Stigma, Discrimination, and Health provides compelling evidence from various disciplines in support of this thesis and explains how and why health disparities exist and persist. Stigmatization involves distinguishing people by a socially conferred "mark," seeing them as deviant, and devaluing and socially excluding them. The core insight of this book is that the social processes of stigma reliably translate into the biology of disease and death. Contributors elucidate this insight by showing exactly how stigma negatively affects health and creates health disparities through multiple mechanisms operating at different levels of influence. Understanding the causes and consequences of health disparities requires a multi-level analysis that considers structural forces, psychological processes, and biological mechanisms. This volume's unique multidisciplinary approach brings together social and health psychologists, sociologists, public health scholars, and medical ethicists to comprehensively assess stigma's impact on health. It goes beyond the common practice of studying one stigmatized group at a time to examine the stigma-health link across multiple stigmatized groups. This broad, multidisciplinary framework not only illuminates the significant effects stigma has when aggregated across the health of many groups but also increases understanding of which stigma processes are general across groups and which are particular to specific groups. Here, a compendium of leading international experts point readers toward potential policy responses and possibilities for intervention as well as to the large gaps in understanding that remain. This book is the definitive source of scholarship on stigma and physical health for established and emerging scholars, practitioners, and students in psychology, sociology, public health, medicine, law, political science, geography, and the allied disciplines.

Focusing on two central themes--the psychobiological evolution from youth to adult and the effects of drugs on the developing central nervous system--this important reference elucidates the mechanisms of chemical dependency in adolescents. Its multidisciplinary coverage analyzes addiction across major domains of human functioning against the backdrop of hormonal, cognitive, and other changes that accompany the transition to adulthood. Chapters discuss legal as well as illicit drugs, examine age-related social contexts, and present the latest findings on links between drug use and mental disorders. Throughout, the contributors make clear that education is more valuable to understanding--and preventing--substance abuse than are prohibition and zero-tolerance thinking. Included among the topics:   Cognitive development, learning, and drug use. Neurobiology of the action of drugs of abuse. Findings in adolescents with substance dependence based on neuroimaging tests. Alcohol abuse in adolescents: relevance of animal models. Effects of chronic drug abuse on the chronobiology of sleep in adolescents. Neurological and cognitive disorders arising from the chronic use of drugs of abuse. The multiple lenses for understanding its subject and the sensitivity with which causal nuances are treated make Neuroscience of Drug Abuse in Adolescence an invaluable resource for clinical and child psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and addiction counselors.

The purpose of this volume is to describe the impact of the increased demand for flexibility on employees and its impact on their individual work life trajectories and health. The volume offers concrete examples of interventions aimed to find innovative ways of sustainable work careers for today's workers. We focus on the school to work transition, job insecurity, job loss and re-employment and retirement. The interventions described offer strategies for implementing support in employment contracts, increasing preparedness of individual employees with public education programs or developing work arrangements and support systems in work organizations.

Ours is an era of increasing tension, both global and local. And not surprisingly, PTSD is recognized not only in combat veterans and active military personnel, but also disaster and assault survivors across the demographic spectrum. As current events from mass shootings to the debate over trigger warnings keep the issue in the public eye, the disorder remains a steady concern among researchers and practitioners. Future Directions in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder presents findings and ideas with the potential to influence both our conceptualization of the condition and the techniques used to address it. A multidisciplinary panel of experts offers new analyses of risk and resilience factors, individual and group approaches to prevention, the evolving process of diagnosis, and effective treatment and delivery. Chapters on treatment allow readers to compare widely-used prolonged exposure and VR methods with innovative applications of cognitive processing therapy and interpersonal therapy. And an especially compelling contribution surveys empirically-based programs relating to what for many is the emblematic trauma of our time, the events of September 11, 2001. Included in the coverage: Predictors of vulnerability to PTSD: neurobiological and genetic risk factors. Early intervention: is prevention better than cure? The functional neuroanatomy of PTSD. The development of evidence-based treatment for PTSD. Enhancing exposure therapy using D-Cycloserine (DCS). PLUS: a case example as seen through five therapeutic perspectives. While millions experience trauma, relatively few develop chronic PTSD. Future Directions in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a practical and proactive reference for the health and clinical psychologists, sociologists, psychiatrists, and primary care physicians dedicated to further decreasing those numbers.

This manual provides laboratory-based learning experiences in perceptually and psychosocially linked exercise assessment, prescription, and programming. The primary pedagogic outcome is the ability to use applied theory and practice in perceptual and psychosocial exercise assessment and program design to promote the adoption and maintenance of a physically active lifestyle, enhancing overall health fitness. Perceptual and psychosocial variables are presented in individual, stand-alone laboratory modules that can supplement existing curricula such as exercise and sport psychology, exercise physiology, exercise testing and prescription, and exercise training and conditioning. In addition, the complete modular set has a conceptual flow that allows its presentation as an entire, laboratory-based course. The laboratory modules are divided into three primary units: assessment (theoretical constructs, scales and procedures, tests), prescription (self-regulation, performance), and program evaluation. The manual uses a unique format in which case studies are embedded in the conceptual flow of each lab module facilitating translation of laboratory results to real-world application. The manual concludes with a discussion of perceptually and psychosocially linked exercise prescription and programming applications in public health, such as program monitoring and adherence.

While virtual reality (VR) has influenced fields as varied as gaming, archaeology and the visual arts, some of its most promising applications come from the health sector. Particularly encouraging are the many uses of VR in supporting the recovery of motor skills following accident or illness. Virtual Reality for Physical and Motor Rehabilitation reviews two decades of progress and anticipates advances to come. It offers current research on the capacity of VR to evaluate, address, and reduce motor skill limitations and the use of VR to support motor and sensorimotor function, from the most basic to the most sophisticated skill levels. Expert scientists and clinicians explain how the brain organizes motor behavior, relate therapeutic objectives to client goals and differentiate among VR platforms in engaging the production of movement and balance. On the practical side, contributors demonstrate that VR complements existing therapies across various conditions such as neurodegenerative diseases, traumatic brain injury and stroke. Included among the topics: Neuroplasticity and virtual reality. Vision and perception in virtual reality. Sensorimotor recalibration in virtual environments. Rehabilitative applications using VR for residual impairments following stroke. VR reveals mechanisms of balance and locomotor impairments. Applications of VR technologies for childhood disabilities. A resource of great immediate and future utility, Virtual Reality for Physical and Motor Rehabilitation distills a dynamic field to aid the work of neuropsychologists, rehabilitation specialists (including physical, speech, vocational and occupational therapists), and neurologists.

HIV continues to be a profound challenge facing communities nationally and internationally. Until a vaccine or a cure is found, prevention remains a most crucial line of defense. However, the successes made to reduce exposure and transmission have not benefited all communities equally. HIV continues to affect vulnerable communities, and HIV-related health disparities are growing. The work documented in Innovations in HIV Prevention Research and Practice through Community Engagement spotlights the effectiveness of community involvement to reduce HIV infections in the United States. This timely resource introduces the concepts of community engagement, partnership, and community-based participatory research (CBPR). Contributors provide detailed examples of these concepts in which diverse research partners blend their unique insights and skills to arrive at an authentic understanding of phenomena and inform the translation of best practices and processes to enhance equity in HIV prevention and treatment. Equitable interactive collaboration is central to these efforts, in which community members and representatives from organizations, the scientific and medical sectors, and other relevant agencies nurture long-term health improvement through sustained teamwork. Challenges and barriers to effective engagement are identified, as are characteristics of successful partnerships. Included in the book: Details of a multigenerational HIV prevention intervention in a rural southeastern community. The challenges and successes of developing, implementing, and evaluating an intervention for higher-risk predominately heterosexual black men in college. The history of gay community involvement in HIV prevention and its contributions to the theory and current practice of engagement. Next steps in the integration of HIV-related policy change and research. Community engagement within American Indian communities. Keys to sustaining a CBPR partnership to prevent HIV within ethnic, sexual, and gender minority communities. Innovations in HIV Prevention Research and Practice through Community Engagement offers researchers and practitioners in public health, community health, and medicine guidance on community engagement that is both inspiring and realistic. "Community engagement and knowledge continue to be essential to prevent HIV infections. This book is a compilation of the state-of-the-science of engagement and delves deeper into the meaning and utilization of community-based participatory research, with implications that reach beyond the HIV epidemic to public health and medicine in general." - Laura C. Leviton, PhD, Senior Advisor for Evaluation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, NJ

This edited collection will provide an overview of the field of physiological computing, i.e. the use of physiological signals as input for computer control. It will cover a breadth of current research, from brain-computer interfaces to telemedicine.

Medical, educational, and public health efforts have reduced the spread of many major diseases, yet cancer perseveres, in spite of continuing research and improvements in practice. Especially promising among therapeutic strategies are ones that recognise patients as individuals with thoughts, feelings--and speech. Rooted in deep understanding of the mutual relationship between behavior and cancer, Behavioural Oncology combines extensive clinical wisdom and empirical data to illuminate the psychological, social, and existential aspects of cancer, and to offer a framework for empathic, patient-centered care. Chapters delve into the psychobiology of long-term illness, examining stress, pain, fatigue, sensory and sleep disturbances, and other quality of life issues as well as considerations of age, gender, culture, and comorbidity. The book's emphasis on linguistic and communicative aspects of cancer--and practical skills from respecting patient narratives to delivering bad news--adds necessary depth to concepts of the therapeutic relationship. In this way, the authors warn about overmedicalizing cases to the point of losing patient identity. Major areas of the coverage include: Biology and behavior in cancer prevention and suppression. The psychology of cancer patients: emotions, cognition, and personality Social dimensions, including stigma, coping, and social support Language, communication, and cross-cultural issues Existential, spiritual, and end-of-life concerns Doctor-patient relationships The psychological benefits of complementary therapies Bringing new scope and substance to familiar mind/body constructs, Behavioural Oncology is a definitive reference for a spectrum of healthcare professionals, among them health and clinical psychologists, oncologists and family physicians, oncology nurses, and clinical social workers. Its discussion questions and summaries make it a suitable text for undergraduate and graduate courses in related topics.

Not long ago, it was assumed that coronary heart disease mainly--or only--affected men. Now that CHD is recognized as a leading killer of women as well as men, numerous research studies have been made of its diverse presentations in women, causal factors, and possibilities for prevention and treatment. The expert contributions to Psychosocial Stress and Cardiovascular Disease in Women span the results of this cross-disciplinary awareness. This progressive resource takes a three-dimensional approach to its subject, focusing on epidemiology and risk factors for heart disease in women, the psycho- and neurobiology of stress and coronary disease, and promising clinical interventions. Chapters identify and analyze multiple intersections of social, biological, and psychological factors in affecting women's heart health, from the social dimensions of depression to genetic/environmental interactions to the demands of balancing work and family. These wide-ranging findings will assist and motivate professionals in choosing and creating interventions, developing appropriate prevention strategies, and reducing gender-based disparities in health care. Among the topics covered: Enhancing women's heart health: a global perspective. Coronary heart disease in women: evolution of our knowledge. Gender observations on basic physiological stress mechanisms in men and women. Sleep as a means of recovery and restitution in women. LifeSkills training: benefiting both genders, for different reasons. Gender considerations in psychosocial-behavioral interventions for coronary heart disease. In particular this book will be helpful for cardiologists and other clinicians who may ask themselves why patients do not seem to make rational choices. "Why do patients not follow the advice they are offered?" is a common complaint. The role of psychosocial stress for patient compliance and adherence can be traced throughout the volume. It is emphasized in the chapters on psychosocial interventions along with other tangible and conceptual suggestions and experiences with psychosocial stress and life style change. Psychosocial Stress and Cardiovascular Disease in Women offers a deep practical level of understanding of this epidemic to help expand the work of health and clinical psychologists, sociologists, cardiologists, primary care physicians, and epidemiologists.

Strategic Urban Health Communication Charles C. Okigbo, editor People are bombarded with messages continuously and sorting through them constantly. In this milieu, critical ideas about health promotion and illness prevention are forced to compete with distracting, conflicting, even contradictory information. To get vital messages through, communication must be effective, targeted, artful-in a word, strategic. Strategic Urban Health Communication provides a road map for understanding strategy, enhancing strategic planning skills, and implementing strategic communication campaigns. Deftly written chapters link the art and science of strategic planning to world health goals such as reducing health inequities and eradicating diseases. Flexibility is at the heart of these cases, which span developed and developing countries, uses of traditional and digital media, and chronic and acute health challenges. And the contributors ground their dispatches in the larger context of health promotion, giving readers useful examples of thinking globally while working locally. Included in the coverage: Urbanization, population, and health myths: addressing common misconceptions. Integrating HIV/family planning programs: opportunities for strategic communication. The role of sports in strategic health promotion in low-income areas. The Internet as a sex education tool: a case study from Thailand. Advertising and childhood obesity in China. Health communication strategies for sustainable development in a globalized world. Balancing depth of understanding of audiences and methods of reaching them, Strategic Urban Health Communication is a forward-looking resource geared toward professionals and researchers in urban health, global health, and health communication.

Patient-Centered Medicine: A Human Experience emphasizes the health professional's role in caring for patients as unique individuals by focusing on the patients' psychological and social realities as well as their biological needs. The book concerns itself with caring for the whole patient, and outlines the basic principles involved in developing a biopsychosocial approach to medical practice. This is a volume of guidelines that will help medical students and clinicians develop and master basic attitudes and skills essential to providing empathic and comprehensive medical care. As Norman Cousins writes in the foreword, 'The authors understand and repeatedly demonstrate in this book, that the patient-physician relationship is a powerful, sometimes mysterious, frequently healing interaction between human beings. It is the person of the doctor and the presence of the doctor-just as much and frequently more than-what the doctor does that creates an environment for healing. The physician represents restoration. The physician holds the lifeline.' Since the book's original publication by University Park Press in 1984, greater awareness and acceptance of the biopsychosocial model has occurred, and medical schools are now working to fully integrate psychosocial education into the clinical curriculum.

This book brings together world experts in the field of Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders (FGIDs) who practice an integrated and holistic approach in their care for patients to provide an up-to-date and comprehensive evaluation of a range of issues associated with the biopsychosocial treatment of FGIDs. Examining topics such as neurological and biological aspects of FGIDs, common concerns faced in relation to diagnosis, and ongoing medical decisions and interventions, each chapter provides crucial practical recommendations, as well as future directions of psychosocial work in multi-team environments. Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders considers individual conditions in detail, including the current Rome IV diagnostic criteria for FGIDs required to make a positive diagnosis, the role of psychological and other biopsychosocial and biofeedback aspects of treatment, and general recommendations with regard to diet and medications. Each chapter also provides an up-to-date consolidation and evaluation of the current literature as well as practical recommendations, which can then be applied by the reader in their own interaction with FGID patients. Topics covered include: the common concerns and issues faced by individuals with FGIDs in relation to pre-and post-diagnosis, ongoing medical decisions and interventions review of current evidence-based biopsychosocial treatment practices for each FGID condition the differences and challenges associated with FGIDs across individual life stages special topics such as the relationship with eating disorders and the role of psychotropic medications modern patient centred initiatives such as patient empowerment, distance and e-therapies the future challenges facing FGID treatment. Throughout the entire book, common themes and practical recommendations are described. Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders, has broad applicability across multiple spheres, including treatment, research and teaching and is accessible to those working in gastroenterology and primary care alike.

This is the third volume in an annual series on health psychology the aim of which is to provide practitioners, lecturers, graduate students and researchers working in the field of health psychology and related disciplines with a stimulating and useful overview of the field. Each volume has review-type chapters covering the following areas of health psychology:

• General Concepts and Methodology
• Health Behaviour and Health Promotion
• Illness Behaviour and Health Care

In the last century, changes to the nature and patterns of women's working lives have been vast. Notably, the huge increase in women's participation in the paid workforce means that today women are retiring in unprecedented numbers. How do they cope with this lifestyle transition? What major difficulties do they face? How do they process the problems associated with managing this transition in fulfilling ways while juggling family, financial, friendship, ageing and health issues? To date, most retirement studies have focused on men, and therefore gender-specific issues relating to post-work life, such as the pay gap, the double shift, women's longer lifespans and their traditional roles as carers and social nurturers, have been afforded far less attention. Women and Retirement: Challenges of a New Life Stage is the first book of its kind to examine women's retirement using a lifespan perspective. Based on the authors' extensive study of over 1,000 retired Australian women as well as current research, the book presents models of various retirement trajectories and compares women's experiences with the more widely researched retirement experiences of men. Moore and Rosenthal consider the nature of the transition from full-time work to retirement and the many different pathways and factors influencing this journey: women's financial status in the retirement years; their health changes; and the varied activity patterns they adopt. Women and Retirement is a comprehensive, up-to-date and evidence-based review of the female retirement experience. It will be invaluable for courses on ageing and health within psychology, women's studies, social work and sociology, and for use by practitioners in these fields.