Health Psychology: An Interdisciplinary Approach offers a critical examination of the biopsychosocial model of health and proposes the use of the ecological model as a more comprehensive explanation of health outcomes; both of which are unique approaches in a health psychology text. The ecological model explores the impact of five systems on individual health outcomes: the individual (including physiology), the family/community, physical and social environments, healthcare systems and health policy. Unlike the biopsychological model which represents a combination of three fields--biology, psychology and sociology - the ecological model includes research and findings from medical anthropology, economics, ethnopharmacology, environmental studies, medicine and public health, in addition to biology, psychology and sociology. Thus, it offers a truly interdisciplinary approach to the study of health. Finally, the text uniquely examines infectious diseases and chronic illnesses from a local, regional and global perspective. The diverse perspectives illustrate the roles of each of the five systems on health.

This textbook takes a truly interdisciplinary approach to studying health psychology. It examines five systems that affect individual health outcomes: individual, family/community, social/physical environment, healthcare systems, and health policy. While grounded in psychology, it incorporates perspectives from anthropology, biology, economics, environmental studies, medicine, public health, and sociology. The social ecological perspective on health psychology creates a depth of understanding of the diverse facets of health. This text also examines health from a global perspective by exploring the impact of infectious and chronic illnesses locally, regionally and globally. This new edition includes updated statistics and references throughout, a new chapter on psychoneuroimmunology, and significant changes and updates to the chapters on health care systems and risky health behaviors. It will be of particular interest to undergraduate students. For additional resources, consult http://routledge.com/9781138201309, where instructors will find downloadable lecture slides, instructor manual, and testbank.