The development of a field or an area of inquiry is often marked by changes in measurement techniques, shifts in analytic emphasis, and disputes over the best ways of doing research. In many areas of psychology, a number of issues have characterized methodological evolution of the discipline, including questions regarding context and reductionism, or laboratory versus field research. For some of the newer areas in psychology, such as environment or health psychology, this is not an issue of either/or. Although there has been some debate about these trade-offs, it is generally regarded by people in this field that some combination of the two approaches is essential. Depending on the question being studied this balance may change. However, the questions asked are less likely to inquire 'which way is better' and concentrate on how both may be used. This observation serves to illustrate the fact that different research endeavours have different methodological issues. Originally published in 1985, this volume explores some of the issues characterizing work on health, environment, and behavior.

Originally published in 1984, the study of psychological aspects of health was a rapidly expanding enterprise. Most of the contributors to this volume were trained as social psychologists or by social psychologists. Some have been more applied in their focus or on the edge of several fields. All, however, share a common approach, focusing on the individual as he or she is buffeted about by social forces and copes with these forces. All consider situational and psychological factors in the determination of behavior, emotion, or cognition and all apply their expertise to the study of health-related issues. The grouping of the chapters in this volume by the authors' subspecialty, social psychology, is a somewhat unconventional method of clustering. Ordinarily, the materials presented here would be published in journals or texts concerned with behavior or psychosocial in health and medicine, or in specialty publications dealing with a particular disease or health issue. That clustering of articles is functional in providing information to those most likely to utilize it, but it diffuses the origin and background of the studies. These chapters speak to the diversity of health issues that are amenable to successful social psychological analysis.

Increasingly frequent environmental exposures to hazardous substances present mental health professionals with groups and at times communities of people, faced with high levels of psychological threat. As a result of an increasingly industrial and technological society, a new type of group cohort has emerged - individuals exposed to hazardous substances that present the possibility of immediate and chronic threats to their health and their families' health. Although the medical sequalae to such exposure had been established, little attention had been paid to the mental health issues or to possible integrated psychophysiological consequences. Originally published in 1986, this book focuses on reactions to exposure to toxic substances as well as some predictors of response in groups faced with increased medical risk subsequent to some of the most common and hazardous toxic exposures found at the time: radiation, toxic waste, asbestos, lead, contaminated water, and toxic chemical fire and leak.

Originally published in 1982, this volume deals with behavioral medicine and clinical psychology. Much of what psychologists had been able to contribute to the study and treatment of health and illness had, to this point, been derived from clinical research and behavioral treatment. This volume presents some of this work, providing a fairly comprehensive view of the overlap between behavioral medicine and clinical psychology. Its purpose was to present some of the traditional areas of research and practice in clinical psychology that had directly and indirectly contributed to the development of behavioral medicine. Before the ‘birth’ of behavioral medicine, which subsequently attracted psychologists from many different areas ranging from social psychology to operant conditioning, the chief link between psychology and medicine consisted of the relationship, albeit sometimes fragile and tumultuous, between clinical psychology and psychiatry. Many of the behavioral assessment and treatment methods now being employed in the field of behavioral medicine were originally developed in the discipline of clinical psychology.

Originally published in 1982, this volume deals with behavioral medicine and clinical psychology. Much of what psychologists had been able to contribute to the study and treatment of health and illness had, to this point, been derived from clinical research and behavioral treatment. This volume presents some of this work, providing a fairly comprehensive view of the overlap between behavioral medicine and clinical psychology. Its purpose was to present some of the traditional areas of research and practice in clinical psychology that had directly and indirectly contributed to the development of behavioral medicine. Before the 'birth' of behavioral medicine, which subsequently attracted psychologists from many different areas ranging from social psychology to operant conditioning, the chief link between psychology and medicine consisted of the relationship, albeit sometimes fragile and tumultuous, between clinical psychology and psychiatry. Many of the behavioral assessment and treatment methods now being employed in the field of behavioral medicine were originally developed in the discipline of clinical psychology.