Health Psychology Careers
Health psychologists examine how biology, society, psychology, the environment, behavior, and culture impact humans' health and illness. They are interested in how to promote and maintain health, as well as how to treat and prevent illness. This field is relatively “up and coming,” as the media and our society have begun placing a bigger emphasis on the importance of personal health.
It is increasingly clear that our behaviors and our opinions about health have a significant impact on our own health and our susceptibility to illness. Psychologists developed this field in response to the need to understand what it means to be healthy, and to discover how best to encourage people to get and stay healthy. They therefore explore issues like how to prevent disease, how our food impacts our health, how to cope with an illness, and how to improve quality of life. In addition, they are interested in issues such as the mind-body connection, and how social support and personal optimism impact health.
Health psychology is considered a subfield of clinical psychology, because these psychologists meet with and assess patients in a counseling or medical setting. They work with clients to promote healthy living, and meet with people who are ill to develop more effective techniques to psychologically cope with and improve their health. In essence, they use counseling to help people improve their quality of life related to their health.
Skills: Effective health psychologists have a passion for health and for helping others achieve it. They are interested in combining the principles of psychology, medicine, and biology. As with any psychologist, they should be patient, optimistic, supportive, and excellent listeners. They should be well versed in research methods as well as counseling methods, as their jobs often involve both aspects. Working well with a diverse group of people is also a must.
Requirements: If you hold a bachelor's or master's degree in health psychology you can work as an assistant and may occasionally be able to conduct research, but you will need a doctoral degree if you want to become a licensed health psychologist. Employment in healthcare is a rapidly expanding field for psychologists, and those specifically trained in health psychology will be at a distinct advantage in the job market.
Salary: As a result, job prospects in this field are quite good. Health psychologists working in individual and family services earned an average of $67,440 per year in 2008, while those working in offices of health practitioners had a median annual salary of $68,400.
Article Resources:
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
West Chester University of Pennsylvania