What is health psychology and who is considered healthy? Every one of us has at some point said I want to be healthier. I want to work out more, eat more nutritional meals and so on. But what is considered “healthy” well that all depends on who you ask.
Health psychology is the examination of psychological influences on a person’s physical health (Schneider et al., 2011). In other words it is a field in psychology that studies how to promote a healthier life style. Also, it studies the prevention of certain illnesses associated with a lack of healthy habits. According to a Physician Assistant I work with his definition of health is “a lack of illness by practicing good health habits”(J. Bautista, personal communication, February 7, 2017). What does this mean well according to Mr. Bautista it is a way of life some one who eats healthy and practices regular physical activity.
Which I tend to agree with his definition, I consider myself somewhat healthy. You might ask yourself how can someone be somewhat healthy? Well I have no illnesses that I know of and I do a yearly physical to verify. However I don’t practice much physical activity on a daily basis besides when I go on an occasional hike. I try to eat as healthy as I can which I’m pretty good at that. The problem is that if I like the food I tend to eat a lot more of the healthy food which them may fall in to the over eating category.
Where can one go to feel motivated to become healthier? Well in our society motivation is all around us its on our smart phones, on TV, even at your local Baskin Robbins window at least in my local shop it is. What I mean is that there is health promotions all around us we just need to look. A health promotion can be a commercial; a flyer on a widow or it can be your best friend. Anything that motivates you to become a better healthier you is a type of health promotion.
According to (Schneider et al., 2011) there are five steps every one takes when changing health behaviors. 1) Precontemplation: in this step the individual may not perceive their lack of health habits or decides not to remedy what they observe. 2) Contemplation: Here the individual is aware of the fault and is considering a possible change to remedy any fault they might perceive. One can be stuck in this step for a very long time anywhere between a few months to several years (Schneider et al., 2011). 3) Preparation: is what it sounds like the individual prepares to take action. They come up with a plan to assist in the success of the implementation. 4) In this step, which is, action is where the individuals implement their change. For example you decide to quit drinking or smoking at this stage you are no longer smoking or drinking. 5) The final step is maintenance here the participants work every day to maintain their health behavior change.
Changing our behavior is hard especially after years of the same routine. There are times when one might deviate from the new change. However what is important is that one can get back to the new lifestyle. As long as you keep moving forward and not focusing on the deviations I believe that any new health change can succeed.
Schneider, Frank W., Gruman, Jamie A.,Coutts, Larry. M.(2011). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (Second ed., ch8).