As we have seen in our class so far, this semester, Applied Social Psychology has many applications in our everyday life. Lesson five taught us about Applied Social Psychology being used for health purposes. Health Psychology focuses on promoting healthy lifestyles and preventing illness (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). Applied Social Psychology is not only used in hospitals and doctor’s offices but one can see health interventions through media, family and peers, schools, the workplace, etc.
The Biomedical model of health and illness is a set of theories that guided the medical field to be able to take on major illnesses. The biomedical model has the medical field study one’s biological functioning in order to explain what type of illness a person has and what type of treatment can be used to fix it (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). However, despite the biomedical model’s advantages, it does not show the entire picture of health and illness. It does not include people’s interactions with their peers and family or how one patient may handle their illness psychologically different from another patient with the same disease.
This is where the Biopsychosocial model needs to be introduced. The Biopsychosocial model of health takes the Biomedical model two steps further. It looks at a person’s biology as well as their social and psychological factors (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). The Biopsychosocial model takes into account a person’s genetics and how they physically hold up to a disease, their mental state, and their social interactions. It takes a deep look into a person’s entire lifestyle from what they are made of and what they do from day to day.
Within the Biopsychosocial model of health promoting health and preventing illness are important tenets. I can attest to the importance of health promotion. I am proud to say that I have never used an illegal drug; I haven’t even so much as thought about it. I have benefitted from primary prevention. Primary prevention is an intervention to help prevent disease and illness before it happens (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012).
I remember being in sixth grade and being so excited to be in D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education). We had an officer come in from the local police station every Friday to teach about the dangers of abusing drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes. I paid close attention to the officer’s lessons. My mind was opened to scary problems that I did not know existed. In the tenth grade, the school’s biology teacher had a serious of videos and lessons that looked deeper into the world of drug and alcohol abuse. These lessons gave students hard facts about what could happen if they were to abuse drugs. D.A.R.E. had a profound effect on me. However, the lessons in the tenth grade was what sealed it for me. After learning more about drugs, I would not even give a thought to trying them. The Biopsychosocial model of health is a major reason why I have never even attempted to try a hard, illegal drug.
References
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications
Hello!
I love to hear that D.A.R.E. worked for you in preventing you from trying (or even thinking about) drug use! It is exciting to see that programs like this can be effective and prevent another person from entering into the downward drug spiral. I think the implications of you not using drugs affect others that interact with you, as well! In that way, I think the program succeeded not only in you, but most likely led to positive effects in your coworkers, friends, and families as well.
I also appreciate how much background you gave on the relationships between Applied Social Psychology, Health Psychology, the biomedical model, and the biopsychosocial model. My favorite part of this piece was toward the end when you expressed what this program was and why it worked for you. It is completely rational and inspiring to see that a program like this worked for you. However, other than the title, it took a few paragraphs into the piece to be introduced to your connection to these topics with your experience (D.A.R.E.). I would have loved to see an intro preparing me as a reader to how you related to this topic and then I would have been more engaged to listen to the more formal definitions and backgrounds (to see where you were going with it).
Seeing that this worked for you do you think the government should focus more on these types of programs? Would you recommend that these programs are the responsibility of the parents, the health organizations, or the government? Should this lesson be a part of schools or should parents take the initiative to enroll students in a class explaining the effects of drug use on their body?
Great food for thought, thanks!
-Kristen Jezek