psychology_Sons_(2003)

References 461

add, Japan) over the last 30 years appear similar (Gentry,
1984; Ogden, 1996; Taylor, 1999):

• The shift in patterns of mortality and morbidity from com-
  municable diseases, such as tuberculosis and influenza, to
  chronic diseases (cancer and cardiovascular disease) and
  accidents.


• The recognition of behavioral causes associated with
  these diseases (such as smoking, high-fat diet, lack of seat
  belt use).


• The rising costs of health care and the increased support
  for behavioral science approaches.


• The shift of focus from disease and remediation to health,
  illness prevention, and quality of life.


• The recognition within medicine of the limitations of the
  traditional biomedical model to explain health and illness.


• The development within psychology of conceptual and re-
  search tools to contribute to illness, health, and health care.


• The search for alternatives to the traditional health care
  system.

The reasons cited above remain challenges for the future
and thus underscore the continuing relevance of psychol-
ogy’s contributions to health, health problems, and health
care delivery. However, some additional trends will chal-
lenge and shape health psychology in the future as well:

• The increased demands for health psychology services by
  consumers, providers, and organizations related to chang-
  ing models of health and health care.


• The change in epidemiological patterns related to an aging
  population, with new roles emerging for health psycholo-
  gists regarding the care and well-being of this age group.


• The imbalance between increased expenses in health care
  and decreasing individual and social funds available that
  is likely to render cost-effectiveness a top priority in
  health interventions.


• New and more expensive technologies that are likely to
  expand the role of health psychologists in this domain but
  also raise important ethical and social dilemmas.


• The health threats related to the environment and the in-
  creased mobility of people that are likely to pose new
  health problems that assume a more global dimension in
  terms of their understanding and proper management.

Marks (1996) proposes a new agenda for health psychol-
ogy in which “health psychology should accept its inter-
disciplinary nature, venture more often out of the clinical

arena, drop white-coated scientism, and relocate in the richer

cultural, socio-political and community contexts of society”

(p. 19).

Finally, health psychology has now become mainstream

within American and Japanese psychology and is rapidly ex-

panding in Europe. In fact, as noted elsewhere (Belar, 2001),

we may be on the brink of witnessing a figure-ground reversal

with respect to psychology’s role in health behavior research

and practice—from a focus on mental health as the domain of

psychology’s contribution to health to viewing mental health

as only one subset in the domain of psychology’s contribution

to health.

SUGGESTED READINGS

Belar, C. D. (1997). Clinical health psychology: A specialty for the

21st century. Health Psychology, 16,411– 416.

Matarazzo, J. D. (1994). Health and behavior: The coming together

of science and practice in psychology and medicine after a

century of benign neglect. Journal of Clinical Psychology in

Medical Settings, 1,7–39.

Wallston, K. A. (1997). A history of Division 38 (Health

Psychology): Healthy, wealthy, and Weiss. In D. A. Dewsburgy

(Ed.).Unification through division: Histories of the Divisions of

the American Psychological Association, Volume II. pp. 239–267.

Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

REFERENCES

Alexander, F. (1950). Psychosomatic medicine.New York: Norton.

American Board of Health Psychology. (1984). By-Laws, Section II.

American Psychological Association Council of Representatives.

(1997, August). Archival description of Clinical Health Psychol-

ogy as a specialty in professional psychology.Minutes of the

Council of Representatives meeting. Chicago, IL.

American Psychological Association Task Force on Health Re-

search. (1976). Contributions of psychology to health research:

Patterns, problems and potentials(pp. 264–272). Washington,

DC: Author.

Anagnostopoulu, T. (1998). The state of health psychology in

Greece. In T. McIntyre (Chair), The state of health psychology

in Europe: Education and practice.Symposium conducted at

the 12th Conference of the European Health Psychology Society,

Vienna, Austria.

Anderson, N. B. (Ed.). (1995). Health Psychology, 14(7), 588–656.

Baban, A. (1998). Health psychology in Romania: Present aspects

and future trends. In T. McIntyre (Chair), The state of health

psychology in Europe: Education and practice.Symposium