CHAPTER 24
Occupational Health Psychology
JAMES CAMPBELL QUICK, LOIS E. TETRICK, JOYCE ADKINS, AND CHARLES KLUNDER
569THE HISTORY OF OCCUPATIONAL
HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY 570
ECOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF OCCUPATIONAL
HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY 570
The Work Environment 570
The Individual 571
The Work-Family Interface 572
Goodness-of-Fit 572
PREVENTIVE HEALTH MANAGEMENT 572
ORGANIZATIONAL HEALTH 573
Scientist-Practitioner Model 574
Assessment, Surveillance, and Evaluation 574
Organizational Health Centers: A Practice Model 576
TRAINING IN OCCUPATIONAL
HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY 579
A CASE STUDY 580
History and Role of Organizational Health Psychology
at Kelly Air Force Base 580
Workforce Composition 580
Cultural Issues and Dilemmas 581
Course of Transition 581
Service-Oriented Networks 582
Barriers and Goals 583
Transition Life Advisor Program 583
High-Risk Work Environment, Good Results 584
FUTURE DIRECTIONS IN OCCUPATIONAL
HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY 585
REFERENCES 586Raymond, Wood, and Patrick (1990) used the termoccupa-
tional health psychology(OHP) to describe the emerging
interdisciplinary specialty at the crossroads of health psychol-
ogy and public health in the organizational context of work
environments. OHP applies several specialties in psychol-
ogy to organizational settings for the improvement of the
quality of work life, the protection and safety of workers, and
promotion of healthy work environments. Healthy work
environments are ones where people feel good, achieve high
performance, and have high levels of well-being, which is
consistent with the happy/productive worker thesis (Quick &
Tetrick, in press; Staw, 1986; T. Wright & Cropanzano, 1997).
OHP is founded on strong traditions both throughout
Europe and in the United States. In keeping with those
traditions, Murphy and Cooper (2000) present a model along
with international cases of healthy work organizations. The
broad interdisciplinary framework of OHP has arisen in the
United States because of the need for closer integration
between psychology, related behavioral sciences, and occu-
pational medicine to address the growing health and produc-
tivity costs of distress at work (Sauter, Murphy, & Hurrell,
1990). While psychology and the behavioral sciences play
important roles in areas of occupational safety and health,
such as ergonomics, behavioral toxicology, behavioral safety,
and employee assistance, OHP is expanding the boundaries
of established disciplines and integrating related domains of
scienti“c knowledge and professional practice.
The “rst section of the chapter provides a brief historical
overview of OHP. The next section reviews the ecological
dimensions of OHP. The third section presents a framework
for preventive health management, and the fourth sectionThe authors have drawn on several aspects of their work and previ-
ous publications developed for the American Psychological Associ-
ation and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
in the preparation of this review chapter on occupational health psy-
chology. We thank Robert Brown for editing the •Special Section:
Occupational Health Psychology,Ž inProfessional Psychology:
Research and Practice,with articles by Sauter and Hurrell (1999),
Quick (1999b), Adkins (1999), and Schneider, Camara, Tetrick, and
Stenberg (1999). Support for this work came in part through a fac-
ulty development leave (2000...2001)to the “rst author from the Uni-
versity of Texas at Arlington. We thank Donna Ross for preparing
the manuscript and Joanne Gavin for technical support. The opinions
expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily re”ect the
views of the University of Texas, the United States Air Force, the
Department of Defense, or the United States Government.