Health Psychologists: Innovators in the Field
Today, health psychology--the study of how people, whether sick or well, think and behave regarding health--is a high-profile field. Research and commentary by health psychologists are standard in news reports on such phenomena as the new reproductive technologies; genetic testing for disease; statistics on obesity; and the trend away from private health care, where continuity was a given, to the HMO system.
Indeed, changes in medical technology, public health, and the health-care industry raise urgent research questions for psychologists. "Health psychology is one of the largest and fastest growing divisions within psychology," says Tracey A. Revenson, Director of the Health Psychology Concentration of GSUC's Ph.D. Program in Psychology since 1995. Yet this is a new field, and Revenson, who founded the journal Women's Health: Research on Gender, Behavior, and Policy in 1994, is one of its pioneers.
"When I was in graduate school, there was no formal area called health psychology; there was not even a course, despite the obvious links between physical health and illness and psychological/behavioral processes," says Revenson, who earned a bachelor's degree at Yale University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University. "The division of health psychology within the American Psychological Association wasn't established until 1978."
At GSUC, a Health Psychology Concentration was established in 1986, with Suzanne Ouellette as Director and Revenson as Co-Director. It is designed to train researchers; a one-year practicum is required and the emphasis is on work done with real populations in the field.
The field, in this case, is New York. "We study many of the health issues confronting New Yorkers," Revenson says, "such as HIV, breast cancer prevention, screening for colorectal cancer. A lot of the Health Psychology
students conduct research at Mount Sinai Medical Center, Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and The Hospital for Special Surgery."
Students in the Health Psychology Concentration study health issues among diverse populations. For example, Revenson says, "National surveys tend to show that lesbians have lower rates of screening mammography and higher rates of smoking, obesity, and alcoholism. It seems to be the case that these women don't seek out health care because of the way they have been treated by health-care providers."
Women's health in general is one of the frontiers of health psychology today--and one of Revenson's specialties. (She will teach a seminar on "The Psychology of Women's Health" next fall.) She points out, for instance, that "we are only beginning to study behavioral factors in cardiovascular disease in women--despite the fact that heart disease is the leading cause of mortality for women. Most of the behavioral research in this area was done on men. And all the subjects in the major national study showing that aspirin can prevent heart attacks were male.
"We know very little about women's health in general," she continues, "because women weren't studied for a long time. There were myths that women did not want to participate as research subjects. But the rates of women's participation in surveys show this isn't true. Instead, women were considered 'abnormal' subjects because of their hormonal system."
The broad scope of Health Psychology research at GSUC and its practical value are exemplified by the work of both faculty and students. One case in point is Gary Winkel, a member of the doctoral faculty who specializes in health-care environments. His studies of way-finding in hospitals were among those that led to the now-standard multicolored lines on their floors and walls designed to orient patients and other visitors and lead them to the services they need.
Another area of GSUC research that has had real-world applications is Suzanne Ouelllette's groundbreaking work in developing the concept of "personality hardiness," the individual's psychological buffer against stress. In some work places today, the techniques of personality hardiness are taught to employees in an effort to help them cope.
The Health Psychology Concentration at GSUC is designed to accommodate many kinds of researchers, Revenson emphasizes. "Some of us work very much on an individual cognitive level; others deal with the social context, like families; still others are interested in the big picture: effects of the environment on health and well-being."
In her own work, Revenson looks at matters as fresh as the headlines and as close as your next-door neighbors: how couples cope with the chronic illness of one partner, how the responsibilities of the so-called "sandwich generation" of women who are care-givers both for their children and their ill parents affect their health. As she says, "Health Psychology is not one area, one topic; it crosses over into all the areas that are psychology."
