Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

′The book provides an excellent foundation to health psychology. It brings readers up to date with past controversies and current difficulties and suggests areas for further research to promote positive health behaviours and a healthy nation′ - Janette C Allotey, Nurse Researcher

`This text provides a useful and refreshing addition to health psychology texts with a very applied social, and cultural focus. It would make a useful addition to any undergraduate or Masters course in health psychology′ - British Journal of Health Psychology

This major textbook provides an authoritative and comprehensive account of the health psychology field, focusing on core topics such as ealth and the individual, stress and coping and the linking of health psychology to experiences of health and illness.

The key features of Health Psychology are: its strong coverage of the entire health psychology discipline; its international and interdisciplinary appeal; it responds uniquely to a changing world where psychological processes need to be understood in relation to effective methods of disease prevention and health promotion; and it illustrates health psychology′s relevance to the understanding of the cultural, political and economic roots of behaviour and experience.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Part 1 Health Psychology in Context
• Health Psychology as a New Field of Inquiry
• The Macro-Social Environment and Health
• Cross-Cultural Images of Health
• Part 2 Health Behaviour and Experience
• Health and the Individual
• Stress and Coping
• Food and Eating
• Alcohol and Drinking
• Tobacco and Smoking
• Sexual Behaviour and Experience
• Exercise and Activity
• Part 3 Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
• Beliefs and Explanations
• Communication
• Messages and Meanings
• Compliance and Empowerment
• Immunization and Screening
• Health Promotion

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Authors Marks (emer., Middlesex Polytechnic, UK), Murray, Estacio (both Keele Univ., UK), and Evans (Middlesex Univ., UK) have created a unique, in-depth, practical textbook for advanced students of health psychology. The most common approach to health psychology is the biopsychosocial model. This textbook instead uses the broader ecological perspective (which the authors call the "onion model"). Accordingly, this book emphasizes the influences of social systems, social justice, and culture. The authors thoroughly cover health communication, health literacy, and community health in both theory and practice--topics generally skimmed over or relegated to a separate text. Each section ends with questions for future research, serving to ground readers in the current state of the field. Stress is usually a large component of textbooks and courses in health psychology; here, there is a paucity of coverage of the stress response and health from a biological perspective. Thus, this reviewer recommends the text for students already familiar with the biology of health and stress, rather than as an introduction to health psychology. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and graduate students. --Kerry C. Michael, University of Minnesota - Morris