What Can You Do With a Health Psychology Degree?
Because health psychology is not as well-known as other areas of psychology, people interested in the field want to know where a degree in health psychology can lead them. The answer is that a health psychology career can offer graduates many rewarding opportunities, including clinical, research, and administrative roles.
Health psychology focuses on the psychological, social, and behavioral factors influencing health and illness. Practitioners examine how psychological processes and behavior impact physical health and how it impacts psychological well-being.
There are several career paths in health psychology. They include working with patients individually and at schools, workplaces, and community clinics. Some nonprofit organizations also hire health psychologists. More experienced health psychologists may become consultants concentrating on specific demographics, such as seniors or school children.
Students can start their health psychology careers by earning a Master of Arts in Psychology with a concentration on health psychology. Touro University Worldwide program graduates emerge prepared to work in diverse psychology-related settings.
What Is Health Psychology?
Health psychologists practice a mental health specialty that examines the many non-physical factors impacting health and wellness. Health psychology professionals strive to promote behaviors in patients that lead to better health outcomes.
A health psychology career involves working with various health-related topics, including managing chronic illness, health promotion and disease prevention, pain management, stress and coping, and the psychological impact of medical treatments.
Health psychologists use surveys and qualitative interviews to investigate the complex relationships between psychological factors and health outcomes. They also develop interventions and strategies to promote health and prevent illness, including cognitive-behavioral therapy, stress management techniques, and lifestyle modifications.
Jobs With a Health Psychology Degree
A career in health psychology offers the opportunity to significantly impact people’s lives by improving health outcomes and promoting wellness.
Health psychologists work in hospitals, clinics, universities, research institutions, and government agencies, according to the American Psychological Association (APA). They may also work in private practice.
Health psychology careers can involve research, clinical, or administrative work. Research consists of investigating the psychological and social factors contributing to health and illness. Clinical work may include helping patients manage chronic illness, cope with stress, and adopt healthier behaviors.
Administrative roles may entail developing and implementing health promotion programs or policies.
Health psychologists often collaborate with other healthcare professionals, such as physicians and social workers. They may also work with public health organizations and community groups to promote health and wellness. Specific job titles in health psychology include wellness consultant, behavior analyst, program director, research coordinator, addiction counselor, and health psychology professor.
The Touro University Worldwide Master’s Degree in Health Psychology
Students who concentrate on health psychology as part of earning an online MA in Psychology delve into specific topics that prepare them for success in this increasingly important field. Students earn nine semester credit hours in health psychology in the following courses:
Changing Health Behaviors. This course focuses on understanding the psychosocial processes regarding individuals’ behavioral health choices. Topics include analyses of prospect theory, bounded rationality, overconfidence, motivation for change, cognitive dissonance, habit theory, and self-control capacity toward shaping behavioral health change.
Health and Psychology of the Aging. This course examines age-related health issues, specifically those in midlife and the elderly. Topics include healthy adult psychological adjustment, healthy aging coping strategies, social relationships, memory and intelligence in aging adults, dementia, wisdom, and coping with dying and bereavement.
Stress and Coping in Health Psychology. This course explores the theories, methods, and applications of stress and coping research relevant to health. Topics include physiological responses to stress, the stress response theory, the measurement of psychological coping, stress management, and the moderators of stress and coping.
