Analysis of Health Views

PSYCH/626

Analysis of Health Views

The idea of health and wellness is a concept highly over looked by many individuals. That is until they become aware that their health begins to diminish or become jeopardized by some sort of illness. However, to understand the views individuals have towards the concept of health and wellness one must first be aware of the definition of the term. According to the Sage Handbook of Health Psychology, Sutton, Baum, & Johnston (2004) explains the term health refers to a range of positive states of mental, physical, and social wellbeing. This term is not only determined by the absence of disease and illness but by a variation of healthful signs composed of a person’s lifestyle. The focus of this paper is to explain the historical views of health, events that led up to those changes, provide a description of the biomedical model, the transition of the biomedical model into other fields of practice, and an explanation of the development of behavioral medicine.

Changes in the Historical Views of Health and Events that Triggered Those Changes

Over the course of many centuries the historical views on health and medical practices have advances drastically. Dating back thousands of years ago, people believed that spiritual forces, such as evil spirits were the cause of physical and mental impairments in human beings (Sutton, Baum, & Johnston, 2004). During that time there were no books written on medical symptoms or diseases so people were often uncertain about the causes of health related conditions. Also, within North American during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries deaths among human beings were usually the result of dietary influences and infectious diseases (Sutton, Baum, & Johnston, 2004). As a result of the many lives that were lost to these infectious diseases, advances in medical vaccinations and antibiotics hiked in development. Edward Jenner, a country doctor living in Berkeley, England in 1796 performed the world’s first vaccination through the experimentation of cowpox (Stern & Markel, 2005). Improving human heredity and preserving life has caused medical professionals and health psychologists to research alternative ways for advancing the medical industry.

A Description of the Biomedical Model

The Biomedical Model is a conceptual model of illness that excludes psychological and social influences, only including biological factors in a attempt to understanding a person’s medical illness or disorder (Stedman Dictionary, 2004).

Reference

Stedman Medical Dictionary (2004). Biomedical Model — Medical Definition. Retrieved June 9, from http://www.medilexicon.com/medicaldictionary.php?t=55643

Stern, A., & Markel, H. (2005). The History Of Vaccines And Immunization: Familiar Patterns, New Challenges. Journal of Vaccinations, 25(3). Retrieved from http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/24/3/611.full

Sutton, S., Baum, A., & Johnston, M. (2004). The Sage Handbook of Health Psychology [University of Phoenix Custom Edition eBook]. : Sage Publications. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, PSYCH625 website.