Health Concentration Psychology

Graduate-Level Concentration in Health Psychology

Department of Psychology offers to develop a graduate-level Concentration in Health Psychology. The Concentration is designed to provide integrated immersive training and graduate-level education consistent with the student’s area of expertise and career aims with a formalized credential in Health Psychology.

The field of Health Psychology (APA Division 38) seeks to advance contributions of psychology to the understanding of health and illness through basic and clinical research, education and service activities and encourages the integration of biomedical information about health and illness with current psychological knowledge. Thus, aligned with Division 38, the Health Psychology Concentration will provide training in theoretically-based empirical research aimed at increasing understanding of the mechanisms underlying the reciprocal relationships linking biopsychosocial and behavioral factors to physical health outcomes such as chronic disease, disability, and mortality.

The Health Psychology concentration provides training in various topic areas related to physical health and disease:

• Biopsychosocial model of health
• Psychophysiological processes in the initiation and progression of physical diseases
• Health-promoting and health-damaging behaviors
• Adaptation to physical disease
• Health Disparities
• Biobehavioral interventions for health promotion and prevention

Who is Eligible?

The Health Psychology Concentration is available to graduate students who are enrolled in one of the main doctoral programs in the Psychology department: Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience, Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology, or Cognitive Psychology. The Concentration in Health Psychology capitalizes on the cross-area interactions to provide diverse training perspectives on Health Psychology. Thus, students who complete the Concentration program will receive training in Health Psychology from cognitive, neuroscientific, behavioral, clinical, and social psychological perspectives

Faculty Mentors:

Faculty involved with the Concentration will provide didactic, research, and professional development training to ensure that students have ample opportunity and support in completion of the concentration requirements. The faculty mentors have expertise in a broad range of areas germane to health psychology, including but not limited to: health behavior change; psychoneuroimmunology; stress and cardiovascular disease risk; emotion and physiological responses; self-regulation and health behavior; social determinants of health; women’s health; health disparities; physical activity and exercise promotion; and mind-body and biobehavioral interventions.

Clinical Area:

Dr. Samantha Farris (Chair)
Dr. Teresa Leyro
Dr. Edward Selby

Social Area:

Dr. Richard Contrada
Dr. Lori Hoggard
Dr. Diana Sanchez

Cognitive Area:

Dr. Karin Stromswold
Dr. Elizabeth Torres

BSN Area:

Dr. Alex Kusnecov
Dr. David Barker
Dr. Kasia Bieszczad
Dr. Benjamin Samuels

Students who are interested in the Health Psychology Concentration can access details here.

For an application or completion form, please request it from the graduate program coordinator or Dr. Samantha Farris.