For courses in Health Psychology found in Nursing and Allied Health Departments, as well as in Psychology Departments.

Introduction to Health Psychology in Australia provides comprehensive, balanced and up-to-date coverage of health psychology from an Australian and international perspective. The text covers all mainstream health psychology topics – such as risk behaviour, stress and illness, family life and public health – with analyses and evaluations of contemporary issues such as cross-cultural dimensions of health and illness, biological systems, lifespan influences and the impact of illness on family carers. Following  the approach that describing, predicting and intervening are the goals of health psychologists, the authors present issues, then introduce the theory and research evidence and assess the relevant interventions. Health promotion across the lifespan is discussed throughout the text.

PART 1: Being and staying healthy
1. What is health?      
2. Health inequalities 
3. Health-risk behaviour
4. Health-enhancing behaviour
5. Predicting health behaviour
6. Reducing risk of disease – individual approaches
7. Population approaches to public health 
 
PART 2: Becoming ill
8.The body in health and illness 
9. Symptom perception, interpretation and response 
10. The consultation and beyond 
11. Stress, health and illness: theory 
12. Stress and illness moderators 
13. Managing stress  
 
PART 3: Being ill
14. The impact of illness on quality of life
15. The impact of illness on patients and their families
16. Pain 
17. Improving health and quality of life
 
PART 4: Futures       
18. Futures 
 

• Chapter outlines introduce main topics and highlight links between the chapters, while chapter learning outcomes provide students with a framework for their study.
• A balanced perspective is taken on health issues, allowing students to understand the reasons why people make certain decisions.
• ‘Research focus’ boxes provide summaries of the aims and outcomes of current research. These encourage students to understand the methods used to evaluate the issues relevant to health psychology.
• ‘Issue’ boxes provide students with a greater awareness of the problems surrounding research in the field.
• ‘What do you think?’ boxes encourage critical thinking and further engagement with the topic in discussion.  
• ‘In the spotlight’ boxes explore hot topics and critical/cutting-edge material relevant to the chapter.
• Case studies, local and International are used throughout the text to develop issues further.
• Margin definitions are included throughout, highlighting key terms to improve students’ understanding.
• Extensive references provide students with an opportunity for additional reading to develop their understanding further.

Phyllis Butow is a clinical psychologist, who is Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Sydney, NSW, Australia, and a National Health and Medical Research Council Principle Research Fellow. She is
Co-Director of the Centre for Medical Psychology and Evidence-based Decision-making (CeMPED) and Chair of the Australian Psycho-Oncology Co-operative Research Group (PoCoG). She has published widely in the area of psycho-oncology. She has over 250 articles published in peer reviewed journals, and has co-written one other book, co-edited 4 books  and written 16 book chapters. She has a particular interest in doctor-patient communication, has facilitated many health professional communication skills workshops, and sits on a number of committees which have influenced the development of medical communication skills training in Australia.

Dr Barbara Mullan is a Chartered Health Psychologist with the British Psychological Society and registered with the Health Professions Council.  She is also a Member of the Higher Education Academy (formerly the Institute of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education). She has worked in health psychology for more than 15 years and is currently a senior lecturer in the area.  Her teaching experience has been both in psychology and in allied health professions.  Her research interests include social cognition models in predicting and intervening to improve health, particularly food related behaviours, including food safety behaviours, nutrition, obesity and diabetes, the role of self regulation and executive function in physical health and addiction, and she is author of over 50 peer reviewed articles.

Professor Kate White is the Director of the Research Development and Support Unit (RDSU) in the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Sydney. Her research interests are in the areas of psychosocial research related to cancer and palliative care, rural health, sexuality, breast cancer, and quality of life of cancer patients and their families. Professor White’s clinical background is in the areas of oncology and palliative care nursing.

Val Morrison is a Senor Lecturer in Health Psychology, and a chartered health psychologist, based at Bangor University. She has taught psychology since 1992, whilst maintaining a vibrant research group investigating psychosocial predictors of patient and carer outcomes of chronic disease and cancer.

Paul Bennett is Research Professor in the Nursing, Health and Social Research Centre at the University of Cardiff. He has published several books on health and clinical psychology as well as over 100 academic papers and chapters.