Introduction to Health Psychology

Discover why psychology in healthcare matters to both caregivers and patients

Psychology plays a vital role in healthcare services. From a patient learning to cope with a medical condition to a doctor delivering significant diagnostic news – the psychological impact and toll of healthcare are often overlooked.

On this free online course from the University of Padova, you’ll get to grips with the essentials of healthcare psychology – what psychology is and how it influences areas from policymaking to illness management.

You’ll learn about how to improve positive psychological behaviour, and how health psychology impacts healthcare in developing countries.

This course would be valuable for psychology students looking for an introduction to health psychology, as well as policymakers interested in improving healthcare at the state level. Patients or carers themselves could also find it beneficial to study psychological reactions to physical illness.

• What is health and how do we improve it?
• Welcome to the course
• What is health?
• Maintain and improve health
• Summary of Week 1
• How are you today? From symptoms to illness
• Welcome to week 2
• Symptom perception and interpretation
• Becoming ill
• Summary of Week 2
• Being ill
• Welcome to Week 3
• Psychological responses to illness
• Reactions to illness
• Summary of Week 3
• Emerging topic in health psychology
• Welcome to Week 4
• Positive psychology
• The boundaries and the future of health psychology
• Summary of Week 4