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Chapter One
Theoretical Models in Health
Psychology and the Model for
Integrating Medicine and Psychology
BRET A. BOYER
HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY
Although health psychology is a rather recent focus of behavioral science, interest in
the interplay between humans' psychological and physical well-being dates back
throughout history and spans many cultures, with written discussion as far back as
the fourth century BC (Hippocrates, trans. 1923). Of particular historical significance
was the conceptual separation of the mind from the body by Rene Descartes in the seventeenth
century (Cummings, O'Donohue, Hayes, & Follette, 2001). However, regarding
health psychology as a subspecialty of psychology and medicine, it is useful to
revisit its development over the past 30 years. If we start slightly earlier in the historical
timeline, early attention was paid to the effects of the psyche upon physical functioning
and physical symptoms as early as Stanley Hall (1904), ... read full excerpt from Comprehensive Handbook of Clinical Health Psychology ebook
