Biopsychosocial Model Of Health Psychology Essay

Health psychology is defined as “the branch of psychology that concerns individual behaviours and lifestyles affecting a person’s physical health” (Brannon et al., 2013). It was first established in 1978 when the behavioural sciences contributed to the learning understanding of health and illness. Health psychology combines with a various network of fields including biology and philosophy. These combined can help to assist the work of clinical health psychologists to understand health related behaviour (Matarzzo, 1980).

Health related behaviour is the behaviour by a person who believes to be healthy to prevent disease (Kasl and Cobb, 1966). The World Health Organisation (2009) states that health related behaviours begin in teenage years and can consequently affect them later in life. Health psychology is used in practice to improve the outcomes of health. This could be achieved by helping patients come to terms with their illness. Physiotherapists may achieve this by using the biopsychosocial model of health.

Engel proposed the biopsychosocial model of

Yellow flags mean that pain indicates harm. For example, the belief that back pain is harmful and that passive activity is the best treatment (McCormick and Law, 2016). The fear avoidance model explains ways in which psychological factors may influence pain and disability (Linton and Shaw, 2011). This model was initially designed to explain why chronic low back pain develops in patients. (Crombez et al., 1999). A painful injury may result in fear and consequently leads to avoidance of repeating that activity. The outcome of this is more avoidance and dysfunction which in turn can lead to more pain. Overtime, having a fear of pain and injury can cause musculoskeletal problems. Psychologically, avoidance may cause depression and anxiety (Linton and Shaw, 2011). To prevent this, physiotherapists should promote physical