During this unit, you will be introduced to the discipline of health psychology and examine its definition, development and relevance to health and health care in today's society.

Specifically, at the end of this unit you will be able to:

• Define health psychology;
• Define the biomedical and biopsychocial models of health;
• Explore the value of medicine in improving health from a historical perspective;
• Evaluate the relevance of health psychology in modern day society;

In order to complete this unit, you should have the following:

• Access to the introductory chapter of a good health psychology text-book. For example Ogden (2004) or Marks et al (2005).

Guidelines on these web pages: how to use them, and the various conventions used within them can be found on this link.