Psychology in Medicine [EL026]

Detailed information about this course:

Description

Medical psychologists study the way somatically ill people think, act and feel. The aim of this course is to teach students about psychological determinants of illness and illness behavior, the psychological consequences of somatic illness and psychological care for somatic patients. First, you’ll learn about ‘normal’ reactions to disease. We’ll then focus on abnormal and pathological reactions to somatic illness and on problems that patients might have in adjusting to their disease.

We will discuss models that explain why some people find it difficult to adjust to their disease, such as the stress coping model and the stress vulnerability model. Other models that will be discussed in this course include the Health Belief Model, the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Stages of Change Model. These models are widely applied by medical psychologists in interventions for somatic patients. Modern neuroscientific models for understanding behaviour and behavioural disorders will be addressed as well.

In this course, we will focus on various somatic problems, such as diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, infertility, organ transplantation and chronic pain.

Finally, basic theories of doctor-patient communication will be discussed, as communication between doctors and patients has become more and more important.

The learning method in this course is problem-based learning. Furthermore, you will build a new model for understanding a complex and realistic problem in medical psychology.

Objectives

• Understanding and applying the major models and theories in medical psychology;
• Understanding the complex relationship between somatic, psychological and social aspects in disease and health;
• Gaining state of the art knowledge about psychosocial interventions in health care;
• Understanding principal theories of doctor-patient communication.
  

Assessment

Attendance, Assignment(s)