Health Psychology Program
The Health Psychology Area of Emphasis
Clinical students with interests centering on the interface of psychology and medicine may select Health Psychology as an area of emphasis. In our program, health psychology is broadly interpreted to encompass the theoretical, methodological, and/or procedural (treatment and prevention) contributions from contemporary psychology that bear upon the existing and emerging problems of modern medicine. Such areas of study include (but are not limited to): patient noncompliance, chronic illness management, analysis and modification of lifestyle and thinking patterns that place individuals at risk for serious illness, physiological correlates of maladaptive behavior patterns, psychosocial assessment and/or screening of medical patients, assessment and treatment of acute and chronic pain, the analysis of life stress in disease, psychosocial factors in immunologic functioning, and the role of psychosocial moderators/mediators in stress-illness relations (including such factors as social support, temperament, goal systems, etc.). These topics and others represent the current interests of full-time and adjunct faculty in clinical psychology, as well as those in graduate programs in social psychology and behavioral neurosciences.
Some features of the health psychology area at ASU are that: (1) our program permits students to develop skills and knowledge in dealing with biopsychosocial issues across the life-span. Active research on health-relevant topics currently exists with children, adults, and aging populations as target groups; (2) our program is strongly committed to a preventive focus. Early identification of groups at risk constitutes an important domain of research for a number of our faculty; and (3) the local Phoenix community provides excellent support in terms of the availability of hospitals, clinics, and private medical practitioners willing to assist ASU faculty and students in their research pursuits.
A Sample of Current Projects
Dr. Felipe González Castro directs the “Corazon Projects” that consist of two related projects. These projects are: (1) Project Corazon- Life Journey Analysis: Cognitive, Behavioral, and Cultural Factors, and (2) Project Corazon- Resilience in Latinos at Risk for Type 2 Diabetes. The projects are related by the use of a common research interview protocol. The major research goals for the present research phase focus on: (1) the transcription of audiotaped interview sections, (2) thematic coding, (3) axial coding, (4) regression model analysis, and (5) story line analysis, and (6) health interviews with the diabetes risk patients.
Dr. Linda Luecken, Dr. Keith Crnic, and Dr. Nancy Gonzales were awarded a 5-year NIH grant "Coregulatory Mechanisms and Postpartum Depression in low-income Mexican American women". The project began 2/20/2009 and will follow 330 mothers and their infants for the first postpartum year. The biopsychosocial processes by which mothers and infants co-regulate each other’s emotions, behavior, and physiology are important foci in the prediction of maternal depression over the first postpartum year.
Dr. Leah Doane Sampey is affiliated with the clinical program and is a member of the developmental faculty. Her research explores the psychophysiological underpinnings of adolescent and young adult every-day stress experiences from a developmental psychopathology theoretical framework. Dr. Doane Sampey incorporates self-report and physiological methodologies (ranging from hormone levels to sleep quality) from naturalistic settings using momentary ecological assessment. The overarching goal of her research is to understand how day-to-day experiences ranging from loneliness to discrimination get “under the skin” to influence physical and mental health outcomes.
“AS U Live” is a 5-year study designed to explore resilience among adults in mid-life (40 to 65 years old). The primary aim of this study is to better understand the variables that contribute to maintaining good physical and emotional health throughout life and to learn more about "community resilience," or potential health advantages for individuals residing in community contexts with certain beneficial attributes. Participants will be randomly selected from 40 census tracts in the Phoenix Metro area selected to ensure a representative sample of Hispanic residents. Clinical faculty members Alex Zautra (PI), Felipe González Castro, Mary Davis, and Linda Luecken are investigators along with several other faculty members.
"GIFT” is a 5-year study that evaluates the efficacy of a psychological treatment designed to assist patients with chronic pain associated with Fibromyalgia to learn new, more effective methods of emotion regulation as well as pain management. Participants are individuals with a confirmed diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition, or those who exhibit the symptoms associated with the disorder. Drs. Davis and Zautra direct the project.
Dr. Paul Karoly studies processes underlying the systematic regulation of goal-related action, thought, and emotion and their application to physical and mental health. The multiple effects of chronic pain on everyday goal pursuit are the subject of a recent grant titled Chronic Pain and the Enterprise of Living. The study involves the screening and recruitment of community residing adults who will participate in a laboratory-based assessment of their current goals and self-regulatory competencies (executive functions such as task-set switching and working memory). Participants will then use personal digital assistants for providing data on their daily goal progress, pain intensity, and affect. The research will examine individual differences relating to both regulatory strengths (resilience factors) and vulnerabilities. Dr. Karoly also studies vulnerability and protective factors relating to risky decision-making and impulsive behavior of young adults with such focal self-regulatory deficits as ADHD, excessive alcohol use, OCD tendencies, and odd or eccentric patterns of thinking. Dr. Karoly is involved in the ongoing development of an Internet-based educational program for persons with chronic pain that pivots on the development and careful tracking of self-regulatory skills.