Health Psychology Week 1 Response
The biopsychosocial model delves into the different dimensions of a patient’s well-being and factors contributing to their health beyond including their biological compositions. Biomedical models are limited to a single approach focusing primarily on innate differences.
As Gurung (2019) highlighted, individuals must be culturally competent in their practices and approaches to succeed in health and other related industries. The biopsychosocial model allows these individuals to embrace a holistic approach to clients. This is even more important in today’s America because of the growing diversity and colloquially deemed the “melting pot” of the world by Americans and their international visitors. Gurung (2019) explained that in recent years, there has been an increase in challenging the perception of American identity. The author utilized the 2016 presidential elections as an example of the challenges where Hillary Clinton became the first woman candidate, and Barack Obama was the first Black president. The notion that Americans were white and male was challenged (Gurung, 2019). This initiated further conversations on diversity, including age, religion, socioeconomic status, and even geography, all contributing to the definition of cultural diversity. Each of these intersections contributes a perspective to specific health issues, providing individualized care for the patient. “The fact that behavior is influenced by many different factors outside of the individual is a critical aspect on which health psychologists focus” (Gurung, 2019, p. 16).
Utilizing an illness prevention perspective, the biopsychosocial model provides a greater opportunity to identify causes and promote culturally applicable health practices. It is not a one-size-fits-all but offers practices that would be more acceptable to the patients. For example, certain countries do not believe in mental health. As a result, the practitioner must utilize practices that remove any language that includes this stigma. Instead of noting depression, the professional may encourage the patient to engage in community work or volunteerism to become more active rather than stay home. This allows patients to understand and be comfortable with the recommended health practices. When patients are comfortable seeking support from practitioners who understand them culturally, they raise community awareness, encouraging others to seek access to this support.
The biomedical approach is more prescriptive to the physical symptoms. In a Western approach, health can be defined as the absence of disease (Gurung, 2019, Table 1.2). However, in the cross-cultural examinations, the Western approach is the only definition specializing in the physical. Gurung (2019) utilized American Indians as an example of people who “do not draw distinctions between physical, spiritual, and social entities or between religion or medicine” (p. 9). The coined term “biopsychosocial” allows the Western approach to adopt culturally responsive practices. This approach serves as a reminder and an opportunity for those practicing the Western approach to think differently – that biology, psychology, and sociology contribute to health.
Reference
Gurung, R. (2019). Health psychology: Well-being in a diverse world (4th ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.
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Ava Tisdale
Wednesday
Jan 10 at 10:13pm
Biopsychosocial is the term that explains the interconnection between biological, psychological, and social factors within healthcare (Gatchel 2020). The model offers alternative approach to the traditional medicinal model, which primarily is focused on the biological aspect of healthcare. Unfortunately, this biomodel neglects the other two dimensions. Due to its neglect, it is modernly argued that the biopsychosocial model is superior and is more relevant to treating American’s today.
This model’s superiority is based on many factors, including the fact that it takes into account the entirety of the individual and does not limit its evaluation to their physical anatomy. Psychological factors, typically coined to be recognized as the term “mental health”, is modernly known to be one of the most significant contributors to overall well-being (Gatchel 2020). The biopsychosocial model utilizes the recognition of this, and the impact that the mentality of an individual is just as important as, if not already significantly contributing to or causing, their existing illness. Social factors, on the other hand, discuss what most would historically believe to be private and irrelevant to health (Bolton 2022). These factors include socioeconomic factors, and their consequences, like access to healthcare and the stress associated with it. These factors hugely affect an person’s capacity to improve their physical bodies, as well as their psychological (Gatchel 2020). The mental and social aspects commence a defined holistic perspective. Furthermore, with the incorporation of this inclusivity, the care implemented is more patient-centered. Healthcare services will be offered to cater to the uniqueness of the individual, incorporating cultural and belief systems into treatment. This cultural competence is another driving factor towards the importance of the biopsychosocial model, heavily supporting the inclusivity clause (Gatchel 2020).
Some scientists criticize this model for the lack of knowledge we have on it (Bolton 2022). This assumption is credibly said, yet can be argued through the chronic stress model and the central involvement in pain perception. The chronic stress model, simply put, understands and validates the connection between stress and health through examination of the socioeconomic standing of individuals and frequency of stress caused illnesses. This explanatory epidemiology serves to contrast researchers in the medicinal field who previously contradicted psychosocial involvement (Bolton 2022). The central involvement in pain perception then narrows the understanding of the psychological involvement in illness through its nuerobiological reaction in this model (Bolton 2022). In sum, the central involvement in pain perception hinders the central nervous systems processing mechanism through negative psychological manipulation. These two impressive models both help contrast any limited biomedical models with the evidence of psychosocial roles in health.
References
Bolton, D. (2022). Looking forward to a decade of the biopsychosocial model. BJPsych Bulletin, 46(4), 228-232.
Gatchel, R. J., Ray, C. T., Kishino, N., & Brindle, A. (2020). The biopsychosocial model. The Wiley encyclopedia of health psychology, 1-8.
RESPOND to the above post in APA format, APA references and in-text citations and 250 word minimum