Handbook of Psychology and Health, Volume I

Originally published in 1982, this volume deals with behavioral medicine and clinical psychology. Much of what psychologists had been able to contribute to the study and treatment of health and illness had, to this point, been derived from clinical research and behavioral treatment. This volume presents some of this work, providing a fairly comprehensive view of the overlap between behavioral medicine and clinical psychology. Its purpose was to present some of the traditional areas of research and practice in clinical psychology that had directly and indirectly contributed to the development of behavioral medicine. Before the ‘birth’ of behavioral medicine, which subsequently attracted psychologists from many different areas ranging from social psychology to operant conditioning, the chief link between psychology and medicine consisted of the relationship, albeit sometimes fragile and tumultuous, between clinical psychology and psychiatry. Many of the behavioral assessment and treatment methods now being employed in the field of behavioral medicine were originally developed in the discipline of clinical psychology.