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• Description
• Aims and Scope
• Editorial Board
• Abstracting / Indexing
• Submission Guidelines

Journal of Health Psychology is an international peer-reviewed journal that aims to support and help shape research in health psychology from around the world. It provides a platform for traditional empirical analyses as well as more qualitative and/or critically oriented approaches. It also addresses the social contexts in which psychological and health processes are embedded.

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Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Journal of Health Psychology

This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics

Please read the guidelines below then visit the Journal’s submission site http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jhealthpsychology to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned .

Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Journal of Health Psychology will be reviewed.

Enquires about the manuscript submission process, the status of a submission, selecting the appropriate manuscript type, journal policies, or fit with the journal’s aims and scope should be addressed to:  [email protected] .

Please ensure that your manuscript is suitable for publication and completely free of errors before you submit. Please pay particular attention to Sage guidelines on Authorship and the Sage Correction Policy .

There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.

As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Journal of Health Psychology may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers ; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in the journal. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy. If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.

• What do we publish? 1.1 Aims & Scope 1.2 Article types 1.3 Writing your paper
• Editorial policies 2.1 Peer review policy 2.2 Authorship 2.3 Acknowledgements 2.4 Funding 2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests 2.6 Research ethics and patient consent 2.7 Reporting guidelines 2.8 Data Availability Statement(DAS)
• Publishing policies 3.1 Publication ethics 3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement 3.3 Open access and author archiving 3.4 Preregistration of Studies and Analysis Plans
• Preparing your manuscript 4.1 Formatting 4.2 Language and terminology 4.3 Artwork, figures and other graphics 4.4 Supplemental material 4.5 Reference style 4.6 English language editing services 4.7 Anonymisation of submissions
• Submitting your manuscript 5.1 ORCID 5.2 Information required for completing your submission 5.3 Permissions
• On acceptance and publication 6.1 Sage Production 6.2 Online First publication 6.3 Access to your published article 6.4 Promoting your article
• Further information

1. What do we publish?

1.1 Aims & Scope

Before submitting your manuscript to Journal of Health Psychology, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope .

1.2 Article Types

The Editorial Board of the Journal of Health Psychology considers for publication:

(a) Full-length reports on empirical studies. The word limit for this article type is a maximum of 8,000 words.

(b) Brief reports on empirical studies. The word limit for this article type is a maximum of 3,000 words.

(c) Review articles including systematic reviews, narrative reviews, and theoretical contributions. The word limit for this article type is a maximum of 8,000 words.

(d) Open peer commentaries on recent articles in this journal or topical issues. The word limit for this article type is a maximum of 2,000 words.

(e) Commissioned guest editorials approved in advance by the Editors (email  [email protected]  with formal enquiries). The word limit for this article type is 3,000 words.

(f) The abstract word limit is 150 words.

The word limit for each type includes all tables and figures to be included within the article. 

Exemptions to the word limit are not routinely granted. Any request for exemptions should be given in the cover letter at the time of submission and are only granted in exceptional circumstances. In most cases, supplementary files can be used to communicate additional aspects of relevance such as more detailed protocols, additional tables/figures, or secondary analyses  

1.3 Writing your paper

The Sage Author Gateway has some general advice and on  how to get published , plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance their article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online

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2. Editorial policies

2.1 Peer review policy

Journal of Health Psychology operates a strictly anonymised peer review process in which the reviewer’s name is withheld from the author and, the author’s name from the reviewer. The reviewer may at their own discretion opt to reveal their name to the author in their review but our standard policy practice is for both identities to remain concealed. Submissions should be prepared following  this guidance .

Please note that authors’ own work should typically be redacted from the text (e.g., [masked for review]) and completely removed from the reference list. The only exception to this requirement would be if it is completely impossible for reviewers to tell it is your own work from the citation in the text.

2.2 Authorship

All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools .

2.3 Acknowledgements

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.

Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References.

2.3.1 Third party submissions

Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

• Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
• Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
• Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves .

2.4 Funding

Journal of Health Psychology requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading.  Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. 

2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

It is the policy of Journal of Health Psychology to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.

Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript and on the title page, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here

Please see the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest for more information about what items should be referenced in a Conflict of Interest statement. For information in regards to anonymisation of Conflict of Interests statements within the main manuscript, please use this guidance:  https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/Manuscript-preparation-for-double-anonymized-journal . You can include further non anonymous details on the title page, as this does not go out for peer review.

2.6 Research ethics and patient consent

Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki

Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals , and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. On your title page, please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.

For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.

Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative. Please do not submit the patient’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the patient’s confidentiality. The Journal requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves, for example in a patient’s hospital record. The confirmatory letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file.

Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants

Please ensure you include any ethical consents/approval/ IRB statements on the title page of your manuscript. Please also include references within the manuscript, but please ensure this is appropriately anonymised as per this guidance:  https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/Manuscript-preparation-for-double-anonymized-journal . You can include further non anonymous details on the title page, as this does not go out for peer review.

2.7 Reporting guidelines

These guidelines relate to level of specificity, labels, participation, gender, sexual orientation, racial and ethnic identity, disabilities and age. Authors should also be sensitive to issues of social class, religion and culture.

The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should include the completed PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and the completed PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline. 

2.8. Data Availability Statement (DAS)

In 2020, JHP introduced a policy around the mandatory inclusion of raw data (MIRD) for submission of empirical articles and systematic reviews. The Journal’s policy and processes for data sharing are currently being reviewed, and while this takes please, the Journal of Health Psychology instead strongly encourages you to continue to share your data, whether that be via upload as supplemental material, or via deposit in an appropriate repository, and to let readers know where this is via your Data Availability Statement.

A DAS is advised on all submissions and should detail the following:

•     Indicate if data is available and shared and where it is stored

•     In certain cases, indicate if research data is available but not shared, and why.

•     Indicate if there is an absence of data

If you need to anonymize your research data for peer review, please refer to the FAQs for guidance.

2.8.1 Data Sharing Statement

In 2020, JHP introduced a policy around the mandatory inclusion of raw data (MIRD) for submission of empirical articles and systematic reviews. The Journal’s policy and processes for data sharing are currently being reviewed. Journal of Health Psychology continues to strongly recommend that where possible, data is shared with all submissions.

While the data sharing review takes place, JHP advises that authors do the following:

• If you are sharing data, please deposit any research data files in an appropriate repository.
• Indicate if data is available and shared and where it is stored 
• In certain cases, indicate if research data is available but not shared, and why. 
• Indicate if there is an absence of data

Data Availability Statement – Examples and templates

For those who wish to upload data as supplemental material:

“The current article is accompanied by the relevant raw data generated during and/or analysed during the study, including files detailing the analyses and either the complete database or other relevant raw data. These files are available and accessible as Supplemental Material via the Sage Journals platform. Ethics approval, participant permissions, and all other relevant approvals were granted for this data sharing.”

The following line can be added to the required Data Availability Statement if the data are also available in an additional repository.

“The data files from the current study are also available in the [NAME] repository at [PERSISTENT WEB LINK TO DATASETS].”

For those who use their own repository:

“The current article has relevant raw data generated during and/or analysed during the study, including files detailing the analyses and either the complete database or other relevant raw data. These files are available and accessible as Supplemental Material via the Sage Journals platform. Ethics approval, participant permissions, and all other relevant approvals were granted for this data sharing.”

The files will then be accessible via a link on the Sage Journals platform for the published article. Please note that any files submitted alongside manuscripts that are not accepted for publication are stored as per Sage’s archiving policy and are not made publicly available.

For research involving qualitative data, the raw data could be in the form of full transcripts and/or other raw materials that form the data corpus. We encourage authors to share compiled material for codes, categories, discourses, themes, or other components of analysis. If you do include this, the raw data should be accompanied by an explanatory memo detailing the contents of the data files.

For research involving quantitative data, the raw data should include the full database of variables referred to in the article, the syntax files and log files describing the analyses, and an explanatory memo detailing the contents of the data files.

All shared data must be de-identified to the extent required by the ethics approval for the study and must be in alignment with informed consent sought from any participants.

Where an author is not sharing data, we recommend that a statement is included to detail why data is not being shared. For example:

• “The data generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to [REASON WHY DATA ARE NOT PUBLICLY AVAILABLE] but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Ethics approval, participant permissions, and all other relevant approvals were granted for this data sharing.”
•  “The data generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available nor are they available on request due to [REASON WHY DATA ARE NOT PUBLICLY AVAILABLE NOR AVAILABLE ON REQUEST].”
• “The data that support the findings of this study are available from [THIRD PARTY NAME] but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so the data are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of [THIRD PARTY NAME]. Ethics approval, participant permissions, and all other relevant approvals were granted for this data sharing.”
• “All data generated or analysed during this study are included in their entirety in this published article itself. Ethics approval, participant permissions, and all other relevant approvals were granted for this data sharing.”

If your manuscript is an invited guest editorial, a commentary, a theoretical review, or a form of narrative review then is acceptable to use the following data sharing statement:

“Data availability is not applicable to this review article as no datasets were generated or analysed in conducting the review.”

3. Publishing Policies

3.1 Publication ethics

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the Sage Author Gateway

3.1.1 Plagiarism

Journal of Health Psychology and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarised other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.

3.1.2 Prior publication

If material has been previously published it is not generally acceptable for publication in a Sage journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the Sage Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.

3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway

3.3 Open access and author archiving

Journal of Health Psychology  offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage . For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access . For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies .

3.4 Preregistration of Studies and Analysis Plans

Researchers conducting experimental studies are encouraged to consider pre-registering their research design in advance with an established registry. Journal of Health Psychology will publish papers where authors indicate the conducted research was preregistered with an analysis plan in an independent, institutional registry (e.g., http://clinicaltrials.gov/ ) of studies involves registering the study design, variables, and treatment conditions. Including an analysis plan involves specification of sequence of analyses or the statistical model that will be reported.

For preregistered studies, the following requirements apply:

• Authors must, in acknowledgments or the first footnote, indicate that research was preregistered in an independent, institutional registry (with name and link to its location) with an analysis plan;
• The author must:

1. confirm in the text that the study was registered prior to conducting the research with links to the time-stamped preregistration(s) at the institutional registry, and that the preregistration adheres to the disclosure requirements of the institutional registry or those required for the preregistered badge with analysis plans maintained by the Center for Open Science .

2. report all pre-registered analyses in the text, or, if there were changes in the analysis plan following preregistration, those changes must be disclosed with explanation for the changes clearly distinguish in text analyses that were preregistered from those that were not, such as having separate sections in the results for confirmatory and exploratory analyses (these changes are added as a separate document linked to the text of the main paper)

4. Preparing your manuscript for submission

        4.1 Formatting

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

4.2 Language and terminology

Authors must follow the Guidelines to Reduce Bias in Language of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed) . These guidelines relate to level of specificity, labels, participation, gender, sexual orientation, racial and ethnic identity, disabilities and age. Authors should also be sensitive to issues of social class, religion and culture.

The language used in your manuscript should be inclusive and language that might be deemed sexist or racist should not be used. All submissions should avoid the use of pejorative terms and insensitive or demeaning language and submissions that use unacceptable language will be returned by the editor.

Useful websites to refer to for guidance

We recommend that authors consider looking at the below guidance:

• APA guidelines on Bias Free Language
• Words Matter
• Authors are encouraged to refer to land use any language guidelines that relate specifically to their research

4.3 Artwork, figures and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit Sage’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines   

Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.

4.4 Supplemental material

This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files

4.5 Reference style

Journal of Health Psychology adheres to the Sage Harvard reference style. View the Sage Harvard guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the Sage Harvard EndNote output file .

4.6 English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

4.7 Anonymisation of submissions

Submissions should be prepared following this guidance on manuscript preparation for double-anonymized journals:  https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/Manuscript-preparation-for-double-anonymized-journal

5. Submitting your manuscript

Journal of Health Psychology is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jhealthpsychology to login and submit your article online.

IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process Sage is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID . ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.

The collection of ORCID iDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID iD you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID iD will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID iD is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

If you do not already have an ORCID iD please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

5.2 Information required for completing your submission

You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

5.3 Permissions

Please also ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway

6. On acceptance and publication

6.1 Sage Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal Sage Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.

6.2 Online First publication

Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

6.3 Access to your published article

Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

6.4 Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The Sage Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.

7. Further information

Any enquires about the manuscript submission process, the status of a submission, selecting the appropriate manuscript type, journal policies, or fit with the journal’s aims and scope should be addressed to:

[email protected]

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Health Psychology

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• Vincent Tran 3  

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Behavioral medicine ; Medical psychology ; Psychosomatic medicine

Health psychology is a relatively new subfield of psychology that studies psychological factors related to how people stay healthy, why they become ill, and how they respond when they do become ill. The American Psychological Association’s official definition of health psychology comes from Matarazzo ( 1982 ): “Health Psychology is the aggregate of the specific educational, scientific, and professional contributions of the discipline of psychology to the promotion and maintenance of health, the prevention and treatment of illness, the identification of etiologic and diagnostic correlates of health, illness, and related dysfunction and to the analysis and improvement of the health care system and health policy formation.”

Health psychology emphasizes the biopsychosocial model where physical well-being and disease reflect a complex set of interrelated processes including biological factors (e.g., genetics,...

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References and Readings

Belar, C. D., McIntyre, T. M., & Materazzo, J. D. (2003). Health Psychology. In D. B. Freedheim & I. B. Weiner (Eds.), Handbook of psychology: History of psychology (pp. 451–464). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

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Brannon, L., & Feist, J. (2000). Health psychology: An introduction to behavior and health (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

Health Psychology. (2012). About Division 38. Health Psychology (APA, Division 38) . Retrieved from http://www.health-psych.org/LandingDivision.cfm

Health Psychology. (2012). Education & Training. Health Psychology (APA, Division 38) . Retrieved from http://www.health-psych.org/LandingEducation.cfm

Marks, D. F., Murray, M., Evans, B., Willig, C., Woodall, C., & Sykes, C. M. (2005). Health psychology: Theory, research and practice (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Matarazzo, J. D. (1982). Behavioral health’s challenge to academic, scientific, and professional psychology. American Psychologist, 37 , 1–14.

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Nezu, A. M., Nezu, C. M., & Geller, P. A. (Eds.). (2003). Handbook of psychology: Health psychology (Vol. 9). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

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University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, TX, 75390-9044, USA

Dr. Vincent Tran

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Correspondence to Vincent Tran .

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Behavioral Medicine Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

Marc D. Gellman

Cardiovascular Safety, Quintiles, Durham, NC, USA

J. Rick Turner

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Tran, V. (2013). Health Psychology. In: Gellman, M.D., Turner, J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_959

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Health Psychology Topics

Ideas for Your Next Health Psychology Paper or Project

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Emily is a board-certified science editor who has worked with top digital publishing brands like Voices for Biodiversity, Study.com, GoodTherapy, Vox, and Verywell.

Heath psychology topics can look at a range of issues related to health, illness, and healthcare. It may include such things as eating disorders, weight management, diet, exercise, stress coping, women's health, and more.

Health psychology, also known as medical psychology or behavioral medicine, focuses on how biology, psychology, behavior, and social factors influence health and well-being. It's a diverse and rich field worth exploring if you're studying to be a health professional.

At a Glance

Health psychology is a field focused on promoting wellness and understanding how physical health and illness impact mental well-being. Health psychology topics you might want to explore include stress management, behavior change, weight management, nutrition, eating disorders, exercise, illness prevention, managing chronic conditions, and much more.

Health Psychology Research and Paper Topic Ideas

The next time you're looking for a research topic for your studies and would like to focus on health psychology , consider the following suggestions. These can inspire an experiment , a research paper, or any other type of class project.

Exercise and Eating Behavior Topic Ideas

Health behaviors, including exercise and diet, are a major topic within the field of health psychology. Some areas you might opt to explore include:

Weight Management Strategies

Explore some of the psychological strategies that can help people stick to a diet and exercise program. Is there any singular strategy that is more effective than others?

Eating Disorders

Analyze how media depictions of "ideal" bodies influence anorexia and bulimia. Is there a link between exposure to these images and eating disorders?

Social Media and Body Image

Look at how exposure to social media affects body image. Do young people who spend more time on social media have worse body image than those who use these apps and websites less frequently? What type of content has the most significant impact on body image?

Family Health and Safety Topic Ideas

Factors that influence family health and safety are another health psychology topic you might consider. Examples include:

Safe Sleep Practices

Explore how increased public awareness of infant safety, such as placing an infant on their back to sleep, or removing pillows and other objects from the sleeping area, have influenced the occurrence of SIDS, or "crib death." Has the number of SIDS-related deaths gone down? Why do some parents ignore these sleep safety guidelines?

Childhood Immunizations

Assess current approaches to childhood immunizations. Why do some parents choose not to immunize their children? How does this impact public health? What can health professionals do to increase the likelihood that kids are immunized?

Teen Suicide

Explore the factors that contribute to  teen suicide . How effective are suicide prevention programs? Which strategies are the most effective?

Effects of Caregiving

Look at the emotional, social, and psychological impact of caregiving, such as taking care of an aging parent, a family member with AIDS, or a spouse diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

Public Health Topic Ideas

Individual health is important, but health psychology are also interested in learning more about things that can have an effect on overall public health. Some examples include:>

Trauma Coping

What can  mental health  and medical professionals do to help people cope in the immediate aftermath of a disaster? Are there any strategies that result in better long-term outcomes?

PTSD in Veterans

Research the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans. What factors contribute to whether an individual veteran experiences PTSD? Which mental health interventions are most effective in treating this disorder?

Coping with Chronic Pain

Evaluate how stress management techniques and relaxation methods can help patients experiencing chronic pain. How effective are these tactics? How do they compare to traditional pharmacological approaches to pain management?

Smoking Cessation

Compare and contrast different approaches to quitting smoking. Which strategies are the most effective?

Safety Equipment Use

Look at different techniques that can be used to increase the likelihood that people will use safety equipment such as seat belts and bicycle helmets. What type of public safety program would you devise to encourage the use of these products?

A few areas you might want to explore in your research include exercise, eating behaviors, family health, safety, and public health. Such areas provide a wealth of health psychology topics to choose from.

More Health Psychology Topics

The above are just a few specific topics and questions you might want to explore, but there are also many other areas you might consider. Some broad health psychology topics that might also inspire your research include:

• Biological factors that influence health
• Social and environmental factors that impact health (i.e., social determinants of health)
• Psychological factors that influence health
• How patients cope with disease and illness
• Treatment adherence (i.e., why some people don't follow their treatment plan)
• Ways to change bad habits
• How to develop good habits
• Techniques for controlling pain
• How to handle stress
• Factors that influence mental well-being
• How to improve access to healthcare resources
• Why people experience emotional eating
• How emotions impact health behaviors
• How discrimination affects health
• How to improve doctor-patient communication

Tips Before You Get Started

Before you begin, make sure the topic you're interested in matches the specific assignment. Even if your instructor doesn't require you to get approval for your intended topic, it's always a good idea to run it by them before you delve too deeply into your research.

Of course, make sure you've chosen a subject that you know you'll be able to find appropriate sources for. You wouldn't want to commit to a project only to find insufficient existing information to work with. Again, input from your instructor can prevent you from wasting time on a topic that offers little to go on.

What This Means For You

Health psychology focuses on understanding how social, environmental, biological, psychological, and cultural factors influence health and illness. If you are looking for a great topic to explore, consider picking a broad area of interest (like stress, exercise, safety, illness, etc.), and then narrowing down your focus to more specific questions of interest.

Ian Lubek, Monica Ghabrial, Naomi Ennis, et al. Notes on the development of health psychology and behavioral medicine in the United States. J Health Psychol.  2018;23(3):492-505. doi:10.1177/1359105318755156

Sanderson CA. Health Psychology: Understanding the Mind-Body Connection . SAGE Publications.

Naumann E, Tuschen-Caffier B, Voderholzer U, Schäfer J, Svaldi J. Effects of emotional acceptance and rumination on media-induced body dissatisfaction in anorexia and bulimia nervosa . J Psychiatr Res . 2016;82:119-125. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2016.07.021

McNeil DA, Mueller M, MacDonald S, et al. Maternal perceptions of childhood vaccination: Explanations of reasons for and against vaccination.   BMC Public Health . 2019;19(1):49. doi:10.1186/s12889-018-6338-0

Shen S, Cheng C, Yang J, Yang S. Visualized analysis of developing trends and hot topics in natural disaster research.   PLoS One . 2018;13(1):e0191250. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0191250

Renshaw KD. An integrated model of risk and protective factors for post-deployment PTSD symptoms in OEF/OIF era combat veterans. J Affect Disord . 2011;128(3):321-326. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2010.07.022

American Psychological Association. Health psychology promotes wellness .

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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