SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

At the University of Texas

Health Psychology

Since its separation from philosophy, psychology has always been interested in the mind-body problem. Much of this interest has evolved into the fields of Health Psychology and the specific roles of hormones, brain activity, and the immune system on behavior.

The department now has an official sub-specialization in Health Psychology that is administered by both the social psychology program and the clinical psychology area. Within the social psychology area, current health psychology research includes stress and cortisol activity, social processes and health center usage, illness and medication representations, social stress and blood pressure, disclosure and immune activity, traumatic experience on the individual and community level and links to health behaviors.

Hormones, dominance, and social processes. Several projects are now being conducted that examine hormones such as testosterone on human behavior. Bob Josephs and his students are exploring the links between testosterone and dominance behaviors in both women and men. Jamie Pennebaker and his students are trying to understand how language is related to cortisol, testosterone, and various markers of immune function.

Stress and autonomic behavior. Most of the social psychology faculty frequently measure heart rate, blood pressure, skin conductance, salivary cortisol, body temperature, and other autonomic channels as part of their research. These measures provide insight into how the body is reacting to psychological processes.

Health care, illness behavior, and medical costs. For several years, Pennebaker and his students have studied when and why people go to the doctor. Most illnesses have a psychosomatic component -- meaning that one's psychological state influences the course of illness. Just as stressors can increase illness and illness behavior, psychological interventions can reduce them. This work has direct implications for medical costs and the ways we think about illness and psychology.