Author Description

"When I (Dr. Taylor) wrote the first edition of Health Psychology over 30 years ago, the task was much simpler than it is now. Health psychology was a new field and was relatively small. In recent decades, the field has grown steadily, and great research advances have been made. Chief among these developments is the use and refinement of the biopsychosocial model: the study of health issues from the standpoint of biological, psychological, and social factors acting together. Increasingly, re-searchers have identified the biological pathways by which psychosocial factors such as stress may adversely affect health and potentially protective factors such as social support may buffer the impact of stress. With Dr. Stanton joining as an author, our goal in the 11th edition of this text is to convey this increasing sophistication of the field in a manner that makes it accessible, comprehensible, and ex-citing to undergraduates"--