Description

On the occasion of releasing the 1st issue of Journal of Indian Health Psychology, editors take the opportunity to state the very objective of the Journal: it aims to promote health and prevent illness by applying principles of psychology. Though, it will readily accept research with newer paradigms and perspectives, but it sets forth biopsychosocial model for itself. It is expected that contributors shall include measures from biological, psychological and social domains blended with some macro (demographic) variables. The journal shall provide a platform where psychologists shall cross their boundaries to interact with other health professionals and take on specific diseased groups or specific macro populations. A special attention should be given to evolve a ‘community health psychology’ approach so that a mutual trustworthy relationship may develop between health psychologist and the community. A serious effort would be required to adopt public health perspective so that applied research may contribute to health planning and policy formulation. It is also hoped that the articles in the journal shall encourage young students and researchers from various disciplines to pursue research and careers in health psychology. There also appears all positive openings in the health services sector since favourable findings have been obtained at global level and prestigious medical research publications have already recognised the valuable contributions by health psychologists. The services offered by health psychologists have already been included in actuarial/med-insurance schemes and personnel/occupational sector to provide financial support in the treatment and rehabilitation. Going with these developments an extra attention will be required on the part of the researchers to try interventions based on various theories of psychology for promoting health, preventing illness and furtherance of the treatment outcomes. There is a potential to enrich the traditional medical approaches in case of various chronic and terminal diseases. Application of health belief model, theory of planned behaviour, psychotherapies, social cognitive theory, yoga and other meditation practices have been successful in reducing the treatment duration and cost. One of the major contributions of health psychology has been assigning a central and proactive role of the patient in the management of the illness as well as general health. Input from positive psychology in terms of hope, optimism, happiness, etc. are further upgrading the scope of psychology. Already a corollary to health psychology has been established in the form of hedonic psychology.
This issue contains articles representing the varied nature of research in health psychology. For example, Shyodan Singh delineates the biopsychosocial model which is often recommended in health psychology, whereas, the article by Singh et al. describes the empirical tryout of the same model on community sample using a reach out strategy. Article by Mehta and Kalra examine women health in relation to personality types, similarly Mathur offers psychological interventions for gynaecological problems. Grover et al. present a case of asthma with comprehensive psychological intervention for treatment. Similarly, Garima Kumar uses narration based methodology to study psychological health and well-being of employees working in multinational corporations. Sharma et al. explored the personality correlates of general mental health, whereas, Sharma and Sandhu studied parenting as a determinant of childhood disorders. Gupta describes experiences and suitability of multimodal approach of cognitive rehabilitation. Shyam and Singh reveal the lay meaning of happiness and its perceived determinants using a survey technique on community sample; Singh elaborates upon psychological aspects of cancer pain patients responses to pain; Bhandari has investigated role of anger in cigarette smoking, Juneja and others are examining the quality of life amongst health care professionals in relation to social support, whereas Kumar et al. aim to investigate the role of stressful life events in the onset of tension headache. Thus, the sample of studies conveys the extensity of the domain, flexibility of the methodology and freedom of choosing a narrow aspect to the general health.
In the forthcoming issues the editors expect to receive articles representing the domain of health psychology more comprehensively and exclusively. The first issue of the Journal is dedicated to all those who are pursuing the universal goal to alleviate sufferings of the humanity.

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