Essential Readings in Health Psychology is a new collection of key papers brought together for the first time in a single volume which complements Jane Ogden’s bestselling textbook, Health Psychology.

The reader focuses on the key areas highlighted by the British Psychological Society as central to health psychology, providing an ideal resource for any undergraduate or postgraduate course in health psychology as well as for students of medicine, nursing and allied health.

The papers have been carefully selected from a range of prestigious international journals including American Psychologist, the British Medical Journal, Psychology and Health, Psychosomatic Medicine, Health Psychology and the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Each of the twenty-nine papers employs different theories and methods which offer a different perspective from within one of five broad areas:

• The context of health psychology
• Health behaviours
• Health care
• Stress and health
• Chronic illness

The papers offer case examples of health psychology work that illustrate what health psychology research can (and cannot) achieve. They are framed by editorial discussions which will help students to understand the context, meaning and contribution of each paper to the discipline of Health Psychology as a whole. The complete papers are published, including their reference lists, so they can be used to develop reading lists and recommend further reading.

This book can be used independently or along side the introductory text, Health Psychology. Each book contains a cross-referenced list of chapters from the other, in order that lecturers and students can easily find clear evidence-based examples of key theories, models and methods being used in practice.