The Graduate Center
The City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Jeffrey Parsons, Director jeffrey.parsons@hunter.cuny.edu
The Program
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HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY:
THE NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Health Psychology is an important and rapidly-developing area of research that has made significant contributions to our understanding of health-behavior relationships. While medicine was able to control major health problems of the past such as pneumonia, polio, and smallpox, the reduction or elimination of these illnesses has contributed to increased length and quality of life. But in their place are new problems: longer life introduced the problems of health specific to the elderly; chronic illness assumed a new, greater importance; and viral diseases such as AIDS introduced complexities hitherto unknown to research on infectious disease. Behavioral scientists have played an increasingly visible and influential role in the efforts to understand these changing patterns of illness and health.
Health Psychology is viewed as a subdiscipline of psychology. Its national success and rapid rise as a theoretical, empirical, and clinical endeavor is a direct result of the fact that self-identified health psychologists come from a variety of traditional areas within psychology, bringing a diversity of models, concepts, and methods. The value of a broad-based psychological approach emerges as one considers particular research topics in health. The study of the relationship between behavior and cardiovascular disease, for example, has obviously profited by its investigators going beyond the tools provided them by a single field to the integration of theories and methods from personality, physiological, clinical, and developmental psychology.
THE HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY CONCENTRATION AT CUNY
Students who complete the requirements for the Concentration receive a strong foundation in the theories and research methods used, with a particular emphasis on the health issues of urban populations and culturally-diverse groups. This is accomplished through involvement in small seminars, large scale research projects, field experiences in health settings, and intensive faculty-student mentoring. The multi-disciplinary character of the training program reflects the faculty's awareness of the importance of social and cultural dimensions of health.
At the Graduate School, a "concentration" is a teaching and research structure that crosses programs or subprograms. Toward this end, the Health Psychology Concentration serves as both a mechanism for offering courses and a formal structure through which students may claim a specialty or minor. Students in all ten of the Psychology subprograms (Biopsychology, Clinical, Developmental, Environmental, Experimental, Experimental Cognition, Industrial/Organizational, Learning Processes, Neuropsychology, and Social/Personality) may take a health psychology course as an elective or fulfill the full set of requirements for the Health Psychology Concentration. In this way, students are simultaneously trained in their psychology subprogram (e.g., environmental psychology) and in health psychology, which allows for the integration of theories and methods from each area of psychology.
Five courses (15 credits) are required for formal completion of the Health Psychology Concentration requirements:
o Health Psychology I
o Two advanced health psychology seminars
o One course in the sociocultural dimensions of
health
o One course on the biological aspects of health
Health Psychology I presents an overview of psychological theory and research in health, illness and health care. Students become acquainted with current knowledge in substantive areas, such as patient-physician relationships, risk factors in the development of illness, stress and coping, the hospital environment, and community-based health interventions. Emphasis is placed on understanding relevant models, methods and theory with an emphasis on understanding the role of sociocultural diversity and context in health psychology.
An advanced seminar is defined as a health psychology course offered by a faculty member within the doctoral psychology programs. Previous courses that have fulfilled this requirement include:
The Psychology of Women's Health
Social Relationships and Health
The Psychology of Illness
Issues in Gay and Lesbian Health
Resiliency and Psychological Well-Being
Social & Environmental Context of Health and Disease
Psychological Scales and Health
The requirement of a course in sociocultural health issues may be fulfilled by a health-related course in psychology which is based on social or cultural perspectives. Students may also fulfill this requirement with an approved health-related course from another department, such as medical sociology or medical anthropology.
The requirement in the biological aspects of health can be fulfilled by an appropriate and approved biologically-oriented course in psychology, such as Prof. Spielman's course in sleep or a doctoral-level course in biopsychology or neuropsychology, or by a approved course outside of psychology.
The core faculty consists of doctoral-level faculty in Psychology at the Graduate Center. The faculty and their principal doctoral subprogram affiliations are:
Jeffrey T. Parsons (Social/Personality) Director
David Bearison (Developmental)
A.J. Franklin (Clinical)
Sarit Golub (Neuropsychology)
Setha Low (Environmental)
Vita C. Rabinowitz (Social/Personality)
Margaret Rosario, (Social/Personality)
Tracey A. Revenson (Social/Personality)
Susan Saegert (Environmental)
Arthur Spielman (Experimental Cognition)
Deborah L. Vietze (Social/Personality)
Gary Winkel (Environmental)
Ann Marie Yali (Experimental Cognition).
The efforts of the core faculty are supplemented by the teaching and research contributions of other CUNY faculty members as well as researchers at other city institutions. These individuals represent additional fields relevant to health psychology and offer students a wide array of research settings within which to work.
The research interests of a sample of the faculty are as follows:
David Bearison. His research interests include death, dying and palliative care; coping with cancer and other life-threatening medical conditions; physician-patient patterns of interacting; treatment compliance; ethical and policy issues regarding genetic testing of children; medical education; interactive computer technologies in health education. email: dbearison@gc.cuny.edu
Sarit Golub. Our laboratory is part of the Psychology Department at Queens College, and is devoted to research that integrates social psychology and public health. The majority of our research applies social psychological theory and research methods to the study of chronic illness treatment and prevention. Our laboratory is also involved in projects that examine the ways in which other major (and minor) life events shape the formation and maintenance of individual identity. email: sarit_golub@qc.edu, Web Site
Setha Low. Her research interests are in medical anthropology and include "nervios," a psychosocial symptom of distress found in the Americas and Western Europe; health care and healing in Costa Rica; gender and illness in Guatemala; somatic manifestations of social and cultural inequality and oppression. email: slow@gc.cuny.edu
Jeffrey T. Parsons. His research interests include psychosocial health factors among persons living with HIV; risk-taking behaviors of youth; health behaviors of gay/lesbian individuals; development and evaluation of theory-based interventions to modify health behaviors. email: jeffrey.parsons@hunter.cuny.edu. Web site CHEST
Tracey A. Revenson.Her research interests include stress and coping processes among individuals, couples, and families facing chronic physical illness; the influence of supportive and non-supportive interpersonal relationships on health; couples' (dyadic) coping processes; psychosocial issues of breast cancer survivorship; the influence of racism on physical and mental health. email: trevenson@gc.cuny.edu
Margaret Rosario. Her research interests include the self and identity and their associations with well-being and health particularly among youth; the coming-out process, its unfolding, and the links between the coming-out process and the individual's mental and physical health; exposure to community violence among youth, its impact on mental and physical health, and the mediators and moderators of the relation between community violence exposure and health. email: mrosario@gc.cuny.edu
Susan Saegert. Her research interests include environmental stress; racial, gender, and economic health disparities; social and environmental context of health and disease especially in urban populations; physiological processes related to parent-child interactions; housing and health; community based research and community development; social capital, environmental quality, crime and health; characteristics of sustainable health interventions; "greeness" and health. email: ssaegert@gc.cuny.edu
Art Spielman. His research interests include circadian rhythms and medical problems (e.g., cerebral blood flow velocity); insomnia; imaging the brain with laser light to assess regional oxygen concentrations non-invasively. email: thrilla834@aol.com
Deborah L. Vietze. Her research interests include the effects of racism and other forms of discrimination on the health of adolescents and adults; secondary and primary prevention of poor birth outcomes for low income pregnant women; primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of developmental disability in childhood. email: dvietze@verizon.net
Gary Winkel. His research interests include research design and statistics as applied to field research problems; psychological and social factors related to all aspects of cancer; the design and planning of health care settings; the study of environmental factors related to health. email: gwinkel@gc.cuny.edu
Ann Marie Yalie. Her research interests center on how people find meaning in trauma; the role of religion and spirituality in coping with stress, particularly with respect to cancer; as well as general health promotion and illness prevention. email: annyali@hotmail.com
ADMINISTRATION
Jeffrey Parsons is the current Director of the Health Psychology Concentration. In addition, each doctoral subprogram has a Health Psychology Concentration Liaison. The HC Liaisons are:
- David Bearison for Developmental
- Tracey Revenson for Social/Personality
- Gary Winkel for Environmental
- Jeffrey Parsons for all other subprograms
These faculty act as contact persons regarding students questions regarding all Health Concentration matters. Students should keep their subprogram Liaison aware of their progress and interests within Health Psychology.
APPLYING TO THE HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY CONCENTRATION
Doctoral students matriculated in any one of the eleven psychology subprograms at CUNY may apply to the Health Psychology Concentration. In general, students apply for and are admitted to the Health Psychology Concentration during their first or second year of doctoral study. This permits students whose interests in health have developed during the first year of graduate study to apply for the Concentration, in addition to students who matriculate at CUNY with defined interests in health. Exceptions may also be made for more advanced students who have changed their research interests and are willing to extend their degree time to complete additional course work.
The formal requirements for admission to the Health Psychology Concentration
are:
1) A formal letter of application to the Health Concentration Director,
requesting admission to the Concentration;
2) A letter of recommendation from a faculty member from the student's
subprogram.
Applications may be submitted at any time during the academic year to their Subprogram's Health Concentration Liaison. The Liaison will review the application and forward it to the Director, where a final decision will be made.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Do I get a Ph.D. in Health Psychology?
No. At the Graduate School
you apply to and are matriculated in one of the ten subprograms of psychology.
You are awarded a Ph.D. in Psychology. A certificate is issued by the
Health Psychology Concentration upon completion of the Concentration's
requirements. A separate doctoral subprogram in health psychology does
not exist.
Can I take a health psychology course or two and not fulfill all the
requirements of the Health Concentration?
Yes. Any student who has
an interest in health psychology is encouraged to take one or more classes.
However, some of the advanced seminars have prerequisites.
When should I start the Concentration?
In general, students apply for and are admitted to the Health Psychology
Concentration during their first or second years of doctoral study. Health
Psychology I, the core course, should be taken as soon as possible, as
it provides a foundation for advanced courses. Other health courses vary
in their timing.
If I am enrolled in the Concentration, do I have to do my dissertation
on a health topic?
No. However, students are encouraged to select for their dissertation
a health psychology topic. The topic should, of course, also relate to
the discipline of each student's doctoral subprogram. In addition, students
are encouraged to do their second-year project, a requirement of the Psychology
Department, on a health-related issue. In essence, students interested
in securing employment as health psychologists after receipt of the Ph.D.
must demonstrate to potential employers their interest and experience
in health psychology.
Are there potential sources of funding for students?
Yes. In addition to the University's traditional sources of financial
aid, health psychology students have received funding from minority student
fellowships, outside private foundations (e.g., Arthritis Foundation),
the American Psychological Association, and the National Institutes of
Health. In addition, students have been supported through research assistantships
at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Mount Sinai School of Medicine,
Columbia University School of Public Health, Gay Men's Health Crisis,
Hospital for Special Surgery and Harlem Hospital.
If I enroll in the Concentration will it take longer for me to get
my degree?
We think not. Those students who select health courses for the majority
of their subprogram electives should be able to complete course work and
all other requirements for the Ph.D. within the normal time frame.
Will completing the Health Psychology Concentration be enough to get
me a job?
We hope so. With a Ph.D. in Psychology you are well qualified for most
research and academic positions in your area of study. By adding a concentration
in Health Psychology, you will add a specialty area. Positions held by
CUNY Health Concentration Graduates include, for example, faculty positions
in the Departments of Psychology at Fordham University and Rutgers University,
the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, the Department
of Family Medicine at Albert Einstein School of Medicine, Research Scientist
in the Department of Psychiatry at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer
Center, and Assistant Director of Program Evaluation at the Gay Men's
Health Crisis.
REMAINING QUESTIONS
Any additional questions should be sent to Jeffrey Parsons, Director (jeffrey.parsons@hunter.cuny.edu).
Revised 10/18/05