Critical Health Psychology: Foundations, Approaches and Applications

Abstract

This accessible open-access textbook employs a critical health psychology perspective to health psychology to promote critical reflexive thinking and learning about health and wellbeing, within a social justice framework. The book navigates the reader through a comprehensive examination of contemporary research and theoretical developments in the field of critical health psychology. Organised into three distinct parts, the book radically orients readers to new ways to think about health through:

- incorporating a conscious reflection on and examination of how health is theorised, understood, treated, and promoted for individuals, communities, and societies; - using a critical psychology lens that centres issues of power and meaning making, including gendered, Indigenous, and intersectional frameworks; - an openness to, and engagement with, theoretical and methodological pluralism, including quantitative, qualitative and Indigenous approaches to explore people’s experiences and understandings of health and illness; - explicit attention to socio-political contexts; - and considering the application of knowledge beyond behaviour change, to social change including community-level (community-led interventions, activism and advocacy) and societal level (e.g., policy, wider discourses).