Health Psychology of HIV and AIDS
Term:
Spring 2010
Subject Code:
GPSY
Course Number:
6330
Health psychology looks at the relationship between health behavior and outcomes. It seeks to understand how people think about health; how they perceive health risks; how to encourage people to engage in health-related behavioral change; and how people react to health information. In this course we will examine the contributions of social psychological theory and empirical research to understanding the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the dynamics of HIV risk behavior, and HIV-related health behavior decisions. We will consider health disparities in the experience of illness burden, and the workings of stigma, bias and discrimination in the illness experience and health outcomes of people living with HIV/AIDS. We also will examine empirically-supported health promotion and disease intervention theories (e.g., social cognitive theory; the theory of planned behavior) as they pertain to HIV/AIDS health behavior and outcomes.
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