Health Psychology

What Health Psychology covers

One of the three Paper 2 applications. It covers addiction, tolerance and dependency, biological and learning explanations of alcohol, heroin and nicotine addiction, their treatments, anti-drug campaigns, and the animal, human and cross-cultural methods used to study drugs.

The 21 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Addiction, tolerance and dependencyRecall questions on addiction, tolerance, physical and psychological dependency and withdrawal, neuroadaptation and receptor downregulation, and cognitive factors such as outcome expectancies, low self-efficacy, rationalisation and self-medication.Open →
• Withdrawal and the effects of drug takingRecall questions on the symptoms of drug withdrawal, from tremors, sweating and nausea to anxiety, irritability and insomnia, and the seizures and hallucinations of severe cases.Open →
• Biological explanations of drug addictionRecall questions on drugs and the mesolimbic reward pathway, how alcohol, heroin and nicotine each act on GABA, glutamate, opioid and nicotinic receptors, and how neuroadaptation produces tolerance and withdrawal for each.Open →
• Learning explanations of drug addictionRecall questions on classical conditioning of cues, operant reinforcement, and social learning explanations of drug use.Open →
• Treatments for alcohol addictionRecall questions on aversion therapy and classical conditioning, disulfiram and acetaldehyde, naltrexone after detoxification, the components of CBT for addiction, acamprosate, and how agonist and antagonist therapies work.Open →
• Treatments for heroin and nicotine addictionRecall questions on buprenorphine and Suboxone, varenicline, rapid smoking, methadone maintenance, naltrexone, nicotine replacement therapy, and the difference between agonist and antagonist therapies.Open →
• Anti-drug campaignsRecall questions on fear appeals, social norms messaging and information in anti-drug campaigns, and on FRANK: its services, persona, honest and humorous messages, the Pablo adverts, confidentiality, and the evidence for and against its effectiveness.Open →
• Individual differences in health psychologyRecall questions on sensation-seeking and impulsivity, genetic variation, telescoping, and the diathesis-stress model.Open →
• Developmental psychology in health psychologyRecall questions on social learning of drug use, peer influence in adolescence, the gateway hypothesis, and parental modelling.Open →
• Using animals to study drugsRecall questions on animal laboratory experiments, what generalises to humans, and the ethical case for and against.Open →
• Research methods using humans to study drugsRecall questions on laboratory and field experiments, correlational studies, self-report and case studies of drug users, double-blind procedures and placebo controls, and the strengths and weaknesses of laboratory and self-report methods.Open →
• Ethics of using human participants to study drugsRecall questions on informed consent, the right to withdraw, protection from physical and psychological harm, confidentiality, deception and debriefing, ethics committees, safeguards for dependent participants, cost-benefit analysis, and placebo and double-blind designs.Open →
• Cross-cultural research into drug misuseRecall questions on nature-nurture issues, the aldehyde dehydrogenase example, imposed etics, and the limits of cross-cultural comparison.Open →
• Analysing data in health psychologyRecall questions on why consumption data suit the median, frequency tables, range and standard deviation, bar charts, thematic analysis, and when chi-squared, Spearman's rho, Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon are used.Open →
• Classic study: Olds and Milner (1954)Recall questions on the rat self-stimulation procedure, the septal area, the rate of lever pressing, and the discovery of the reward system.Open →
• Contemporary study: Mundt et al. (2012)Recall questions on the network model, the separation of peer selection from peer influence, and what each implies for prevention.Open →
• Contemporary study: Dixit et al. (2012)Recall questions on the epidemiological survey in Aligarh, the urban and rural comparison, the biosocial determinants, and the design's limits.Open →
• Contemporary study: Pengpid et al. (2012)Recall questions on the randomised trial in South African outpatients, the AUDIT screening, the brief intervention, and the outcome.Open →
• Key question in health psychologyRecall questions on choosing a key issue such as campaign effectiveness or methadone, and applying research to answer it.Open →
• Practical investigation in health psychologyRecall questions on designing an ethical attitude study, Likert scales, social desirability, and the analysis to report.Open →
• Issues and debates in health psychologyRecall questions on animal research ethics, reductionism, nature and nurture, social sensitivity, and cultural bias in defining harmful use.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Health Psychology further

The same content, four other ways.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is addiction?

   Model answer

   A chronic condition characterised by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli despite adverse consequences, involving loss of control over the behaviour.

2. 2

   Define tolerance in the context of drug use.

   Model answer

   Tolerance occurs when repeated exposure to a drug leads to diminished effects, requiring increased doses to achieve the same response.

3. 3

   What is physical dependency on a drug?

   Model answer

   Physical dependency develops when the body adapts to a drug's presence and requires it to function normally, with cessation causing physiological disturbance.

4. 4

   How is psychological dependency defined?

   Model answer

   Psychological dependency involves emotional or mental reliance on a drug to cope with stress, emotions or daily functioning, without necessarily involving physical adaptation.

5. 5

   How can physical dependency be distinguished from psychological dependency?

   Model answer

   Physical dependency is distinguished by the presence of measurable physiological changes and somatic withdrawal symptoms, rather than purely emotional or cognitive cravings.

6. 6

   What is withdrawal?

   Model answer

   Withdrawal refers to the cluster of adverse physical and psychological symptoms that occur when a dependent individual reduces or stops drug intake.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Health Psychology revision questions

What does Health Psychology cover in Edexcel A-Level Psychology?

21 subtopics: addiction, tolerance and dependency, withdrawal and the effects of drug taking, biological explanations of drug addiction, learning explanations of drug addiction, treatments for alcohol addiction, treatments for heroin and nicotine addiction, anti-drug campaigns, individual differences in health psychology, developmental psychology in health psychology, using animals to study drugs, research methods using humans to study drugs, ethics of using human participants to study drugs, cross-cultural research into drug misuse, analysing data in health psychology, classic study: olds and milner (1954), contemporary study: mundt et al. (2012), contemporary study: dixit et al. (2012), contemporary study: pengpid et al. (2012), key question in health psychology, practical investigation in health psychology and issues and debates in health psychology. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Health Psychology organised?

By the Edexcel 9PS0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.