Genetics affects virtually everything about living organisms. Psychology’s greatest involvement with genetics concerns genetic differences among people, and books such as Plomin et al.’s (2003) Behavioral Genetics in the Postgenomic Era embody that emphasis. In A Holistic Conceptualization of Stress and Disease, Newberry et al. (1991) detail the numerous pathways linking psychological variables to disease
Mental health courts are specialty criminal courts with a separate docket to deal with mentally ill persons, who are disproportionately arrested and incarcerated. Established by local court and criminal justice officials who recognized that traditional prosecution and punishment were not effective deterrents with this population, these courts divert mentally ill defendants into community treatment with
Recently, researchers and juvenile justice administrators have recognized that rates of mental health disorders are remarkably high among adolescent offenders. This finding carries significant implications for policy and practice. Youth justice facilities are mandated to provide necessary mental health treatment to detained adolescent offenders with mental health needs. Furthermore, mental disorders may interfere with youths’
There is a long history of community intervention in the field of public health. Mitler’s review of contemporary approaches to community health promotion traces them to the late 1800s. The goals of community interventions are diverse, ranging from decreasing morbidity or mortality, to increasing the practice of a healthy behavior or healthy organizational practices, to
Contraception refers to preventing conception, the process by which a sperm from a fertile male joins with an ovum (egg) of a fertile female during vaginal sexual intercourse. Any fertile female who has vaginal intercourse without contraception with a fertile male may become pregnant. If a couple prefers not to conceive a child, then the
When a person experiences a stressful event, he or she has to handle the problem in some way. Some persons, for example, may take direct action to resolve the problem or may ask others for advice. Other persons might go to a movie to distract themselves from the problem or might ignore the problem and
Dementia is an acquired clinical condition characterized by persistent and often progressive impairment in multiple intellectual domains, such as memory and the ability to think, reason, and use language. Dementia is most common in the elderly. The prevalence of dementia increases with age, from about 1 percent of individuals aged 65 years to approximately 30-50
Denial refers to both the complete lack of awareness of a distressing thought, emotion, or memory and avoidant processes aimed at reducing awareness of threatening content. Denial processes may occur consciously, as in the case of intentional suppression, or nonconsciously and automatically, as in the case of emotional dissociation or repression. Contemporary views have emphasized
For more than a quarter-century, health psychology approaches to dentistry and oral health have been active and productive areas of research. Among the topics that researchers have investigated are bruxism (night-time clenching or grinding of the teeth) and other oral habits (e.g., thumb sucking), taste disorders, the impact of craniofacial anomalies, oral health needs of
Depression Definition Depression is a common disorder primarily characterized by either a low or depressed mood or a loss of interest or pleasure in nearly all activities. Many additional symptoms are often present in the disorder, such as changes in weight, appetite or sleep patterns, fatigue, difficulty with concentration or decision making, moving more slowly