Psychology comprises two components—body and mind. The body is the physical structure that varies from man to man. The body is a visible frame, whereas the mind is a different thing. The word mind originates from the Greek word ‘’Psyche’’ the meaning of which is mind or soul. The mental health of a person is, no doubt, an asset for peace and happiness. People all over the world look for this asset, but only a few can attain it and lead a happy and peaceful life. A proverb goes that a man can survive well and outlive if s/he gets mental health.
1. Health-psychology
Health psychology makes people more aware and conscious about their health, and at the same time, makes people more responsible for their health, whether it is at an individual, family, community, or even at the state level. Health responsibility is, therefore, a collective effort and an integrated effort of an individual at the community or the state level. Health, and care for the people in the health care centers, are the main theme of awareness, which should be clearly understood by the world population.
Concepts of Psychology
Health psychology dictates everyone be healthy. People are more aware of the basic concepts of health. The concepts not only tell us about the bio-medical, the germ theory, the ecological concept, and the role of the environment but lots of importance; and emphasis are given to the psycho-social concept; the role of psychology in keeping us in a state of good and balanced health.
The combining aspects have a great bearing on our health status and are counted very much as most appropriate for positive health. The word health is derived from the old English word hal, meaning hale, whole healed, sound in mind and limbs. In short, health is defined as the absence of illness. Further, health is defined as an absence of disease or infirmity’’. To know more about psychology, check out Medical Psychology.
World Health Organization about Psychology
The positive-health attainment should be the ultimate objective of every nation on this earth, and the World Health Organization (WHO) is constantly hammering on this point. Human psychology is, therefore, attaining positive health to drive maximum utility and benefit of life.
The prerequisites for health are freedom from hunger, equal opportunity for all, and basic requirements such as food, education, safe water, sanitation, hygiene, decent housing, job security, political will, and public support. Health behavior is the most important determinant of health, and health psychology aims to implement promoted health care and prevention of communicable diseases, curative, and rehabilitative care.
Positive Health
Positive health is the state of ideal health, which denotes the optimum health condition, and it helps a person to adjust to age. In other words, it is the attainment of optimum health of which mental health is an important component. It is a balanced and well-adjusted health condition, which should include a standard of life and a satisfactory level of living, and thus makes it a good quality of life. A person with positive health usually enjoys his or her health. It allows a person to have the ability to modify self in the face of changing conditions of life. A person who is sound physically, mentally, socially, politically, and economically can enjoy sound health.
Aspiration of People
Positive health symbolizes the total aspiration of the people of the community or society. Positive health, therefore, has a greater dimension which includes all components of health, including the spiritual, emotional, and vocational dimensions. Positive health, therefore, requires perfect health functioning conditions which should be maintained biologically, psychologically, and socially. Positive health is implied by WHO in which a person can express himself completely and freely to the full potential of his genetic heritage. This is only possible when a person lives within a balanced ecology.
The knowledge of psychology
The knowledge of psychology offers us knowledge of the science of human and animal behavior. Therefore, it helps us to know better the minds of individuals and others in society. It also helps us to differentiate between right and wrong, normal and abnormal by following the norms and patterns of justice and rationality as practiced and accepted by the society to which it is referred.
A knowledge of human psychology is, therefore, essential for all health teams to be able to render proper health care delivery services to the community or society. Since both men and women are different structurally, physiologically, and psychologically, therefore, this knowledge must be understood by the health team to assess the psychology of human beings.
2. Gender-related psychology
In recent years, a lot of interests have been created to identify some similarities and differences in the behavior of men and women. However, the difficulties confronted in the proper study of such matters related to the factors of human biology, culture, and some observational bias. It is hard to differentiate these differences in a newborn baby, but some obvious observational differences can be noticed between male and female children in most societies.
Age-Based
By the age of 11 years, a girl grows with substantial verbal ability, whereas a boy of the same age develops a bit later. On the other hand, a boy of 11-12 years of age develops more visual-spatial and mathematical ability. The woman attains maturity a bit earlier than a man in the growing stages. In most societies, males are found to be more aggressive than females. The aggressive character can easily be displayed or increased in some animal species by the administration of testosterone. Some changes are noted in the elderly ages of both males and females. Women generally show a lot of hormonal disturbances at the menopausal stage. This hormonal disturbance results in vasomotor changes and hot flashes.
Emotion-Based
Emotional women with mental instability and hormonal disturbances could be a real medical problem. Mental disorders, such as Hysterical attacks, are common in women. The word hysteria comes from hysterics, the Greek word for uterus. Other serious and less curable disorders, such as schizophrenia, sociopathy, and alcoholism, are more common in men. Unwanted pregnancy and abortion are not uncommon in many societies, especially in conservative ones. In some societies or countries, abortion is considered illegal. But abortion sometimes brings relief to women, which is contrary to the belief that abortion in the majority of cases, follows depression and guilt.
Sex-Based
The sex-education, sexual history, and rapes are quite delicate subjects, which should be taught to students with proper caution and confidence. In most cases, the rapes are pre-planned, and in some cases, the rapists are intoxicated at the time of the actual act of rape. Many rapists know their victims. Rape victims in a conservative society are often found to have ‘gross psychological disturbances’ and are found to commit suicide within a known compact community or society.
