International Society of Critical Health Psychology

The International Society of Critical Health Psychology is a society devoted to debate about critical ideas within health psychology and developing new ways of health psychology practice.

The next conference will be held 2013 (date to be confirmed) in Bradford, UK, at the University of Bradford.

History

In July 1999, the First International Conference on Critical and Qualitative Approaches to Health Psychology was held in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. Over 120 critical health psychologists from 20 countries and every continent on the globe attended the conference. It was agreed that there was an urgent need to establish a network to begin to connect those health psychologists throughout the world who were interested in developing a more critical approach to the subject.

In August 2001, the Second International Conference was held in Birmingham, UK. At this conference, it was decided to establish the International Society of Critical Health Psychology.

Aims

The society has three primary aims:

• To promote increased debate about critical ideas, qualitative and participatory research methods, and social, political and cultural issues within health psychology.
• To facilitate contact and collaboration among critical health psychologists.
• To promote the development of resources and training opportunities in critical health psychology.

Members of the Society take a variety of theoretical and methodological viewpoints. However, as with other critical psychologists, they share a common dissatisfaction with the positivist assumptions of much of mainstream psychology and its ignorance of broader social and political issues. Instead, they share an interest in various critical ideas (e.g. social constructionism, post-modernism, feminism, marxism, etc.) and various qualitative and participatory methods of research (e.g. discourse analysis, grounded theory, action research, ethnography, etc.) and their relevance to understanding health and illness. Further, they share an awareness of the social, political and cultural dimensions of health and illness (e.g. poverty, racism, sexism, political oppression, etc.) and an active commitment to reducing human suffering and promoting improved quality of life, especially among those sections of society most in need.

Membership

The Society welcomes membership from anyone who is aligned with its aims, regardless of disciplinary affiliation. The Society has members throughout the world, who are mostly critical health psychologists, but members also come from other fields of psychology, as well as from the sociology and anthropology of health, illness and medicine, health sciences, nursing, media studies, communication studies and cultural studies. In 2011 the society had approximately 480 members in over 28 countries.

Newsletter

The Society produces a newsletter, 'Connected', twice a year to keep members up to date on current critical health psychology activity. Recent newsletters can be found on the 2009 conference website (web address below).

Conferences

The Society organizes a biennial conference. These conferences have been held in: St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada (1999); Birmingham, UK (2001); Auckland, New Zealand (2003); Sheffield, UK (2005); Boston, USA (2007); Lausanne, Switzerland (2009); and Adelaide, Australia (2011). Full details of the presentations that were given at the Lausanne conference can still be found on the ISCHP2009 conference website (web address below). Details of the Adelaide conference can be found on the ISCHP2011 conference website (web address below).

References

• Murray, M. (Ed.) (2004). Critical health psychology. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Lyons, A. C., & Chamberlain, K. (2006). Health psychology: A critical introduction. Cambridge University Press.
• David F. Marks, Michael Murray, Brian Evans & Emee Vida Estacio (2011) Health Psychology. Theory-Research-Practice (3rd Ed.) Sage Publications. ISBN 1848606222 (hbk) 978-1848606227 (pbk).
• Marks, D. F. (Ed.) (2002), The Health Psychology Reader. London: Sage
• Marks, D. F. (Ed.) (1996 - ). Journal of Health Psychology (see article) (journal homepage)

External links

• International Society of Critical Health Psychology (accessed Oct 2011)
• ISCHP2011: 7th Biennial ISCHP Conference, Adelaide (South Australia) with details of how to submit an abstract and come to the conference
• ISCHP2009: 6th Biennial ISCHP Conference, Lausanne (Switzerland) with records of the presentations that were given