The Longevity Project Reflections

After hearing the two speakers in class yesterday, I was mostly intrigued by the different directions that health psychologists in their careers. Knowing that a degree in health psychology can be used for research that helps such a wide range of students and children, rather than just clinical work, is really interesting and important. Having such diverse opportunities within one field, and the way that the health psychology field can overlap with other fields, makes health psychology of high interest to me.

I also found the challenges faced by both speakers to be very interesting but disheartening. Most of the challenges were systemic, in that the policy prevents them from working to their full potential. Even though health psychology is a relatively new field, it seems as though policy makers would work hard toward this cause. It was even more disheartening to hear about the ways that health psychologists are disregarded in the work place. With such an important job that can contribute so much, one speaker still felt as though she had to “prove herself” among other healthcare professionals.

The talk we had on April 16th was very eye-opening for me. It was interesting to hear about how what we are learning in class can be applied in real life. Health Psychology, in terms of content, is very widespread and encompasses really a lot of things. At certain points in time in this class, I almost felt that Health Psychology didn’t have one specific career that it lends itself to.

By hearing these two women speak, I now know that my hunch was right. Health Psychology is really a great field for anyone not in only in Psychology, but in other medical and therapeutic fields to understand and apply. I really love that the content we have learned in this class can be really beneficial to any health practitioner in making sure that a patient has the best experience possible when receiving any sort of treatment.

One example of a seemingly unconventional direction for Health Psychology is when Ms. Lambert spoke about her experience with conducting studies concerning educational infrastructure and its relation to health. I specifically can relate to this as I currently am enrolled in a University, which is actually quite old. There have been a number of times that I’ve personally seen bacteria or black mold in my dorm on campus and have wondered how that is impacting my health. While at school, I seem to always be sick and I’m sure this sort of contamination is a contributing factor. In addition, when I or my parents have complained to the University about it they do not seem to care, or want to spend the time or money to fix it. As a number of studies have shown, feeling flu-like symptoms can greatly affect your ability to reason and process information. Therefore, it should make sense that a University would want to eradicate these sorts of issues in order to help its students succeed.

It makes me excited to hear from the two women that Health Psychology is a growing field with more and more students wanting to study this area. I can only hope that studies and research in this field will better society in the way that Ms. Lambert hopes to with her current research. Although I do not see myself going into Health Psychology, I really do think it’s been an interesting topic to cover in this class and am excited to see what developments happen in the future!

Ebony Lambert’s area of research, education and inequities/disparities in student health, intrigued me for many reasons. One, most anything pertaining to disparities, especially racial/ethnic issues, garners my attention. However, she also is local to Richmond (as am I) and so when she was speaking to issues in some of the schools she worked with and in, I very much, unfortunately, could picture and understand what she was talking about. I probably would have never thought about the flooring of a school and/or classroom, be it carpet or tile, and how that might effect student health if and when it is not properly maintained or replaced. It was subtleties like that that Ebony mentioned throughout that had me wanting to learn more. Additionally, the integration of health psychology and social psychology very much interested me as well as I continue to think about how I might utilize my PhD in social psych or sociology, or potentially in pursuing other (related) subject matter.

I enjoyed Dr. Olbirsch’s responses and thoughts as well. It was pretty neat to see someone who was kind of one of the pioneers of a now rapidly expanding field in health psychology sitting at the front of our classroom. I appreciated her resentment toward policy and regulations, which in many ways restrict treatments, but also restrict further discovery. I understand the IRB exists for the good of the people, but that’s also the idea behind the government and… well, I won’t say any more on that. I liked that she very frankly said it is essentially to know what you know and know what you Do Not know, and I also appreciated the term she used to encapture this thought, “cultural humility.” I wish I had better framed my question about exercise routines/treatment with her obesity patients to mention both diet and exercise because it is futile to expect weight loss when you only have/do one and not have/do the other. This is essentially wha she alluded to when responding, which I already knew it was the case. I was more so interested in how she dealt with “stubborn” patients for lack of a better word–those who know what kind of lifestyle is best for them, those who have the time to make it happen, but then still don’t do it… I’ll remember to ask another time though.

I thought the talk during class yesterday with Dr. Olbirsch and Ebony Lambert was very insightful and interesting. It was helpful to see the many ways in which health psychology can be applied. I thought it was also interesting to get a perspective from someone who is in graduate school compared to someone who has been working in the field for many years and has filled many different positions. I really enjoyed listening to Ebony’s research on black student health. This concept is really interesting and a concept that was new to me and probably many others.  I found it fascinating when she was talking about the changes that could be made to a classroom to help a child with asthma, such as the type of floor or rug. Dr. Olbirsch works with patients who are potentially going to receive weight loss surgery, which is also interesting and applies to what we have learned in class.

I found it interesting as a senior to listen to this talk and hear how their degrees in health psychology have led them to where they are today. I think especially for the field of health psychology it is easy to go into many different careers. I also thought it was interesting when the speakers discussed barriers when working with a patient. I thought the example Dr. Olbirsch gave was interesting, regarding formulating a weight loss program specifically designed for an individual patient. She gave the example of how it would not be beneficial to tell an African-American woman to swim in order to lose weight due to the amount of maintenance their hair requires.

I liked the part of the presentation when they discussed the stereotypes associated with health psychology. Both speakers agreed that health psychology is not a field that many people are familiar with and often times it is mistaken for social work, which Dr. Olbirsch in particular found to be frustrating. I think it is important for more people to be aware of what health psychology is and the many career paths you can go down with a degree in health psychology

I thought this talk was interesting mainly because there were two distinct perspectives we got to witness first hand. Since we are all undergraduates, it was probably a little easier for students in the class to relate to what Ebony Lambert was saying, but for those of us who aspire to be health psychologists, or at least to go into the field of clinical psychology, what Dr. Olbirsch had to say was fascinating as well.

I was intrigued to learn that when Dr. Olbirsch was in school, her field of psychology was not yet as developed as it is today. I can’t imagine the different fields that will emerge by the time I am 30, or so, years out of school, so it was interesting to hear her thoughts on that aspect of her career as well.

I liked how passionate Ebony was about what she does as well. I remember her describing to us when she fell in love with research, and it’s important to be passionate about what you do, especially if it involves other people or affects other people in any way, which psychology certainly does. I am glad they both came in to talk to our class, and I definitely think their talk would not have been nearly as effective, had they come in on separate days. It was nice to be able to compare and contrast their thoughts and what they were saying at the same time as they sat next to one another and shared their experiences with us.

During class on April 16th, we had the opportunity to hear from two contrasting and diverse individuals in the field of health psychology. Their stories and experienced differed from the beginning when we asked how they got to where they are today. One is a graduate student doing research at VCU in the role education plays on black student health. The other guest works with patients that are receiving weight loss surgery.

What resonated with me is that both of them had an idea of what they were going to do, but ultimately their paths of life were not linear and took on opportunities that came their way. These opportunities led them to the field of health psychology. As a senior about to graduate in less than a month, it is reassuring to hear of their successful careers in health psychology. After their experience in the field, they touched on the stigmas and preconceptions of health psychologists. Overall they both agreed that many people don’t know who they are or what health psychologists do, since it is an interdisciplinary study. In order to combat this we need to keep educating society about health psychologists and show that they do have a “base of science” to everything they do.

Since health psychology is very interdisciplinary, I believe that a health psychology major or minor would thrive at a liberal arts school like the University of Richmond. Considering we have majors like PPEL (politics, philosophy, economics, and law) and healthcare studies that incorporate policy, law, ethics, and reform, a health psychology major or minor could take some of these classes to understand the social and cultural barriers or laws in place that health psychologists need to be aware of when treating patients.  Also, this could potentially be something that could benefit the school’s strategic plan of becoming more diverse. Health psychology could create a greater understanding of the diverse social, economic, and cultural backgrounds. Having a greater understanding of diverse backgrounds in a health psychology context could make this campus more of a community and be more inviting to diverse populations of students and faculty.

Lastly, the other point that resonated with me was what challenges the health psychologists have to face and how they overcome them.  In a field that is constantly growing there are struggles of how to operationalize and define certain terms like “student health.” Many studies are done with physical activity or risky behavior, but none uncover the larger hidden student school experience that might define student health. Also another challenge is how regulated our healthcare system is becoming. According to our speaker there are increasing layers of administration that health psychologists have to comb through that is a waste of time and not beneficial to the patients or health psychologists. They hope that as the field grows, our healthcare system finds a way to become simpler and less bureaucratic. This is also another system or lens of health psychology a student could study if they were to be a health psychology major or minor.

I found the Healthcare Psychology Careers talk to be interesting and informative. Both speakers substantiated the importance of recognizing patient culture, background and thought processes when developing interventions and treatments, and I found particularly interesting the example about African-American hair type and the importance of recognizing pain as a barrier to patient exercise. As well, it was interesting that both individuals noted relative anonymity of the healthcare psychology field; although the field is growing in recognition, many providers and patients are still unaware of the importance of psychologists to the healthcare field. In addition, the experienced healthcare psychologist noted the importance of collaboration with doctors and surgeons, substantiating the role of healthcare psychologists as part of a patient team. I was somewhat surprised when the healthcare psychologist stated that the greatest frustration of the field is bureaucracy; I was not aware there is so much regulation in the field. Finally, I found it intriguing the VCU student’s statement that healthcare psychology may be increasingly relevant for the problem of abuse and overuse of prescription drugs.

Overall, this talk emphasized to me the dynamic nature of healthcare psychology, with implications for clinical work, research, and policy, and opportunities to make a lasting change in patient’s lives.

Today, two speakers came into class today with varying degrees of experience and different focus areas within health psychology. One was a graduate student working on research about how educational settings can affect student health while the other worked with patients with obesity. They talked about stigmas they may potentially face (i.e. being called a social worker) and challenges they face (i.e. trying to quantify variables). While both speakers were very interesting, my interest was focused on the research of the graduate student.

For the past four years, I’ve worked at the Center for Civic Engagement and learned more about the disparities that exist within Richmond’s public school system. I learned more about the financial and racial factors in regards to educational outcomes. I did not really think about how the condition of the building itself would impact a student’s physical health but it makes so much sense! And in order to create policy that’s best for the students, their physical health needs to be considered.

This reminded me how the state of Michigan (or at least governor) stated that literacy is not a constitutional right. This stems from the fact that teachers, students, and parents wanted better school buildings for learning. These old buildings were infested with rodents, had unsafe drinking water, and would get really cold/hot. Thus, it made students more susceptible to sickness. These buildings also were located in low income areas. For me, I think the state of Michigan is being insensitive. These low income students deserve to be in environments similar to other top public schools in the state where they do not face these building issues. All of these awful conditions within the building affect the student’s health and educational outcomes.