Underpinning psychological theories

Chapter 1 states that psychology is the study of the human mind and its functions as it relates to human cognition, behaviour and experience. The chapter also examines in detail the social determinants of health and disease. It is argued that because a number of behaviours are associated with ill health and behaviour change is seen as a viable way of tackling behaviours associated with health inequalities, pharmacists should therefore be equipped with the tools required to affect their patients’ health and illness-related behaviour at the individual level. This chapter explains human behaviour by exploring psychology in some detail. It presents an overview of a number of underpinning psychological theories relevant to pharmacy practice. The perspective taken is principally that of cognitive psychology – as opposed to, for example, a biological or evolutionary perspective. The key feature of this chapter is that it uses examples to illustrate psychological theories in a pharmacy practice context – something that is developed in Chapters 4 and 5. Another key feature is the arrangement of the chapter into two main parts, with the first providing a basic framework for relating thought to decision making and behaviour, and the second part providing a basic framework for understanding the role of emotion in behaviour.