ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the reader to the growing fields of Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine as specialty areas of psychology but also as subspecialties of clinical psychology. It discusses the place of the clinical psychologist within primary care by using research findings from the applied Health Psychology field. To be effective as a player in health care, the clinical psychologist needs to understand at least the basics about the medical etiology of common diseases. In Western countries, the major causes of death are cardiovascular disease and cancer. The chapter provides an overview of pain research and practice and mostly focuses on the role of clinical psychologists in managing pain. Many psychologists who taught Health Psychology courses during this time never had the advantage of having been able to take a Health Psychology course themselves simply because this course did not exist when they went to graduate school.
