When was medical/health psychology recogonized as a formal area of speciality?

-- marty clarke (medoncpa@aol.com), March 19, 2001

Answers

It's Joseph D. Matarazzo of Oregon Health Sciences University. He was APA President in 1989, and President of Division 26 (History) in 1992.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), March 19, 2001.

Hi Marty, I think it was more or less recognized by the late 50s early 60s, 1959 or so. Among the earlist institutions is the University of Oregon medical school in Portland which was set up as the "Health Sciences University (or institution?) which contains the med school. Among the early health psychologists is Joesph Matazzroto (check my spelling on this); he was APA pres 4 or 5 years ago. There will be a lot of references to his name so you can find it easy enough. Hope this helps in your research. Best, David

-- david clark (doclark@yorku.ca), March 19, 2001.

It depends on what you mean by formal recognition. Here's one interpretation: The founding of Division 38 of the American Psychological Association, the Division of Health Psychology, was approved by the APA Council of Representatives on August 17, 1978. The charter meeting of the division was held on August 29 of the same year, at the APA convention in Toronto. Joseph Matarazzo and Stephen Weiss were instrumental in founding the division.

For an answer more broadly interpreted, see Zilboorg, G. (1941). A history of medical psychology. New York: Norton. Zilboorg's work is a standard history of psychiatry, the medical specialty concerning psychological disorders.

-- Warren Street (warren@cwu.edu), March 26, 2001.