Clinical Health Psychology focuses on health promotion, disease prevention, and investigation of behavioral, psychological, social, and nervous system mechanisms that influence either the development and progression of disease/disability, or the patient’s response to disease and its’ treatment. The Clinical Health Psychology Program provides training in both basic and applied research, randomized clinical trials, psychophysics, psychophysiology, neural imaging, and psychoneuroimmunologic research methods at the postdoctoral, graduate student, and post baccalaureate levels.
Faculty and students in Clinical Health Psychology conduct research on a range of health-related issues across the lifespan. This research includes randomized clinical trials examining the efficacy and effectiveness of behavioral interventions for insomnia, chronic pain, cancer, and obesity. It also includes investigations of the biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying the relationships between these conditions, behaviors, and perceptions. Clinical Health Psychology faculty collaborate with other faculty from the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, other Departments within the College of Public Health and Health Professions, and the Department of Psychology in the College of Liberal Arts and Science (CLAS). Faculty also collaborate with the Colleges of Engineering, Medicine, and Nursing, as well as researchers within the University-wide Center for Pain Research and Behavioral Health. Faculty also collaborate with investigators from other universities across the US and around the world.
In addition to conducting research, the Clinical Health Psychology program is committed to the dissemination of its research findings through our own clinical practice at the University of Florida.
Faculty conducting research in Clinical Health Psychology include:
- Sleep Research Lab, Director: Christina S. McCrae, PhD, Phone: (352) 273-5242, Web: http://sleep.phhp.ufl.edu/
- Psycho-Oncology Lab, Director: Deidre B. Pereira, PhD, Phone: (352) 273-6039, Web: http://www.psychooncology.phhp.ufl.edu/
- UF Weight Management Lab, Director: Michael G. Perri, PhD, Phone: (352) 273-6214