Biological & Health Program

Core Information

Program Overview

Health Psychology is an interdisciplinary field that examines the role of behavioral, psychological, and social factors in prevention, onset, course, and treatment of disease. One of the strengths of the graduate program in Biological and Health Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh involves our emphasis on the biological mechanisms involved in these processes. Our program has been training research scholars in this area for over 20 years, and our alumnae are among the top investigators in this field nationwide.

Course curriculum and training experiences in the Biological and Health Psychology program at Pitt emphasize the development of the following research and training themes:

  1. A multilevel and mechanistic understanding of the determinants of health and illness, including
    1. Biological pathways (e.g., autonomic, cardiovascular, cellular, circadian, endocrine, genetic, immune, metabolic, and neural),
    2. Behavioral pathways (e.g., dietary, physical activity, sleep hygiene, and substance use),
    3. Psychological pathways (e.g., emotion, emotion regulation, coping, personality, and stress), and
    4. Social environmental pathways (e.g., social relationships and stressor exposures)
  2. Expertise in multimethod tools for facilitating this type of research, including
    1. Biological assessments (e.g., immunological and molecular assessments, metabolic assessments, neuroimaging and human brain mapping methods, genetic methods, neuropsychological assessments, peripheral neuroendocrine assessments, physical fitness and body composition measures, preclinical disease markers, psychophysiological and psychopharmacological methods)
    2. Behavioral assessments (e.g., actigraphy assessments for physical activity and sleep, behavioral observation methods, dietary assessments, ecological momentary assessments),
    3. Psychosocial assessments (e.g., interview-based assessments, psychometric methods, geographic information system mapping)
    4. Other methodological tools (e.g., experimental, longitudinal observational, and clinical trials designs, multilevel modeling, structural equation modeling, machine learning and other advanced quantitative tools).
  3. Exposure to lifespan developmental influences on health, with focus on children and early family influences, adult health, and aging.
  4. Knowledge of major determinants and patterns of health disparities (e.g., sex and gender, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic disadvantage).

Additional Training Options

The program allows for intensive study in basic or clinical research and has a Clinical/Health Psychology track for students who want to obtain clinical psychology training. Research opportunities are the same in both tracks, and most faculty in the program share broad interests as well as more focused research and clinical activities.

Course Offerings

  • PSY 2502 Health Fundamentals: Foundations of Biological and Health Psychology
  • PSY 2252 Behavioral Medicine Interventions
  • PSY 2505 Program Research Seminar
  • PSY 2520 Psychoneuroimmunology
  • PSY 2560 Human Cardiovascular Psychophysiology
  • PSY 2576 Topics Seminar in Health Psychology. Not all courses are offered on a regular basis. Recent courses include the following:
    • Human Physiology (This is the cross-listed course that most of our graduate students take to fulfill their course requirement in mammalian physiology)
    • Alcohol
    • Tobacco in the 21st Century
    • Sleep and Circadian Rhythms
    • fMRI
    • Stress and Cardiovasular Disease

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Connections and Resources

Along with these core themes, we are embedded in a university urban environment that is rich in collaborative resources facilitating multidisciplinary team science, including direct connections with: