Social Psychology and health: assuming complexity

Authors

  • Mary Jane Spink Pontificia Universidade Católica de Sao Paulo - PUCSP

Abstract

This paper is a position statement based on a long trajectory of research and intervention in the Brazilian context. The argument put forward is that health experiences are complex, and professional practice must be based on both technical expertise and scholarship. Complexity is not about different points of view: that of healthy people, patients, doctors, health professionals, health administrators and science, of course. It is about the concomitance of multiple versions; about fractal realities that are performed in different manners by the many social and material actants that are present in this heterogeneous network. This argument is structured in two parts. The first one merely restates multiplicity from the perspective of Psychology as a health profession. The second, proposes that action in a complex setting requires a broad base of information based on scholarship rather that technical expertise: it is the familiarity with issues that are cultural and historical and directly or indirectly related to present-day organization of care delivery that will anchor political and ethical everyday practices.

Keywords

Social Psychology, Health Professions, Health Care Services, Complexity

Author Biography

Mary Jane Spink, Pontificia Universidade Católica de Sao Paulo - PUCSP

Mary Jane P. Spink is a social psychologist, full professor at the Pontificia Catholic University in São Paulo (PUCSP) and a senior researcher at CNPq. She studied Psychology at the University of São Paulo and has a PhD from the London school of Economics. Her research interest have centered on health psychology and public health policy. She  was a member of the National AIDS Committee from 1994 to 2003. She  has authored  numerous books and articles that are listed in http://lattes.cnpq.br/9915632947357389.

Published

2010-05-31

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