The McGill Health Psychology Research Group has merged with the McGill Psychotherapy Process Research Group, and is now the Science and Practice in Psychology (SAPP) research group.
The mandate of the Health Psychology Research Group is to conduct rigorous research in the domain of health psychology/behavioural medicine, and psychotherapy that can be translated into practical interventions for the populations we study, which include patients with a chronic and/or life-threatening illness and their family, individuals diagnosed with or at risk for mental health disorders, as well as the general population.
In line with this mandate the research conducted in the Health Psychology Research Group falls within one of the following streams:
- Investigation of the barriers and facilitators of adherence to medical recommendations to practice preventive behaviours (e.g., skin self examination among individuals at risk for skin cancer).
- Development and evaluation of psychosocial interventions for individuals diagnosed with cancer.
- Knowledge translation in the area of effective psychosocial interventions (e.g., self-help interventions for patients with cancer; preventive interventions for individuals with intra- and/or interpersonal struggles in order to enhance resilience and psychological well-being).
- Development and validation of measures assessing health-related psychological constructs (e.g., dyadic coping with cancer; cancer-specific distress; physician support of skin self examination; self-compassion; personality).
- The role of self-compassion for well-being in non-clinical populations.