Representation of health as a subject of psychological researches

Abstract

In this article the author describes a long-term comprehensive study of various forms of social and individual health representation in a youth (student) social group. A theoretical analysis of various approaches to understanding the phenomenon of health, developed in the framework of social medicine, clinical psychology, a psychosomatic school, behavioral and cognitive areas of psychology and psychotherapy, humanistic personality theories, is carried out. Different levels of conceptualization of the health phenomenon are considered (as a socio-cultural / semantic construct and as a significant aspect of an individual self-concept). The author analyzes the theoretical foundations and scientific specifics of the Health psychology, as an independent field of psychological knowledge. The author also analyzes the results of a comprehensive study of the “internal representation of health” that was formed among junior students of natural sciences and humanities departments at the Russian State University. Specific types of the internal representation of health are revealed and described.