PsychologicalReports, 1991, 68, 585-586.
O Psychological Reports 1991
HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY AND CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY: A COMPARISON THROUGH CONTENT ANALYSIS DAVID F. DUNCAN1 Illinoir Primary Health Care Association Summary.-Extension of a previous analysis of articles published in two journals representative of health psychology and two in health education showed some similarities and differences. The present analysis of 100 papers from two journals in health psychology and 495 from two i n clinical psychology dearly shows health as a subspecialty of clinical psychology.
Health psychology is a growing discipline which is complexly interrelated with the traditional specialties in psychology (Adler, Cohen, & Stone, 1979). It is often seen as having major commonalities with clinical psychology (Schofield, 1979) and in many psychology departments is treated as a subspecialty within clinical psychology. Millon (1982), on the other hand, describes a field of clinical health psychology emerging out of a cross between clinical psychology and health psychology. In a previous study (Duncan, 1990) similarities and differences between the fields of health psychology and health education were examined through a content analysis of the topics of papers published during 1988 and 1989 in t w o journals representative of each field. In the present study health psychology was represented by the journals Health Psychology (66 papers) and Psychology and Health (34 papers) while clinical psychology was represented by Journal of Clinical Psychology (252 papers) and ]ournu1 of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (243 papers). The keyword list used by Duncan (1990) was used in this study to examine how often concerns previously identified in health psychology were addressed in the clinical psychology literature. The 10 most frequent topics in the health psychology journals and the percentage of health psychology and clinical psychology papers on those topics were: patients (17%; 6%), stress (15%; 7%), blood pressure/hypertension (12%; I % ) , smoking (12%, I%), social support (11%; 2%), coping (10%; 5%), personality ( l o % , 8%), exercke (9%; I%), coronary heart disease (9%; 2%), and evaluation (9%, 2%) Those most frequently addressed in the clinical psychology journals, and the frequency of their appearance in clinical and health psychology journals were: measurement and psychometrics (16%; 7%), children (11%; 7%), depression (8%; 4%), personality (8%;
'Address correspondence to the author at 517 North Michaels, Carbondale, IL 62901-1352. Tables of keyword frequencies for both this and the previous smdy are on file in Document NAPS-04781. Remit $10.75 for photocopy or $4.00 for fiche to Microfiche Publications, POB 3513, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163.
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lo%), alcohol/alcoholism (7%; 2%), stress (7%; 13%), patients (6%; 17%), coping (5%; lo%), adolescents (5%; 4%), and drug abuse (5%; 3%). None of the health psychology-relevant keywords were found to be descriptive of 28.8% of the papers in Journal of Clinical Psychology and of 30 5% of those in Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. The results of this study. support the view that there are substantial .. overlaps between the two specialties. Four topics (coping, patients, personality, and stress) appeared in the top 10 of both specialties. All of the most frequently addressed topics in health psychology were addressed to some extent in the literature of clinical psychology. The fact that a substantial number of papers in clinical psychology dealt with topics not included in the health psychology keywords list is consistent with the view that health is a subspecialty within clinical psychology. This study cannot resolve the issue of the relationship between the fields but it does contribute toward our understanding of the issue. REFERENCES ADLER,N. E., COHEN,F., & STONE,G. C. (1979) Themes and professional prospects in health psychology. In G. C. Stone, F. Cohen, & N. E. Adler (Eds.), Health psychology. San Francisco, C A : Jossey-Bass. DUNCAN, D. F. (1990) Health education and health psychology: a comparison through content analysis of representative journals. Psychological Reports, 66, 1057-1058. &ON, T. (1982) On the nature of clinical health psychology. In T.Millon, C. J. Green, & R. B. Meagher (Eds.), Handbook of cIinical healfh psychology. New York: Plenum. W. (1979) Clinical psychologists as health professionals. In G. C. Stone, F. Cohen, SCHOFIELD, & N. E. Adler (Eds.), Health psychology. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Accepted April 2, 1991.
O Psychological Reports 1991
HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY AND CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY: A COMPARISON THROUGH CONTENT ANALYSIS DAVID F. DUNCAN1 Illinoir Primary Health Care Association Summary.-Extension of a previous analysis of articles published in two journals representative of health psychology and two in health education showed some similarities and differences. The present analysis of 100 papers from two journals in health psychology and 495 from two i n clinical psychology dearly shows health as a subspecialty of clinical psychology.
Health psychology is a growing discipline which is complexly interrelated with the traditional specialties in psychology (Adler, Cohen, & Stone, 1979). It is often seen as having major commonalities with clinical psychology (Schofield, 1979) and in many psychology departments is treated as a subspecialty within clinical psychology. Millon (1982), on the other hand, describes a field of clinical health psychology emerging out of a cross between clinical psychology and health psychology. In a previous study (Duncan, 1990) similarities and differences between the fields of health psychology and health education were examined through a content analysis of the topics of papers published during 1988 and 1989 in t w o journals representative of each field. In the present study health psychology was represented by the journals Health Psychology (66 papers) and Psychology and Health (34 papers) while clinical psychology was represented by Journal of Clinical Psychology (252 papers) and ]ournu1 of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (243 papers). The keyword list used by Duncan (1990) was used in this study to examine how often concerns previously identified in health psychology were addressed in the clinical psychology literature. The 10 most frequent topics in the health psychology journals and the percentage of health psychology and clinical psychology papers on those topics were: patients (17%; 6%), stress (15%; 7%), blood pressure/hypertension (12%; I % ) , smoking (12%, I%), social support (11%; 2%), coping (10%; 5%), personality ( l o % , 8%), exercke (9%; I%), coronary heart disease (9%; 2%), and evaluation (9%, 2%) Those most frequently addressed in the clinical psychology journals, and the frequency of their appearance in clinical and health psychology journals were: measurement and psychometrics (16%; 7%), children (11%; 7%), depression (8%; 4%), personality (8%;
'Address correspondence to the author at 517 North Michaels, Carbondale, IL 62901-1352. Tables of keyword frequencies for both this and the previous smdy are on file in Document NAPS-04781. Remit $10.75 for photocopy or $4.00 for fiche to Microfiche Publications, POB 3513, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163.
586
D. F. DUNCAN
lo%), alcohol/alcoholism (7%; 2%), stress (7%; 13%), patients (6%; 17%), coping (5%; lo%), adolescents (5%; 4%), and drug abuse (5%; 3%). None of the health psychology-relevant keywords were found to be descriptive of 28.8% of the papers in Journal of Clinical Psychology and of 30 5% of those in Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. The results of this study. support the view that there are substantial .. overlaps between the two specialties. Four topics (coping, patients, personality, and stress) appeared in the top 10 of both specialties. All of the most frequently addressed topics in health psychology were addressed to some extent in the literature of clinical psychology. The fact that a substantial number of papers in clinical psychology dealt with topics not included in the health psychology keywords list is consistent with the view that health is a subspecialty within clinical psychology. This study cannot resolve the issue of the relationship between the fields but it does contribute toward our understanding of the issue. REFERENCES ADLER,N. E., COHEN,F., & STONE,G. C. (1979) Themes and professional prospects in health psychology. In G. C. Stone, F. Cohen, & N. E. Adler (Eds.), Health psychology. San Francisco, C A : Jossey-Bass. DUNCAN, D. F. (1990) Health education and health psychology: a comparison through content analysis of representative journals. Psychological Reports, 66, 1057-1058. &ON, T. (1982) On the nature of clinical health psychology. In T.Millon, C. J. Green, & R. B. Meagher (Eds.), Handbook of cIinical healfh psychology. New York: Plenum. W. (1979) Clinical psychologists as health professionals. In G. C. Stone, F. Cohen, SCHOFIELD, & N. E. Adler (Eds.), Health psychology. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Accepted April 2, 1991.
