A social scientific perspective on health

Why do we need a psychosocial scientific perspective on health?

People’s beliefs and health behaviors as well as their social environments strongly impact health and well-being outcomes. In order to fully understand this impact, it is essential to move beyond a traditional biomedical approach to health by integrating psychosocial perspectives and learning from those who are free from major diseases and who age healthily throughout (most of) their lives. Humankind is a social animal.

What do we offer?

The Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences is uniquely geared to studying and addressing the psychosocial determinants of health and well-being promoting behavior given its strong focus on both vulnerability and resilience factors.

The research in our faculty centers around three domains of health:

• What is the impact of the social context, in interaction with individual processes, on health and well-being outcomes?
• How does health and well-being develop over the lifespan? What contributes to ‘Healthy Ageing’?
• How does scientific knowledge translate into practice? Which health interventions work - and why?

This means that we not only have a strong scientific background but also much expertise in applying scientific insights in practice (e.g., via interventions, policy advice or policy evaluations).