Division 38 (Health Psychology).

Early History                                                                    

In 1977, Stephen Weiss, head of the new Behavioral Branch at the National Institute of Heart, Lunch, and Blood was elected as the chairperson and devoted his energies to the establishment of a new, separate division for health psychologists within the American Psychological Association (APA).

In order to garner enough clout within APA to secure the signatures and political support to begin a new division. Weiss turned to his friend and mentor, Joseph Matarazzo for guidance and help.

Matarazzo had established the first autonomous Department of Medical Psychology at the University of Oregon Health Sciences Center and was widely recognized and respected as one of the pioneers in health research and applied clinical psychology.

Due to Matarazzo's belief that health psychology potentially was an area that would attract psychologists whose interests spanned across the many subfields of psychology, Matarazzo invited the following notables from experimental, clinical, and social psychology to join him and Weiss in early 1978 as sponsors of the petition to APA to establish a new division of Health Psychology: Jospeh Brady, Richard Evans, Wilbert Fordyce, W. Doyle Gentry, David Glass, Irving Janis, Neal Miller, Gary Schwartz, Jerome E. Singer, George Stone.

Although it took the efforts of many individuals to establish this new division, Steven Weiss would probably win any paternity suit over who could legitimately be called the “Father of Division 38."

Reference: http://www.health-psych.org/PDF/DivHistory.PDF

Modern History

Division 38, began in 1978. The Bylaws were adopted by 175 charter members who attended organizational meetings to form this new Division on August 29^th in the Toronto Castle Harbour Hilton during the 1978 APA convention. Joe Matarazzo was chosen to be the first President of the Division and Steven Weiss was president-elect. Today Division 38 can truly be characterized as being "healthy and wealthy." 

Joseph Matarazzo – (was born on November 12^th 1925). An American psychologist and a past president of the American Psychological Association (APA). He chaired the first medical psychology department in the United States and has been credited with much of the early work in health psychology.

Drawing on his own experiences as a medical school teacher, clinician, and investigator, Matarazzo penned the following definition: Health Psychology is the aggregate of the specific edicational, scientific, and professional contributions of the discipline of psychology to the promotion and maintenance of health, the prevention and treatment of illness, and the identification of etiologic and diagnostic correlates of health, illness and related dysfunction (Matarazzo, 1980, p.815).

Reference: http://www.health-psych.org/PDF/DivHistory.PDF

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