Health Psychology first appeared in Spain in the 1970's, a period during which there was enormous interest in the behavior modification approach. It quickly gained broad acceptance as evidenced by the great number of national and international conferences, conventions, symposia and meetings held, the appearance of various new journals and the constitution of several scientific and professional societies in the field of behavior modification (or behavioral therapy). Some of these were the Sociedad Valenciana de Análisis y Cambio de Conducta (The Valencian Society for the Analysis and Modification of Behavior), the Asociación Española de Terapia del Comportamiento (The Spanish Behavioral Therapy Association) and the Sociedad Catalan de Recerça i Terapia del Comportament (The Catalonian Society for Behavioral Research and Therapy). Although it is undoubtedly true that many of the contributions made during this decade formed the foundations for the development of Health Psychology, and while much work was done that could be considered as related to this field, Health Psychology did not really come to be recognized as a separate and differentiated field in Spain until the 80s.
In the First National Congress on Psychology which was sponsored by the C.O.P. in 1984, there appeared for the first time at a national conference in Spain a section called "Psychology and Health". In 1987, several universities created a Department of Health Psychology, and the First Spanish Conference on Health Psychology was held in Jaen. In the Second Conference on Psychological Assessment a section on "Assessment in Health Psychology" was introduced. In 1988, the first professional association dedicated exclusively to Health Psychology was constituted (the Sociedad Valenciana de Psicología de la Salud, Valencian Society of Health Psychology), and in 1989 the Department of Health Psychology of the University of Alicante published the first issue of Revista de Psicología de la Salud (the Journal of Health Psychology). In 1990, Health Psychology appeared as a solidly constituted and clearly differentiated field in several conferences including the Second National Congress on Psychology sponsored by the C.O.P., the Third National Conference on Social Psychology, and the Congress of the Sociedad Española de Psicología (S.E.P. or the Spanish Society of Psychology).
In the Second National Congress on Psychology sponsored by the C.O.P., Health Psychology was the third most important topic out of a total of 11 main areas when measured by the total number of presentations dedicated to this field (99 papers). These presentations covered a large variety of subjects related to Health Psychology: the promotion of health; stress and cardiovascular disease; the psychological aspects of diseases such as diabetes, obesity, AIDS, and of surgery or pain; treatment through biofeedback; prevention and intervention in drug addictions/substance abuse, etc.
Likewise, an analysis of the contents of the articles published in Spanish journals during this decade shows a clear increase in the number of articles dedicated to subjects related to Health Psychology. Articles in this field appear most frequently in journals such as Análisis y Modificación de Conducta (The Analysis and Behavior Modification), the Revista Española de Terapia de Comportamiento (The Spanish Journal of Behavior Therapy), Psicothema, Clínica y Salud (Clinical Psychology and Health) and the most specialized journal in the field, the Revista de Psicología de la Salud (The Journal of Health Psychology) (Rodríguez-Marín, 1991.)
JOSÉ RAMÓN CORREAS GONZALEZ
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