中華心理衛生協會

Ever since Engel proposed a biopsychosocial model to challenge the biomedical model thirty years ago, it has increasingly been recognized and applied in research.Although whether this new model constitutes a paradigm shift is still a point of debate, it is now common to conceptualize individuals as holistic organisms. How to move from this conceptualization to implementation in indigenous clinical health psychology research is now an important area for investigation. The three essays in this special issue are empirical studies of evidence-based practice that reflect the biopsychosocial health model: ＂Sleep disturbances in chronic kidney disease patients: A comparison between patients with and without hemodialysis＂; ＂Coping with cancer pain: The moderating effect of locus of control on the relationship between coping strategies and quality of life＂, and ＂Grouping patients with newly diagnosed chronic illness by their personal constructs: A clinical application of the Threat Index-Taiwan Version＂. These articles explore the psychosocial issues of patients with chronic illness and investigate construction and clinical application of assessment tools in the Taiwan context. Although the results of the three studies are promising, there are still unresolved issues in terms of theory and methodology worthy of discussion. Hence, the main purpose of this special issue is not only to present current empirical outcomes of clinical health psychology studies in Taiwan, but also to facilitate a dialogue among scholars and practitioners in related fields.