01 / Reading Guide
Reading Guide
Who this book is for
For graduate students and advanced readers studying health psychology in its social context. The book offers a sustained critical approach that can be read alongside mainstream health-behaviour models. Aotearoa New Zealand and Māori perspectives are central contexts to learn from carefully rather than labels to transfer unchanged into another community.
Prerequisites
Introductory psychology and familiarity with social-science research are recommended. Experience reading qualitative arguments is useful, but the book welcomes methodological pluralism. Readers should be ready to examine how a health problem is defined and whose knowledge counts, alongside biological or individual-behaviour explanations.
What it covers
Three parts develop foundations, approaches to understanding health and illness, and applications. Chapters examine hauora, personhood, knowledge, power, bodily experiences, diagnosis, healthcare relationships, interventions, disability and professional learning. The collection connects interpretation with consequences for people, communities and institutions, extending the discussion beyond changing an individual’s behaviour.
How to use it
Select one health problem and write two formulations: one focused on personal behaviour and one on social conditions and power. Identify the evidence, values and possible interventions each makes visible. Ask whose perspective is missing and how an affected community could shape the inquiry. Compare an outcome measure with people’s own accounts of wellbeing, and explain what a proposed professional response can and cannot claim to accomplish.
Edition and sources
The current Massey book gives July 16, 2025 and ebook ISBN 9780473750275; PDF and EPUB numbers differ. Complete formats use CC BY-NC 4.0 with explicit third-party exclusions. The earlier CAUL site points to this migrated edition through its persistent DOI.
