Occupational Health Psychology

Occupational health psychology (OHP) emerged out of two distinct applied disciplines within psychology, health psychology and industrial and organizational (I/O) psychology, as well as occupational health OHP is concerned with the psychosocial characteristics of workplaces that contribute to the development of health-related problems in people who work. Occupational health psychology is concerned with psychosocial characteristics of the workplace. OHP is concerned with physical and mental health consequences of those characteristics and ways to effect workplace changes that benefit worker health.

Occupational health psychologists and other OHP researchers and practitioners are concerned with a variety of psychosocial workplace characteristics that are related to physical and mental health problems. Examples of psychosocial workplace characteristics that OHP research has linked to health outcomes include decision latitude and psychological workload, the balance between a worker's efforts and the rewards (e.g., pay, recognition, status, prospects for a promotion, etc.) received for his or her work, and the extent to which supervisors and co-workers are supportive. The physical health problems with which OHP is concerned range from accidental injury to cardiovascular disease. The mental health problems include psychological distress, burnout, and depression. OHP researchers and practitioners are also concerned with the relation of psychosocial working conditions to health behaviors (e.g., smoking and alcohol consumption). Another topic of concern to OHP is the problem of carryover of deleterious workplace experiences to the worker's home life. Some research in OHP has been concerned with reverse causal effects, viz., the potential impact of preexisting mental health on psychosocial working conditions and unemployment risk. Given its roots occupational health, OHP is also concerned with factors that affect workplace safety and accident risk. In addition, occupational health psychologists document the adverse impact of deteriorating economic conditions, and identify ways to mitigate that impact.

Three professional organizations closely linked to OHP are the Society for Occupational Health Psychology (SOHP), the European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology (EA-OHP), and the International Commission on Occupational Health's scientific committee on Work Organisation and Psychosocial Factors (ICOH-WOPS). Two important OHP journals are the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology (JOHP) and Work & Stress (W & S). The journals are associated with the two OHP organizations (JOHP with SOHP; W & S with EA-0HP).

Serials and the interdisciplinary character of OHP. In addition to JOHP and W & S, OHP researchers and practitioners consult and publish in a variety of other periodicals. These include, but are not limited to, Social Science & Medicine, the Journal of Applied Psychology, the Journal of Organizational Behavior, the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (originally published as the Journal of Occupational Psychology), the American Journal of Public Health, Organizational Research Methods, Occupational Medicine, the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, Psychosomatic Medicine, the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (originally published as the Journal of Occupational Medicine), Occupational and Environmental Medicine, and Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. The variety of journals OHP researchers and practitioners consult and publish in indicates that OHP is a subfield of psychology that reaches across disciplinary boundaries.