Health Psychology's 40th anniversary

Abstract

This special issue of Health Psychology marks the conclusion of the journal's 40th volume. George C. Stone founded Health Psychology in 1982 and served as our first Editor-in-Chief. He was also an accomplished behavioral scientist and the founder in 1975 of America's first academic department of health psychology at the University of California at San Francisco. Many of us believe that health psychology is fundamentally an applied science, that the principal value of basic biopsychosocial research resides in its translational potential, and that we have to be a "solution-oriented" branch of science (Watts, 2017) in order to meet critical societal needs. By extension, we believe that health psychology and health psychologists have vital roles to play in the promotion of physical health, the prevention of medical illness, and the care of medically ill patients. Accordingly, we hope that rigorous research on prevention and intervention will comprise a substantially larger percentage of the next 40 volumes of Health Psychology. May George Stone's activism and vision continue to inspire us in our efforts to move from ideas to efficacy and to advance both the field of health psychology and its flagship journal. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).