How to Write a Health Psychology Research Paper on Challenges to Health and Wellness
A 3-page APA 7th edition paper sounds manageable — until you are staring at a blank page unsure which challenge to focus on, how to narrow it down, and what your textbook actually wants you to argue. This guide walks through every step, from picking a focused angle to formatting your references correctly.
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Write a 3-page research paper in APA 7th edition on the topic Challenges to Health and Wellness. You must combine information from the course textbook (Stanton, 2020) with at least two additional scholarly sources. The paper is 12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced, 3 full pages minimum — not counting your title page or references. The goal is to demonstrate that you understand what health psychology is, what challenges threaten health and wellness, and how the discipline approaches those challenges.
Three pages is short. That is not an excuse to be shallow — it is an instruction to be focused. A paper that tries to cover stress, poverty, addiction, healthcare access, and chronic illness in three pages will be a surface-level list. A paper that picks one challenge — say, chronic psychosocial stress — and examines its mechanisms, its health consequences, and what health psychology says about intervention will be genuinely analytical.
Pick one challenge. Go deep on it. That is the move that earns marks in a paper this length.
Textbook First, Then Sources
Your primary textbook — Stanton, A. L. (2020), Health Psychology: 2025 Release — is not optional reading. It is one of your required sources. Read the relevant chapter before you search for outside articles. The textbook gives you the theoretical framework (the biopsychosocial model, core definitions, major research themes) and the outside articles give you specific empirical evidence. Structure your reading in that order and the paper will be much easier to write.
The Health Psychology Framework You Need to Understand First
Health psychology sits at the intersection of medicine and psychological science. Its defining contribution is the rejection of the biomedical model — the older idea that illness is purely a biological event, best understood through physiology and treated through drugs or surgery. Health psychology works from a different premise entirely.
The Biopsychosocial Model — The Lens for Your Paper
Engel (1977) · The foundational framework of health psychology
This matters for your paper because whatever challenge you write about, the biopsychosocial model is your analytical lens. Chronic stress is not just a psychological problem — it has biological consequences (elevated cortisol, immune suppression, cardiovascular strain) and social drivers (poverty, discrimination, job insecurity). Healthcare access is not just a social problem — it has psychological dimensions (health anxiety, avoidance behavior, distrust of medical systems) and biological consequences (untreated conditions, delayed diagnosis).
Introduce the biopsychosocial model briefly in your paper — one paragraph is enough — and then use it as the framework through which you analyze your chosen challenge. That is how you demonstrate that you are thinking like a health psychologist, not just summarizing a health topic.
Health psychology examines how biological, psychological, and social factors interact across the lifespan to influence health, illness, and recovery — and how those interactions can be changed.
— Adapted from Stanton, A. L. (2020). Health Psychology: 2025 Release. McGraw-Hill.Six Strong Topic Angles for This Paper
The prompt says “challenges to health and wellness” — which is broad enough to cover almost anything. That is your first problem to solve. Here are six specific angles that work well at this length, each one manageable in three pages and directly supported by the health psychology literature.
Chronic Psychosocial Stress
Mechanisms · Health Consequences · CopingStress is the most studied topic in health psychology. Chronic stress — not the acute kind that passes, but the persistent low-grade kind driven by poverty, job insecurity, caregiving, or discrimination — has well-documented biological consequences: elevated cortisol, suppressed immune function, increased cardiovascular risk. This angle gives you clean structure: what stress is, how it damages health through specific mechanisms, and what health psychology says about managing it.
Healthcare Access Barriers
Inequality · Behavior · OutcomesLack of access to quality healthcare is one of the most significant structural challenges to health in the U.S. This angle examines the psychological and social dimensions of access barriers — not just cost, but health literacy, distrust of medical institutions, geographic isolation, and the psychological effects of medical debt. Strong empirical literature from public health and health psychology research journals. Directly connects to the social arm of the biopsychosocial model.
Depression and Physical Health
Bidirectional · Comorbidity · InterventionThe relationship between depression and physical illness is bidirectional — depression worsens physical health outcomes, and chronic illness increases risk of depression. This angle sits squarely in health psychology’s domain. You can examine how depression undermines health behaviors (medication adherence, exercise, diet), its physiological effects, and what psychological interventions have demonstrated efficacy. The comorbidity of depression with cardiovascular disease and diabetes is particularly well-researched.
Health Behavior Change
Smoking · Sedentary Behavior · DietBehavioral factors — smoking, physical inactivity, poor diet, substance use — are among the leading modifiable contributors to chronic disease. The challenge here is not just identifying the behavior but understanding why behavior change is so difficult, and what health psychology models (the Health Belief Model, Transtheoretical Model, Self-Determination Theory) say about facilitating it. Pick one behavior, not all of them, and examine the challenge of change through a specific theoretical lens.
Social Determinants of Health
Poverty · Discrimination · EnvironmentWhere you are born, grow up, live, work, and age shapes your health more than any single behavioral choice. Social determinants — income, education, neighborhood environment, racial discrimination, social support — are the upstream drivers of the downstream health disparities that health psychology documents. This angle requires you to apply the social dimension of the biopsychosocial model carefully and support claims with epidemiological data. Solid empirical literature from public health and psychology journals.
Chronic Illness Management
Adherence · Coping · Quality of LifeLiving with a chronic illness — diabetes, heart disease, cancer, autoimmune conditions — presents distinct psychological challenges. Non-adherence to treatment is a major problem: up to 50% of patients do not take medications as prescribed. The psychological barriers (denial, depression, health anxiety, low self-efficacy) and the health psychology interventions designed to address them make for a focused, evidence-rich paper. Quality of life research in health psychology is particularly relevant here.
How to Narrow Your Topic Before You Write a Single Word
Choosing “chronic stress” as your topic is not enough. “Chronic stress” is a textbook chapter, not a three-page paper. You need to narrow it to something you can actually cover with depth in the space you have.
The narrowing move is always the same: pick one specific aspect of the challenge, one specific population it affects, and one specific outcome or mechanism you will analyze. That combination gives you your paper.
“The role of health literacy as a barrier to healthcare access among low-income adults, and how health psychology approaches to communication can address it.”
“The relationship between depression and medication non-adherence in adults managing type 2 diabetes, and evidence-based psychological strategies to improve adherence.”
“Stress, depression, poor diet, smoking, and lack of exercise as health challenges.” — Five separate topics, none of them analyzed.
“Everything the biopsychosocial model says about health.” — A description of a framework is not a paper about a challenge.
Quick Narrowing Test
Before you commit to your topic, write one sentence that completes this: “This paper argues that [specific challenge] affects [specific population or system] by [specific mechanism or pathway], and that health psychology addresses this through [specific approach or intervention].” If you can write that sentence clearly, you have a paper. If it comes out as a vague blob — “this paper discusses how health is challenged by many things” — you are not narrow enough yet.
How to Structure a 3-Page Health Psychology Research Paper
Three pages at 12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced is roughly 750–900 words of body text — not counting title page or references. That is not a lot. Every paragraph needs to pull weight. Here is a structure that works:
Introduction — Frame the Challenge (150–175 words)
Open with a brief statement of what health psychology is and why it is relevant to the challenge you are examining. State the biopsychosocial model as your framework — one or two sentences. Then identify your specific challenge and why it matters: who it affects, at what scale, and why a psychological lens adds something that a purely medical approach misses. End your introduction with a clear thesis sentence: “This paper examines [challenge], its mechanisms across biological, psychological, and social domains, and evidence-based health psychology approaches to addressing it.”
Do not write a long preamble. Do not open with a dictionary definition. Get to the point in your first paragraph.
Body — Three Focused Paragraphs (500–600 words)
Paragraph 1: The challenge itself. Define it precisely using your textbook and scholarly sources. What is it? How does it operate? What are the biological, psychological, and social dimensions? Be specific — cite data where you have it. A sentence like “chronic stress activates the HPA axis, leading to elevated cortisol that suppresses immune function over time (Stanton, 2020)” is worth three sentences of vague description.
Paragraph 2: The health consequences. What does research show about how this challenge affects health outcomes? Use at least one of your two scholarly sources here. Quantify where possible — effect sizes, prevalence rates, outcome differences. Connecting the challenge to specific health consequences is the core analytical move of the paper.
Paragraph 3: Health psychology’s response. What does the discipline say about addressing this challenge? This is where you discuss behavioral interventions, psychological strategies, policy implications, or research directions. Reference your textbook and at least one scholarly source. The point is not to solve the problem in a paragraph — it is to show that health psychology has evidence-based approaches and to describe one or two of them specifically.
Conclusion — Synthesize, Don’t Summarize (100–125 words)
Your conclusion is not a list of what you covered. It is a synthesis: what does your analysis reveal about the challenge and health psychology’s role in addressing it? Restate your thesis in different words, note what the research collectively suggests, and end with a brief statement about the significance — for the individual, for public health, or for the field. One tight paragraph. No new information. No padding.
Paper Anatomy at a Glance
Anatomy of a 3-Page Health Psychology Research Paper
Approximate word allocation — 12pt Times New Roman, double-spaced, does not include title page or references
How to Use Your Textbook and Find Scholarly Sources
The assignment requires the Stanton (2020) textbook plus at least two additional scholarly sources — so a minimum of three cited sources total. Here is how to use each one effectively.
Using the Stanton Textbook
The textbook is your framework source. Use it to establish the biopsychosocial model, define core concepts in health psychology, and locate your challenge within the discipline’s concerns. When you cite the textbook, give a specific page number for any direct quote and a page range for paraphrased material where you can. The full APA 7th citation for your textbook is:
Stanton, A. L. (2020). Health psychology: 2025 release. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
▸ In-text citation (paraphrase):
Health psychology draws on the biopsychosocial model to understand how multiple domains interact to influence health outcomes (Stanton, 2020).
▸ In-text citation (direct quote):
Stanton (2020) describes health psychology as “a unique blend of medical and psychological principles” aimed at improving individual health perceptions (p. X).
Finding Your Two Scholarly Sources
Scholarly sources means peer-reviewed journal articles — not websites, not news articles, not textbook summaries. Here is where to look and what to search for:
Best Databases and Search Terms for This Paper
- PubMed (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) — free, biomedical and psychological research; use for stress, depression, chronic illness, and health behavior research
- PsycINFO — psychology-specific peer-reviewed database via your university library; most directly relevant to this course
- Google Scholar — broad access; filter by date (last 10 years); check that results are from peer-reviewed journals
- ERIC — education and behavioral health; useful if your angle involves health literacy or health education
Search term examples by topic: “chronic stress cardiovascular health,” “psychosocial determinants chronic illness,” “depression medication adherence adults,” “health behavior change intervention adults,” “social determinants health disparities United States,” “health literacy patient outcomes.”
One practical shortcut: once you find a good recent article, look at its reference list. That is where foundational studies and other relevant recent articles are sitting. Work backward through a good article’s citations and you can build a reading list in 15 minutes.
For this type of paper, key journals to prioritize include Health Psychology (APA journal, directly relevant), American Journal of Health Promotion, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, and Journal of Behavioral Medicine. Articles from these journals are exactly what your instructor expects when they say “scholarly sources.”
One Verified External Resource Worth Bookmarking
PubMed Central (PMC) at ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/ provides free full-text access to millions of peer-reviewed biomedical and health psychology journal articles. If your university library does not give you access to a specific article, PMC is the first place to check for a free legal version. The National Institutes of Health requires many federally funded studies to be deposited here, which means a significant portion of the best health psychology research is freely accessible.
APA 7th Edition: What You Actually Need to Know for This Paper
APA 7th edition made several changes from the 6th. The main ones that affect a student paper like this:
| Element | APA 7th Edition Rule | Common Mistake |
|---|---|---|
| Font | 12-point Times New Roman (or 11-point Calibri or Arial — your instructor specifies Times New Roman, so use that) | Mixing fonts or using 11pt to squeeze in more text |
| Spacing | Double-spaced throughout — including title page, body, and references | Single-spacing the references page or adding extra space between paragraphs |
| Margins | 1 inch on all sides | Widening margins to hit the page count |
| Title Page | Title (bold, centered), your name, institution, course name and number, instructor name, due date — all centered, double-spaced, no running head required for student papers | Using the 6th edition format (running head on every page) — not required in 7th for student papers unless instructor specifies |
| In-text citations | Author last name, year in parentheses: (Stanton, 2020). Direct quotes add page number: (Stanton, 2020, p. 45) | Including first names, using “ibid,” forgetting the year |
| References page | New page headed “References” (bold, centered). Alphabetical by author last name. Hanging indent (first line flush, subsequent lines indented 0.5″). Double-spaced. | Not using hanging indent, single-spacing references, including sources not cited in the paper |
| Journal article DOI | Include the DOI as a hyperlink if available: https://doi.org/xxxxx | Omitting the DOI or including a broken URL instead |
▸ Textbook (already established above):
Stanton, A. L. (2020). Health psychology: 2025 release. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
▸ Journal article with DOI:
Cohen, S., Janicki-Deverts, D., & Miller, G. E. (2007). Psychological stress and disease. JAMA, 298(14), 1685–1687. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.298.14.1685
▸ Journal article without DOI (with URL):
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. Journal Name, volume(issue), pages. URL
▸ In-text — two authors:
…as research on chronic stress and disease demonstrates (Cohen et al., 2007).
The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) at owl.purdue.edu is the most reliable free APA 7th reference available. Check it for any format question before assuming you have it right. Citation generators make errors — always verify their output against OWL.
Common Mistakes in Health Psychology Papers — and How to Fix Them
| ❌ The Mistake | Why It Hurts | ✓ The Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Choosing too broad a topic and staying broad throughout | A three-page paper on “all challenges to health” is impossible to write well. It reads as a vague list. | Pick one challenge. Narrow it to a specific population, mechanism, or outcome before you write the first sentence. |
| Describing the biopsychosocial model without applying it | Spending a paragraph defining the model and then writing the rest of the paper without using it is wasted space. | Introduce the model in one or two sentences, then apply it throughout — every challenge you discuss should be analyzed across biological, psychological, and social dimensions. |
| Using websites, Wikipedia, or health blogs as sources | The assignment requires scholarly sources. Non-peer-reviewed sources do not meet the requirement and signal that you did not do the academic research. | Use PubMed, PsycINFO, or Google Scholar with the peer-reviewed filter. Any source that does not have a named author, journal, volume, and page numbers is not scholarly. |
| Not citing the textbook | The textbook is a required source. If you use information from it without citing it, that is academic dishonesty. If you do not use it at all, you have failed one of the assignment requirements. | Cite Stanton (2020) for foundational definitions, the biopsychosocial model, and any specific claims that come from your course reading. At minimum, it should appear two or three times in the paper. |
| Writing a conclusion that only restates the introduction | A conclusion that is just a copy-paste of the introduction in different words adds nothing. It reads as filler. | Your conclusion should synthesize — what does the combination of evidence you presented tell us? State the implication for health psychology practice or research in one final sentence. |
| Padding to reach 3 pages with wide margins or large fonts | Instructors notice this immediately. It signals that you ran out of content, not that you met the requirement. | If you are short, add a specific example, a piece of data, or expand your discussion of the health psychology intervention. Never adjust margins or font size. |
| APA in-text citation errors — missing years, wrong format, no page numbers for direct quotes | Citation errors accumulate quickly and are easy marks to lose. They also suggest you are not familiar with academic writing conventions. | Check every in-text citation against the APA 7th format: (Author, Year) for paraphrases, (Author, Year, p. X) for direct quotes. Use Purdue OWL to verify. |
Pre-Submission Checklist
- Paper is at least 3 full pages (body text, not counting title page or references)
- Font is 12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced, 1-inch margins
- Title page includes title, name, institution, course, instructor, and date
- Stanton (2020) textbook is cited at least twice in the paper
- At least 2 additional peer-reviewed scholarly sources are cited
- All in-text citations follow APA 7th format: (Author, Year) or (Author, Year, p. X)
- References page is on a new page, alphabetical, with hanging indent, double-spaced
- Every source in the references appears in the paper; every in-text citation has a reference entry
- Biopsychosocial model is introduced and applied — not just defined
- Paper focuses on one specific challenge with depth, not multiple challenges superficially
- Conclusion synthesizes the argument — it does not simply repeat the introduction
FAQs: What Students Ask About This Assignment
The One Thing That Separates a Strong Paper from a Weak One at This Length
At three pages, you do not have room to be vague. Every sentence needs to do something: define a concept, cite a finding, apply a framework, or build the argument. The papers that struggle are the ones that spend a page and a half describing the challenge without ever analyzing it, and then rush to a thin conclusion. The papers that work pick one specific challenge, use the biopsychosocial model as a genuine analytical tool, and close with something that actually says something — not just a restatement of the introduction.
Narrow your topic before you write. Read the relevant chapter in Stanton (2020) first. Find two peer-reviewed articles that give you specific data on your chosen challenge. Then write. The structure is simple — the quality comes from the specificity and analytical care you bring to a focused argument.
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