Special Interest Groups

The EHPS provide many outlets for collaborations based on joint interests

Equity, Global Health and Sustainability

This special interest group (SIG) has grown from EHPS members’ common interests in issues of equity, global health, and sustainability, and the role health psychology could play in contributing to sustainable development. The group has informally started in 2017 with a mailing list and a ResearchGate group (see below). We have become an official SIG at the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS) in December 2019.

Click here to join our mailing list!

What are the aims of the SIG EGHS?

Promoting rigorous health psychology research and practice regarding equity, global health, and sustainability.

Uniting EHPS members doing research and working in practice in these fields.

Transferring the outcomes of research on equity, global health and sustainability into policy. To this end, the SIG is closely linked to the EHPS Committee at the United Nations.

Each year, SIG members set specific goals and plan activities to achieve these aims.

How is the SIG organised?

After a recent reflection on the organisation of the SIG and how it worked for its members, we have moved towards a system of “Task Forces” related with the three broad areas of interest – sustainability, equity, and global health.

All members are encouraged to suggest tasks they think are relevant and important for the SIG to work on, and all members are welcome to join these task forces.

The SIG as a whole meets at least twice a year – at the EHPS conference, and virtually. A newsletter and a mailing list keep members up to date on activities throughout the year, and we are considering other formats that could facilitate informal exchanges (e.g. virtual cafes). The progress of the SIG is annually reported to the EHPS.

Recent examples of our work

All topics

Lunch talks on the SIG’s topics are organised during the year.

Global Health

A repository has been set up to provide a collection of measures that can be used in health psychology research in low resource and cross-cultural settings. It will be continuously updated. You can find the repository here: https://osf.io/r4b75/

Sustainability

Together with the Local Organising Committee, we have worked on improving the environmental impact of the EHPS conference: https://2022.ehps.net/ehps-2022-sustainability-initiative/

We are planning to continue working with future organising committees.

We have also written joint publications:

Peer-reviewed paper on environmental health psychology: https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/full/10.1027/1016-9040/a000438

A piece for the European Health Psychologist on environmental impact of our conferences: https://ehps.net/ehp/index.php/contents/article/view/3390

Equity, Global Health and Sustainability chairs

United Kingdom

Daniella Watson

United Kingdom

Lucia Rehackova

Switzerland

Josianne Kollmann

Austria

Gudrun Sproesser

Switzerland

Nadja Contzen

France

Claudia Teran-Escobar

How to get involved?

Become a member by signing up here: https://ehps.net/mailman/listinfo/equity-sig_ehps.net Members receive the newsletter, invitations to members’ meetings, and invitations to collaborate in the task forces or in joint projects or papers
Join our ResearchGate project: https://www.researchgate.net/project/Health-Psychology-in-Low-and-Middle-Income-Countries . You can follow the project to keep up to date on publications relating to health psychology research on equity, global health, and sustainability, or join as a collaborator to link your research.
Browse or add to the SIG’s growing measures repository (work in progress): https://osf.io/r4b75/

Get involved in the Task Forces.

Areas of expertise and contact details

Here you can find a list of SIG members who agreed to be contacted regarding scientific matters in the listed areas of expertise (e.g., media requests, potential collaborations). If you would like to become part of this list, please send an email to Gudrun.sproesser@jku.at.