Health Psychology

Richard O. Straub is Professor of Psychology and founder of the Graduate Program in Health Psychology at the University of Michigan, Dearborn. After receiving his Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Columbia University and serving as a National Institute of Mental Health Fellow at the University of California, Irvine, Straub joined the University of Michigan faculty in 1979. Since then, he has focused on research in health psychology, especially mind-body issues in stress, cardiovascular reactivity, and the effects of exercise on physical and psychological health. Straub’s research has been published in such journals as Health Psychology, the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, and the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. 

A recipient of the University of Michigan’s Distinguished Teaching Award and the Alumni Society’s Faculty Member of the Year Award, Straub is extensively involved in undergraduate and graduate medical education. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors of the Southeast Michigan Consortium for Medical Education and lecturing regularly at area teaching hospitals, Straub has created an online learning management system for medical residency programs and authored a series of web-based modules for teaching core competencies in behavioral medicine.

Straub’s interest in enhancing student learning is further reflected in the study guides, instructor’s manuals, and critical thinking materials he has developed to accompany several leading psychology texts.

Straub’s professional devotion to health psychology dovetails with his personal devotion to fitness and good health. He has completed hundreds of road races and marathons (including multiple Boston marathons, Ironman triathlons,  and the 2009 Ironman-Hawaii World Championship), and is a nationally-ranked, USAT All-American triathlete. With this text Straub combines his teaching vocation with a true passion for health psychology.