Thursday 23 July 17:15
- 18:45
Hall: 05 - Ottagonale
Chair and Discussant:
Diaz-Loving Rolando
Division: Division 8: Health Psychology
Health and well-being arise from complex interactions among biological, psychological, social, and cultural systems. This symposium brings together researchers from Europe, North America, and Latin America to explore integrative frameworks that reduce health disparities and promote inclusion across populations. Sonia Lippke and colleagues (Hamburg University of Applied Sciences; Constructor University Bremen) present findings on loneliness as a mediator between health, financial sufficiency, and life satisfaction in vulnerable groups, highlighting the intervention "Loneliness Prevention and Connectedness" designed to foster belonging and equality in university settings. Héctor Betancourt and Patricia Flynn (Loma Linda University) apply the Integrative Model of Culture, Psychology, and Health Behavior, demonstrating how cultural beliefs and provider biases influence healthcare access, continuity, and quality in multicultural contexts. Gabrielle Oettingen and Peter Gollwitzer (New York University) discuss motivational self-regulation strategies—mental contrasting, WOOP (Wish-Outcome-Obstacle-Plan), and implementation intentions—that enhance health behavior, emotion regulation, and goal attainment. Chris Stephens (Imperial College London and National Autonomous University of Mexico) and Sofía Rivera Aragón (National Autonomous University of Mexico) introduce The Conductome, a hybrid intelligence approach using machine learning to model multifactorial predictors of lifestyle-related diseases such as obesity. By integrating psychological, demographic, economic, and physiological variables, they demonstrate how artificial and human intelligence can jointly identify causal pathways and guide targeted interventions.
As discussant, Rolando Díaz-Loving (National Autonomous University of Mexico) synthesizes these contributions within a cross-cultural framework, underscoring the need for culturally grounded, evidence-based strategies to bridge global health inequalities and promote inclusive well-being.
