In recent years, health research and policy have some to new understandings of human health through the framework based on knowledge of the determinants of health. This framework has inspired new efforts to explore the impact of psychosocial factors on health. This collection of recent research addresses a variety of psychosocial and social factors in women’s health determinants; coping mechanisms that provide havens for people dealing with negative consequences of poor health.

The research papers in this book are from presentations made at an institute June, 2008, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, sponsored by the Section on Women and Psychology (SWAP) of the Canadian Psychological Association. They are a sampler of the contributions that scholars in psychology and related fields are making to understanding women’s health.

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A native Nova Scotian, Gallivan started her academic career at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish. Drawn to the analytical nature of calculus, she started out as a math major but soon felt that she would be unable to endure the tedium of mathematics as part of a lifelong career. Instead, Gallivan tried her hand at psychology, in part because it had some of the analytical components she loved such as computers and statistics. Joanne Gallivan describes herself as a late bloomer when it came to identifying as a feminist. A student of the psychology of learning, Gallivan remained unaffected by discrimination until an interview experience opened her eyes to the inequality between the sexes.

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