Michael Hyland PhD

Michael E. Hyland is a chartered health psychologist and a Professor of Health Psychology at Plymouth University. He obtained a BSc at Bristol University in 1971 and a PhD at the University of Wales in 1977. He was appointed Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Plymouth in 1996 and retired in 2018. He is currently an Honorary Professor at the University of Plymouth and a part-time Professor of Health Psychology at Plymouth Marjon University. His early career was as a theoretical psychologist, working on the nature of theoretical entities, particularly about mind-body problems.

His early career was as a theoretical psychologist, working on the nature of theoretical entities, particularly about mind-body problems. From the late 1980s, he worked as a health psychologist focusing on respiratory disease. He has constructed several outcome and management scales for use in respiratory disease, including the lung information needs questionnaire (LINQ), the DOSE index, and most recently the severe asthma questionnaire (SAQ). His research in respiratory medicine includes studies on adherence to medication and its relation to outcome and the management and outcome of severe asthma about new treatments and the extra-pulmonary symptoms of severe asthma.

He has contributed to theoretical development in health psychology, using network theory to explain medically unexplained symptoms and functional disorders such as chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, developing lifestyle-based treatment (body reprogramming) currently provided by the NHS for fibromyalgia patients as well as developing similar lifestyle based interventions for severe asthma patients.