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The Active Side of Illness Cognition

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Mental Representation in Health and Illness

Part of the book series: Contributions to Psychology and Medicine ((CONTRIBUTIONS))

Abstract

This chapter has three objectives. The first is to provide a few historical details respecting the development of illness cognition research in our laboratory. As these activities extended over three decades, our brief comments may help the interested reader to integrate several lines of research that are frequently viewed as separate. The second, primary objective is to advance a constructivist view of behavioral processes. We believe people are active problem solvers and work in illness cognition must identify the procedures that people use to elaborate and test their illness models. If taken seriously, this theme can generate new directions for conceptual and empirical development. Our third, final objective is to highlight a few of the points made in prior chapters suggesting how they relate to the directions we now envision.

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Authors
  1. Howard Leventhal
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  2. Michael Diefenbach
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Benjamin D. James Center, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, 17013-2896, USA

    J. A. Skelton

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

    Robert T. Croyle

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© 1991 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

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Leventhal, H., Diefenbach, M. (1991). The Active Side of Illness Cognition. In: Skelton, J.A., Croyle, R.T. (eds) Mental Representation in Health and Illness. Contributions to Psychology and Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9074-9_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-9074-9_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-9076-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4613-9074-9

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