ABSTRACT
An appropriate extension of current developmental and sociological studies of illness and wellness behavior should be further exploration of the extent of integration of illness, wellness, health, and disease into the general processes of the social development of individuals. Because illnesses are part of the daily life and personal-social development from infancy through the life span, they become a part of each individual's general social competence. Physicians have, however, difficulty in determining when and how biological concepts are included in social concepts. Often the biological explanations of the nature of illnesses and their treatments are not congruent with adults' or children's ability to comprehend biological concepts or with the family and community conceptualizations of illnesses and appropriate illness behavior. Biology of the human body is not easily understood at any age even by experts in the field . In fact, it is likely that most adults do not have clear understandings of the more specific functions of the various organ systems, such as the liver, spleen, pancreas, thyroid, blood cells, and immune system, etc., and their malfunctions. Studies of children's understanding of the biology of growth, body organ functions, reproduction, death, and disease indicate that reasonably sophisticated concepts develop late in childhood (Carey, 1985; Gellert, 1962). Development of these concepts may be after children have rather sophisticated concepts of self, other, and social relationships and have incorporated into these, as personal-social events, their numerous experiences with minor illnesses and injuries and some serious illnesses requiring medical care (Emde, 1989; Maccoby, 1980; Parmelee, 1986, 1989; Sroufe, 1989; Sroufe & Fleeson, 1986; Stern, 1985, 1989; Turiel, 1983) .
