ABSTRACT

The theory of self-regulation elaborated by Leventhal and colleagues (Leventhal et al., 1997; Leventhal et al., 1984) as well as others (Carver and Scheier, 1981) is in many ways ideally suited to understanding and improving patients’ management of chronic illness. The theory, simply conceptualized, involves individuals monitoring their efforts and outcomes in managing tasks and using this information to regulate the process towards achieving desired goals. Self-regulation theory proposes that individuals will use strategies that are based on their understanding of the experience. The process is a dynamic one that changes in response to shifts in patients’ perceptions. The theory starts with the premise that individuals are active problem-solvers who make sense of a threat to their health, such as physical symptoms or an illness, by developing their own cognitive representations of the threat which, in turn, determine how they respond.