ABSTRACT
In this century, an ever increasing complex model has evolved concerning the relationship between disease and an individual's psychosocial development. Differentiations are made between disease, illness, and illness behaviors, as well as positive life style changes that promote health. For example, some authors (Kaplan & Bush, 1982) speak of well years in order to emphasize how positive factors lead to qualitative life changes as well as absence of disease. Even within the concept of disease, there are attempts to understand the manner in which the level of psychological development impacts the ability to understand disease processes. This trend is clearly demonstrated in the Ingersoll, Orr, Vance, and Golden paper in this volume in which the level of cognitive development is suggested to be directly related to how one controls the disease processes. However, the field of health and behavior has taken some time to come to such conclusions.
