ABSTRACT
Cognition denotes "those personal thought processes that serve as frames of reference for organizing and evaluating experiences. Beliefs, expectations, perceptions, values, motives, and attitudes all provide the person with ways of filtering, interpreting, understanding, and predicting events" (Gochman, 1988c, p. 21). Health cognitions refers to beliefs, expectations, perceptions, values, motives, and attitudes that provide frames of reference for organizing and evaluating health, regardless of whether those cognitions have demonstrable empirical linkages with health status and regardless of whether they are objectively valid.
