ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors propose to integrate biological, behavioral, and social mechanisms into what they call mixed mechanisms that are situated in the individual's lifeworld. Combined contribution is the view that talk about causes is less useful than talk about the joint role of all etiological factors that contribute to illness occurrence. Replacement of notions of causation with notions of contribution would require more than a mere change in terminology. In brief, any factor, broadly conceived as a sociological, psychological, or physico-biological fact or event, that makes a measurable contribution to illness occurrence should qualify. Modern bioscientists build on this assumption and try to tell the etiological story by drawing on different kinds of evidence and different interacting kinds of causal contribution. The concept of contribution is described in detail by giving examples for three different kinds of contributors, that is, inducers, mediators, and moderators. It is arguably self-evident that mediation is contribution.
