Illness behavior and psychosocial correlates of cancer

The nature of an individual's illness behavior, that is the ways in which the individual perceives, evaluates, and acts upon the messages and sensations of his body, can determine the extent to which one attends to his body.

Abstract

A recurrent theme in the literature on cancer is that which reports various psychosocial precursors. These factors have ranged from those which focus upon the personality of the individual to those which are associated with various life events such as death of a loved one or divorce. Numerous explanations and interpretations have been offered to account for these findings. It has been asserted that these factors operate through their influence on such processes and mechanism as the limbic system, endocrine system, hormone levels or the central nervous system. The explanation offered here however is that these events can determine the extent to which one attends to his body, and the nature of an individual's illness behavior, that is the ways in which the individual perceives, evaluates, and acts upon the messages and sensations of his body.