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Illness as adjustment: a methodology and conceptual framework
Author(s) -
Radley Alan,
Green Ruth
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
sociology of health and illness
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1467-9566
pISSN - 0141-9889
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9566.ep11346972
Subject(s) - modalities , denial , salient , psychology , relevance (law) , adaptation (eye) , conceptual framework , accommodation , social psychology , variety (cybernetics) , dual (grammatical number) , conceptual model , constraint (computer aided design) , sociology of health and illness , cognitive psychology , sociology , psychotherapist , epistemology , computer science , social science , health care , literature , engineering , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , mechanical engineering , art , philosophy , economic growth , political science , law , economics
This paper describes a method for studying individual adjustment to illness. The methodology draws upon the conceptual framework offered by Herzlich (1973) and defines four modalities of adjustment ‐ accommodation, active‐denial, secondary gain and resignation. The relevance of these modalities for understanding how people come to terms with illness is indicated with reference to a variety of studies of chronic illness describing such adjustments. The technique, which invites free responses to a series of questions, engages respondents on a number of issues which have been designated salient in the literature on illness behaviour and is intended to be used (a) to distinguish between individuals in their adaptation to their condition, and (b) to relate personal experience of illness to changing social situations and relationships. The methodology is offered as a way of describing, within a single conceptual scheme, the ways in which individuals resolve the dual demands of bodily change and of cultural constraint during chronic illness.