Illness Behavior, Social Adaptation, and the Management of Illness

Motivational needs and coping are important aspects of illness response. Clinicians must help guide illness response by suggesting constructive adaptive opportunities and by avoiding reinforcement of maladaptive patterns. This paper examines how the patient's search for meaning, social attributions, and social comparisons shapes adaptation to illness and subsequent disability. It proposes a coping-adaptation model involving the following five resources relevant to rehabilitation: economic assets, abilities and skills, defensive techniques, social supports, and motivational impetus. It is maintained that confusion between illness and illness behavior obfuscates the alternatives available to guide patients through smoother adaptations and resumption of social roles.