The field of health psychology has experienced tremendous growth over the past 20 years. This growth reflects an increasing recognition of teh many social and psychological parameters affecting health and illness, and the realization that physical health can no longer be addressed soley from a biomedical perspective. This series primarily focuses on addressing how social, psychological and behavioral factors influence physical health. The boundaries of these subareas are not distinct, and the books in the series reflect overlapping borders of subdisciplines within health psychology. These books will serve as important resources for scholars and students of communication, medicine, nursing, psychology, public health, sociology and related areas. Health theorists and practitioners will find these books are benchmarks from which to examine and evaluate current theory and strategies influencing physical health.