ILLNESS BELIEFS
Leventhal and colleagues (Leventhal, Meyer & Nerenz, 1980; Leventhal & Nerenz, 1985) defined illness beliefs as a patient’s own implicit, commonsense beliefs about his or her illness. They proposed that these beliefs provide a framework, or schema, for coping with and understanding an illness, and for telling us what to look out for if we believe that we are becoming ill.
Leventhal and colleagues (Leventhal, Meyer & Nerenz, 1980; Leventhal & Nerenz, 1985) defined illness beliefs as a patient’s own implicit, commonsense beliefs about his or her illness. They proposed that these beliefs provide a framework, or schema, for coping with and understanding an illness, and for telling us what to look out for if we believe that we are becoming ill.
