Understanding the links between the social environment, emotion, behaviour and illness is a growing theme in medical and health education. The development of the field is reflected in the growth of disciplines such as health psychology, psychosocial epidemiology, and behavioural medicine. The basic literature is however awkwardly dispersed across medical and social science journals. This book makes available within a single volume some of the most important articles that have been published over the past thirty years. The thirty-one articles are grouped round six themes: life stress, social support and health; psychophysiological processes in disease; personality, behaviour patterns and health; health practices and the modification of health risk behaviour; coping with illness and disability; behavioural interventions in medicine. Each is prefaced by a state-of-the-art review of the theme by the editors. These readings will serve as a most valuable resource for psychology and health science teachers and students alike.