title: Influences of personality and coping variables on health behaviors and health outcomes.
abstract: Many health problems begin with behavior: taking risks or failing to take proper precautions. Psychosocial processes of several types underlie such behaviors. It follows that research on health can benefit from considering psychosocial processes as well as biological ones. This article focuses on two general domains of psychological influences on health--personality and coping. Several approaches to the domain of personality are described, along with several issues involved in the conceptualization of coping. Examples of research on how these phenomena relate to health behaviors and health outcomes are presented.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA.
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Carver
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology; D004198:Disease Susceptibility / Q000523:psychology*; D005086:Existentialism; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D012307:Risk Factors; D012309:Risk-Taking; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology