About the Book :

The chapters in this volume represent the psychological and sociological perspectives of health and illness. The text is broadly divided into four sections: Health cognitions; Health care and health initiatives; Mental health and mental illness and Health challenges. The chapters in the first section discuss aspects related to illness severity, health beliefs and illness representations. The second section focusses on alternative health care systems, health finance and sociological and psychological aspects of health care. The third section deals with mental health care and social representation of mental health and illness. The last section presents health challenges of specific groups. This volume thus covers a wide spectrum of health issues, theoretical standpoints and practical concerns. It is expected that this volume will prove to be a good research resource for academics and health professionals who are interested in an interdisciplinary social scientific perspective.

About Author :

Shikha Dixit is a Professor of Psychology in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur. She is engaged in teaching and research at IIT Kanpur since last twenty years. Her interests includes health psychology, social representations and social cognition. She has studied the psychological outcomes of chronic and life threatening such as cancer, HIV, myocardial infarction and mental illness.

Arun Kumar Sharma is P.K. Kelkar Chair, and Professor of Sociology, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur. He teaches courses in research methods, statistical inference, health, and social demography. He has been working in the areas of development and health for more than 35 years. His research interests include evaluation of rural development programmes, situation analysis of HIV/AIDS, mapping of high risk groups, and maternal and child health.