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Psychosocial Stress: Perspectives on Structure, Theory, Life-Course, and Methods, edited by Howard B. Kaplan. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1996. 428 pp. $59.95 cloth. ISBN: 0-12-397565-4.
As the literature on the role of stress processes in the etiology of mental and physical disorders has become more wide-ranging and complex, so too has the desire to synthesize cogently this material. This desire seems to be a central motivation of the editor of Psychosocial Stress. Unfortunately, in my view, Howard Kaplan's synthetic effort centers on a conceptualization of stress and of the stress process that is almost entirely rooted in the cognitive processes of the individual. Such a conceptualization holds sway over much of stress research-even over that portion conducted by sociologists-but it is distinctly asociological.
This is not true of all the contributions to this volume. For example, the research of Elder and his colleagues focuses upon sociohistorical change, and hence has much to tell us about the role of social structure and changing patterns of social organization in the epidemiology of ill health. However, both of...