Considers
Health to be
the absence
of disease
pain or defect
Focuses purely on
physical and biological
causes of diseases
Curative approach - Main
function to offer remedy and
cure with medical intervention
Searches for biological
causes of pathological
symptoms
Each disease
has a specific
causal agent
Biomedicine - Also referred to as
'Allopathy, conventional medicine
or modern western scientific
medicine
Disadvantage: Approach is limited as it
doesn't take into account
psychological,
environmental or social
influences
Does not consider the fact that individual
differences (personality, cognition, social
support, cultural beliefs) cause people to
respond differently to underlying diseases
Reductionist Approach - Believes that
mind, body & behaviour can all be
reduced to biochemical activity
Advantage: Broadly applied in most countries
Identifies, treats and attempts to restore health
Disadvantages: Very
Costly
Disadvantage: Does not focus
on prevention of Health
Dualist Approach - Mind and
bodywork separately and disease
arises from cellular and
physiological processes