Fully integrated gender and cultural diversity coverage. Promoting understanding of, and respect for, differences among groups of people and how these differences affect health and illness. The Diversity and Healthy Living boxes found throughout the text expand the integrated coverage of gender and multicultural issues by highlighting specific health issues. Biopsychosocial approach. The book follows the biopsychosocial model as the basic organizing template. Each chapter dealing with a specific health problem--on cardiovascular disease and diabetes, cancer, and substance use/abuse, for example--presents a critical analysis of what we know to be the underlying biological, psychological, and social factors in the onset of the health problem, as well as how these factors affect the course of the disease and the outcome. Engaging Pedagogy including Your Health Assets boxes, Interpreting Data boxes, and Check Up on Health questions that invite students to think critically about the science of health psychology and its application to their own lives.