Aaron Antonovsky (; 19 December 1923 – 7 July 1994) was an Israeli American sociologist and

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

whose work concerned the relationship between stress,

health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...

and

well-being Well-being is what is Intrinsic value (ethics), ultimately good for a person. Also called "welfare" and "quality of life", it is a measure of how well life is going for someone. It is a central goal of many individual and societal endeavors. ...

( salutogenesis).

Biography

Antonovsky was born in the United States in 1923. After completing his PhD at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, he emigrated to Israel in 1960. For a time he held positions in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

at the Israeli Institute for Applied Social Research and in the Department of

Medical Sociology Medical sociology is the sociological analysis of health, Illness, differential access to medical resources, the social organization of medicine, Health Care Delivery, the production of medical knowledge, selection of methods, the study of action ...

at the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

. During this period his early work emphasized social class differences in morbidity and mortality. In 1972, he helped establish the medical school at

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) (, ''Universitat Ben-Guriyon baNegev'') is a public university, public research university in Beersheba, Israel. Named after Israeli List of national founders, national founder David Ben-Gurion, the unive ...

, and held the Kunin-Lunenfeld Chair in Medical Sociology. During his twenty years in that department, Antonovsky developed his theory of health and illness, which he termed salutogenesis. This model was described in his 1979 book, ''Health, Stress and Coping'', followed by his 1987 work, ''Unraveling the Mystery of Health''. A key concept in Antonovsky's theory concerns how specific personal dispositions serve to make individuals more resilient to the stressors they encounter in daily life.Bengt Lindström and Monica Eriksson
"Contextualizing salutogenesis and Antonovsky in public health development"
''Health Promotion International'', volume 21, pages 238-244, 2006. Antonovsky identified these characteristics, which he claimed helped a person better cope (and remain healthy) by providing that person a "sense of coherence" about life and its challenges; Helen Antonovsky (his wife) developed a scale ("Orientation to life questionnaire") in 1987 to measure it. Recent research in

psychoneuroimmunology Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), also referred to as psychoendoneuroimmunology (PENI) or psychoneuroendocrinoimmunology (PNEI), is the study of the interaction between psychological processes and the nervous and immune systems of the human body. It is ...

has supported the relationship between emotions and health contained in Antonovsky's theory. Antonovsky died in 1994.

Notes and references

Works cited * Aaron Antonovsky, ''Health, Stress and Coping'', San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1979. * Aaron Antonovsky, ''Unraveling The Mystery of Health. How People Manage Stress and Stay Well'', San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1987. * Y. Henkin and A. D. Sperber, "Aaron Antonovsky: Editor and Idealist", '' Israel Journal of Medical Sciences'', volume 32, pages 163–165, 1996. * M. Eriksson and B. Lindstöm, "Validity of Antonovsky's sense of coherence scale: a systematic review", '' Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health'', volume 59, pages 460–466, 2005.

Biography

Notes and references

See also