Differentiate between the biomedical model and the biopsychosocial model.

The biomedical model is the theoretical framework that guided medical advances leading to the ability to conquer a number of life-threatening diseases.The biomedical model is based on the idea that illness can be completely explained by examining problems in an organism's biological functioning.This approach leads us to focus on lower-level biological processes (e.g.,cell functioning and biochemical imbalances)rather than to examine health in a broader context that also includes psychological functioning and social influences.The biomedical model also tends to focus on disease more than on health,and it conceptualizes health quite simply as the absence of disease.
The biopsychosocial model,on the other hand,sees health as being determined by biological,psychological,and social factors.Use of the biopsychosocial model does not mean that we completely reject the biomedical model; instead,it suggests that we recognize that the biomedical model does not lead to a complete understanding of health and illness.Although it is clear that the role of biology will always be important in explaining illness,the biopsychosocial model demands that we also pay attention to psychological and social influences.Consequently,issues such as the particular meanings that patients attach to their illnesses,patients' motivation to recover (or not),patients' response styles (whether they stoically minimize symptoms rather than tending to exaggerate symptom reporting),and to what extent patients benefit from support from other people when they are ill are seen as important determinants of how people experience illness.