A HUMAN-SCIENCE FOR HEALTH - AN OVERVIEW

This article is an overview of theories of knowledge as they may be applied to current definitions and conceptualizations of health. These definitions and conceptualizations have gone beyond the purely physical realm to include aspects of health that are uniquely human. Consequently, the traditional and dominant research approach, an approach developed for a physical world of objects, is increasingly being recognized as limiting by researchers who choose to study health as a human phenomenon. Familiarity, with the emerging diversity of related methodologies is an advantage to the health researcher, given the breadth and complexity of the questions inherent in health.