Faculty

Yael BENYAMIMI , Ph.D.

• Health and Illness Perceptions (Global and illness-specific).
• Ways of coping with health threats.
• Gender differences in perceptions of health and illness.
• Positive personality and situation-specific resources for coping: optimism, hope, positive expectancies, and positive affect.
• Social resources: spouse support.

My research is based on the bio-psycho-social model, integrating biological, psychological, and social factors involved in health and illness, and on the assumption that people are active problem-solvers, constantly gathering information and integrating it to form subjective perceptions of their health status that guide them in coping with their health, and thus eventually affect outcomes. I study the ways in which these perceptions are formed, the relationships with ways of coping, gender differences in these aspects, and the contribution of personal (optimism, perceived control), and social resources (spouse support) to coping with aging and health.

1. Benyamini, Y., & Solomon, Z. (in press). Combat stress reactions, posttraumatic stress disorder, cumulative life stress, and physical health among Israeli veterans twenty years after exposure to combat. Social Science and Medicine.
   
   
2. Lichtentritt, R., Karniel-Lauer, E., Nuttman-Shwarz, O., Benyamini, Y., Shatz, A., Malkinson, R., Rubin, S. (in press). Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: Exploratory study and possible responses. Society and Welfare. [In Hebrew].
   
   
3. Benyamini, Y. (in press). Can high optimism and high pessimism co-exist? Findings from arthritis patients coping with pain. Personality and Individual Differences.
   
   
4. Benyamini, Y., Gozlan, M., & Kokia, E. (2005). Variability in the difficulties experienced by women undergoing infertility treatments. Fertility and Sterility, 83(2), 275-283.
   
   
5. Benyamini, Y., Gozlan, M., & Kokia, E. (2004). On the self-regulation of a health threat: Cognitions, coping, and affect among women undergoing treatment for infertility. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 28(5), 577-592.
   
   
6. Benyamini, Y. & Lomranz, J. (2004). The Relationship of Activity Restriction and Replacement with Depressive Symptoms among Elderly Women and Men. Psychology and Aging, 19(2), 362-366.
   
   
7. Benyamini, Y., Leventhal, H., & Leventhal, E. A. (2004). Self-rated oral health as an independent predictor of self-rated general health, self-esteem and life satisfaction. Social Science and Medicine, 59(5), 1109-1116.
   
   
8. Blumstein, T., Benyamini, Y., Fuchs, Z., Shapira, Z., Novikov, I., Walter-Ginzburg, A & Modan, B. (2004). The effect of a communal lifestyle on depressive symptoms in late life. Journal of Aging and Health, 16(2), 151-174.
   
   
9. Shiloh, S., Zukerman, G., Butin, B., Deutch, A., Yardeni, I., Benyamini, Y., & Beilin, B. (2003). Postoperative patient controlled analgesia (PCA): How much control and how much analgesia? Psychology and Health, 18, 753-770.
   
   
10. Benyamini, Y., Leventhal, E. A., & Leventhal, H. (2003). Elderly people's ratings of the importance of health-related factors to their self-assessments of health. Social Science and Medicine, 56(8), 1661-1667.
    
    
11. Benyamini, Y. (2003). Hope and fantasy among women coping with infertility and its treatments. In: R. Jacoby & G. Keinan (Eds.), Between stress and hope: From a disease-centered to a health-centered perspective (pp. 141-166). Westport, Connecticut: Praeger.
    
    
12. Benyamini, Y., McClain, C., Leventhal, E. A., & Leventhal, H. (2003). Living with the worry of cancer: health perceptions and behaviors of elderly people with self, vicarious, or no history of cancer. Psycho-Oncology, 12(2), 161-172.
    
    
13. Benyamini, Y., Blumstein, T., Lusky, A., & Modan, B. (2003). Gender differences in the self-rated health - mortality association: Is it poor self-rated health that predicts mortality or excellent self-rated health that predicts survival? The Gerontologist, 43(3), 396-405.
    
    
14. Shiloh, S., Rashuk-Rosenthal, D., Benyamini, Y. (2002). Illness attributions: their structure and associations with other illness cognitions and perceptions of control. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 25, 373-394.
    
    
15. Hoch, T., & Benyamini, Y. (2001). The research process: The case of studying elderly people caring for their demented spouses - from theory to research instruments. Gerontology, 28(3-4), 327-342.
    
    
16. Benyamini, Y., Leventhal, E. A. & Leventhal, H. (2000). Gender differences in processing information for making self-assessments of health. Psychosomatic Medicine, 62, 354-264.
    
    
17. Benyamini, Y., Idler, E. L., Leventhal, H. & Leventhal, E. A. (2000). Positive affect and function as Influences on self-assessments of health: Expanding our view beyond illness and disability. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 55B, P107-P116.
    
    
18. Benyamini, Y. & Idler, E. L. (1999). Community studies reporting association between self-rated health and mortality: Additional studies, 1995-1998. Research on Aging, 21(3), 392-401.
    
    
19. Benyamini, Y., Leventhal, H. & Leventhal, E. A. (1999). Self-assessments of health: What do people know that predicts their mortality? Research on Aging, 21(3), 477-500.
    
    
20. Idler, E. L. & Benyamini, Y. (1997). Self-rated health and mortality: A review of 27 community studies. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 38(1), 21-37.
    
    
21. Benyamini, Y. & Leventhal, H. (1997). Coping with stressful medical procedures. In: A. Baum, C. McManus, S. Newman, J. Weinman and R. West (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health and Medicine. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
    
    
22. Benyamini, Y., Leventhal, E. A. & Leventhal H. (1997). Attributional processes in health. In: A. Baum, C. McManus, S. Newman, J. Weinman and R. West (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health and Medicine. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
    
    
23. Leventhal, H. & Benyamini, Y. (1997). Lay beliefs about health and illness. In: A. Baum, C. McManus, S. Newman, J. Weinman and R. West (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook of Psychology, Health and Medicine. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
    
    
24. Leventhal, H., Benyamini, Y., Brownlee, S., Diefenbach, M., Leventhal, E. A., Patrick-Miller, L. & Robitaille, C. (1997). Illness representations: Theoretical foundations. In: K. Petrie J. and Weinman (Eds.), Perceptions of health and illness. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers.
    
    
25. Benyamini, Y. & Gati, I. (1987). Perception of occupations: Aspects versus dimensions. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 30, 309-329.