Introduction

Abstract

All but one of the first authors of the chapters in this volume were presenters at the First International Conference on Biobehavioral Self-Regulation and Health, a 3-day meeting held in Honolulu, Hawaii, in November 1987. The stated goal of the conference was “to show the convergence and potential integration of a wide variety of related research, theory, and self-regulation techniques for disorders that respond to nontraditional medical approaches—especially from the standpoint of long-term health prevention.” It was our hope to bring together outstanding researchers doing both pure and applied science in the young field of self-regulation and health to foster the dissemination of their previous research as well as new efforts through the interchange of ideas. The conference, whose participants represented 12 nations and 4 continents, both east and west, was financially cosponsored by the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback and the University of Hawaii at Manoa.