Cognitive determinants of the perception of mental health status.

This paper suggests that an individual's perception of his health and mental health status may be largely determined by his concept or definitions of health and mental health and that how one defines these terms are a function of one's level of awareness of higher needs. A conceptual model is presented that locates these cognitive variables within the causal framework relative to help-seeking behavior and provides the theoretical basis for a methodology of determining the mental health needs of a population, especially in a developing country, based on self-assessment of health status.