Shortcomings in specificity research and remedial suggestions, including the involvement of language markers

There are important shortcomings in the psychosomatic research considered germane to specificity theory. The deficiencies include: (1) Omitting consideration of all the interacting psychosocial and biomedical variables hypothesized to be involved in producing high-risk probability for a specific medical disorder. (2) Low pertinence and reliability in the measurement procedures and instruments applied to the task. (3) Inadequate statistical assessment of the predictive data. Suggestions are made for remedying these shortcomings, including the use of objective language markers in making assessments of psychobiological dimensions and locating markers indicative of biological predispositions.