Summarize the emphasis on the individual from an historical perspective, and specifically, as related to health behaviors

Most health behavior theories are predicated on the individual as the center of his or her own universe, weighing through various health options and learning to choose those that seem most fitting. This emphasis on the individual is fairly recent in history and not universally held. Judeo-Christian traditions transformed by the Protestant Reformation and later the Enlightenment appealed to the potential of the individual to a greater extent than had been the case in the Middle Ages and before, but this was primarily in Western Europe. The advent of the middle class transformed feudal societies into more urbanized ones, loosening traditional ties to land and older belief systems. American capitalism extended this transition by providing an opportunity for many to acquire wealth and even more to be mired in poverty, with the assumption held by many that personal worth accounted for the difference. Great social changes through legislative and judicial accomplishments accelerated decade after decade in the middle of the 20th century. Beginning in the late 1970s, conservative political trends in the United States and the rapidly widening gap between rich and poor accompanied a diminished sense of collective responsibility for the health, education, and welfare of all people. In all, these rapid demographic, political, economic, and health sector transitions, as well as the distinctions between societies and communities within them, will have a strong impact on how individuals are viewed vis-à-vis their personal responsibility for their own health.?