A3

Question 1

what is perceived seriousness?

Answer 1

In addition to health – it can also include other outcomes like the effects on family, work and social relationships.

Question 2

what is perceived sustainability?

Answer 2

how at risk does the individual perceive themselves to be?

Question 3

what is a cost benefit analysis?

Answer 3

perceived benefits / perceived costs (positives and negatives)

Question 4

what are demographic variables and what is self efficacy?

Answer 4

Demographic variables are specific characteristics that apply to you, such as age and gender

Self-efficacy is the belief the individual has at completing an action or task

Question 5

what is a strength of the Health Belief Model?

Answer 5

Williamson & Wardle (2002) used the HBM to devise a programme to increase number of people seeking screening for bowel cancer. This was found to be reasonably to moderately successful.

Weakness of the study:
Couldn’t convince others to go for the screening

Question 6

what is a weakness of the Health Belief Model?

Answer 6

Are all of our behaviours rational?

Might try and cover too many things?

Question 7

what is the definition of Locus Of Control?

Answer 7

The basic idea of locus of control is that it describes the extent an individual feels in control of what happens to them and the extent to which they, as an individual, can affect their life. How they attribute their behaviour.

Question 8

what is Internal LoC?

Answer 8

believe they are in control of what happens to them

Question 9

what is External LoC?

Answer 9

what happens to them is luck or fate and they are not in control of their lives, their behaviour is caused by their environment

Question 10

what is a strength of LoC?

Answer 10

Catherine Gale et al (2008) measured the LoC of 7551 children aged 10 years. By the times they were 30, those who were internals were less likely than externals to be obese or experience psychological stress. An internal LoC in childhood seems to offer some protection against poor health in adulthood.
weakness of study:
Depended on self-report = low on validity

Question 11

what is a weakness of LoC?

Answer 11

it’s too simplistic

Question 12

how is The Theory Of Planned Behaviour tested?

Answer 12

The Theory of planned behaviour is tested by using questionnaires
Questionnaires usually use Rating scale questionnaire and Likert scales

Question 13

what are personal attitudes?

Answer 13

Personal attitudes:
An individual’s favourable and unfavourable beliefs about their behaviour

Question 14

what are subjective norms?

Answer 14

Subjective norms:
The individual’s beliefs about whether the people who matter most to them approve or disapprove of their behaviour

Question 15

what are perceived behavioural control?

Answer 15

Perceived behavioural control:
PBC can directly influence our intentions to behave
PBC can also influence our behaviour directly

Question 16

what is a strength of The Theory Of Planned Behaviour?

Answer 16

Supporting evidence e.g. Hagger et al. (2011) found that personal attitudes, subjective norms and PBC all predicted an intention to limit drinking to guideline number of units. Intentions then influenced the number of units actually consumed after 1 month and 3 months.

Weakness of study:
Use of self report
Some studies provide little support for its predictions (e.g. stress).

Question 17

what is a weakness of Theory Of Planned Behaviour?

Answer 17

Intention-Behaviour gap
TPB is poor predictor of long-term changes

Question 18

what is mastery experience?

Answer 18

Mastery experience: we get practice and learn that we are capable of performing the task, failing a task can reduce our self-efficacy.

Question 19

what is vicarious reinforcement?

Answer 19

Vicarious reinforcement: you observe a model being positively reinforced for doing a task, if you observe the model being successful then your self-efficacy improves.

Question 20

what is social persuasion?

Answer 20

Social persuasion: positive and negative comments from others can affect our self-efficacy.

Question 21

what is emotional state?

Answer 21

Emotional state: our self-efficacy is dependent on our emotional state, for example being stressed about a exam can make you automatically think your going to fail.

Question 22

what is a strength of Self-Efficacy?

Answer 22

Strecher (1986) reviewed a range of studies and found strong relationships between self-efficacy and behaviour change in areas of weight control, contraceptive use, exercise etc.
This is a strength because it increases the credibility of the theory.
weakness of the study:
Some studies may not be reliable

Question 23

what is a weakness of Self-Efficacy?

Answer 23

There are issues measuring self-efficacy: Bandura used a questionnaire to measure self-efficacy. This involved ppts answering questions on their own perception of SE and could be open to interpretation or social desirability. This limits validity

Question 24

what is the first stage of the Transtheoretical Model?

Answer 24

Precontemplation: individual isn’t thinking of changing their behaviour in the near future.

Question 25

what is the second stage of the Transtheoretical Model?

Answer 25

Contemplation: individual is considering changing their behaviour.

Question 26

what is the third stage of the Transtheoretical Model?

Answer 26

Preparation: benefits of change over way the costs, so the individual decides to change behaviour.

Question 27

what is the fourth stage of the Transtheoretical Model?

Answer 27

Action: individual has done something to change their behaviour.

Question 28

what is the fifth stage of the Transtheoretical Model?

Answer 28

Maintenance: individual has maintained changed behaviour for over 6 months.

Question 29

what is a strength of the Transtheoretical Model?

Answer 29

More realistic than some of the other models i.e. sees relapse as an inevitable part of the process and that intervention will help.

Question 30

what is a weakness of the Transtheoretical Model?

Answer 30

Reductionist: the theory ignores the social context in which change occurs.

There is no sense for how long someone needs to stay on each stage or potential failure at each stage.