applied social psychology: health Flashcards
what overall does health psychology apply knowledge about?
social processes and relationships influence on health, attitude and behaviour change, understand and promote health, reduce harmful and increase preventive behaviours, coping and stress, identification of causes and correlates of health, health policy formation
we get these diseases through our own behaviours and lifestyle choices =
non communicable diseases (NCDs)
NCDs kill more than __ million people each year worldwide
38
what are the 4 main types of NCDs?
CVDs, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes
why are NCDs considered diseases of lifestyle?
because health behaviours play a key role in their development
what are some modifiable risk factors for NCDs that can be changed to reduce risk?
tobacco use, physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, harmful alcohol use
modifiable risk factors =
health behaviours that can be changed
cancer has a _______ factor of poor health behaviours
precipitable
health behaviours develop from a young age and depend on ______ and _______
environment, development
why do people like to maximise immediate rewards and ignore long term costs with health behaviours?
less tangible, pleasure principle, in the moment want to indulge to improve mood so don’t think about future costs
when does indulging in bad health behaviours become bad?
when they become habits
what are some health behaviours reinforced by?
social environment and peers (smoking and drinking)
what do models that look to change health behaviours focus on?
central role of social cognitions
cognitions are viewed as _________ ________ of behaviour that reduce risk of disease
modifiable determinants
what explains why people from the same background may engage in different health behaviours?
cognitions differ between individuals > individual differences
what are the 2 assumptions in the TPB?
decide on intentions prior to taking action, intentions are best predictors of behaviour
what are the 3 things intentions are predicted by?
attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control
what did Norman and Connor (2006) find to negatively predict binge-drinking intentions that predicted ppts binge drinking behaviour a week later in the follow up?
attitude, self-efficacy, perceived control (didn’t find social norms to be significant in behaviour change)
theory where an individual is influenced by the perception of how peers think and act =
social norms theory
how are social comparisons linked to the potential influence of social norms for changing health behaviour?
compare ourselves to others drinking behaviour, gives us a sense of how to evaluate our behaviour and where we stand in comparison
if a peer group engages in healthy behaviours then this becomes a source of ________ influence
normative
if a peer group engages in unhealthy behaviours then this becomes a source of ______ influence by comparing to the peer group
normative
binge drinking is classified as having over __ units for men and over __ units for women
8,6
what does binge drinking increase the risk of?
accidents, alcohol poisoning, violence, heart disease
what has a strong role about beliefs and attitudes on drinking behaviour?
culture
any techniques that change ________ ______ can change behaviour
normative beliefs
___% of people age 18 and above smoke
15.1
__% of men smoke compared to __% of women
17, 13.3
smoking is highest among the age of __-__ years
25-34
how many deaths does smoking account for in england?
81,400
why did smoking legislation come in?
evidence that second hand smoke is harmful to others
proceeding in ________ _______ leads to the protection behaviour
protection motivation
what are the 2 appraisal processes that result in protection motivation?
threat appraisal, coping appraisal
assessing the perceived severity of the threat and probability of being vulnerable to the threat =
threat appraisal
threat appraisal is _______ and ________
personal, subjective
assessing the efficacy (effectiveness) of the health behaviour for dealing with the threat and self efficacy for being able to engage in the behaviour =
coping appraisal
response efficacy =
presented with a health behaviour that will reduce the threat
self-efficacy =
whether you engage in the health behaviour > predicts motivation to protect yourself
how is someone likely to change a health behaviour positively using the protection motivation theory?
perceive the threat > assess you have a vulnerability to it > have a health behaviour in mind > feel you can take on the behaviour
how are PMT components manipulated to understand health behaviour?
persuasive communication e.g. fear appeals > used as a social cognition model
how are fear appeals used?
to make people feel threatened by the bad behaviour in order to change these behaviours
what are the 3 major components of fear appeals?
message, audience, recommended behaviour
the message of fear appeals addresses issues that instil critical amounts of fear but the critical amount of fear is ______ to each individual
subjective
who does the audience need to be targeted to?
those who are the most susceptible to the risk
which component of fear appeals is the hardest part to incorporate but also the least effective when not?
the recommended behaviour
why is it less effective to not include the recommended behaviour in fear appeals?
doesn’t activate the efficacy component so only targets threat and not coping strategy which leads to message avoided altogether
give an example of fear appeals
cig packaging
why are smoking packages so varied?
so there is no desensitisation
what are some of the problems with fear appeals?
arousing fear can result in defensive response or denial in people most susceptible, messages if too extreme can lead to message being ignored, only work when have a efficacy message, habits are hard to break
are fear appeals that recommend one time behaviours or repeated behaviours more effective?
one time behaviours
why are fear appeals more effective for women?
women tend to be more prevention focused than men
what does CAM stand for?
complementary and alternative medicine
what type of model is protection motivation theory?
a social cognition model
