Attitudes and Health

Question 1

what are attitudes?

Answer 1

relatively stable predispositions towards socially significant ideas, people, and events to guide decision making

Question 2

what can attitudes be divided into?

Answer 2

emotonal, behavioural, and cognition

Question 3

how are attitudes learned?

Answer 3

through early socialisation

Question 4

anderson’s information integration theory

Answer 4

information is weighed up to see if it is consistent with existing attitudes, or whether attitudes must change to accommodate this

Question 5

measuring attitudes

Answer 5

• thurston (1928)
• likert (1932)
• guttman (1944)

Question 6

thurston 1928

Answer 6

gives participants hundreds of statements to categorise as favourable, and those with the highest agreement are used to form scales to give to other participants

Question 7

likert 1932

Answer 7

participants respond to statements on a scale to calculate attitude scores

Question 8

guttman 1944

Answer 8

neither approach captures unique meaning, and unidimensional traits should be measured by selecting statements along a continuum

Question 9

alternative measures of attitude

Answer 9

• bias in language
• attitude priming (implicit association task)

Question 10

bias in language

Answer 10

discourse analysis observed more concrete language is used for socially desirable attitudes, and abstract language for socially undesirable opinions

Question 11

attitude priming (implicit association task)

Answer 11

faster judgement responses are made when these are consistent with participant attitudes

Question 12

davidson and jacard (1979) found…

Answer 12

the specificity of attitudinal measures are more useful at predicting use, but general attitudes are still useful for looking at collections of behaviour

Question 13

acquiescence response set

Answer 13

tendency to agree

Question 14

traditional approach

Answer 14

believes public health interventions can spread health risk information to result in behaviour

Question 15

what do public health interventions target?

Answer 15

three different levels
- primary
- secondary
- tertiary

Question 16

attitudinal models of behaviour

Answer 16

provider information on health risk and beliefs about message and behaviour

this results in internal and external motivation change (enjoyment of activity and reward) leading to mobilisation of skills and behaviour change

Question 17

protection motivation theory

Answer 17

rogers (1975) based on cognition, assessment, and appraisal as people go through various stages after being presented with potential health risks

Question 18

stages of protection motivation theory

Answer 18

1. simultaneous experience of appraisals
   a. threat appraisal (perceived susceptibility
   and severity)
   b. coping appraisal (response efficacy and
   self-efficacy)
2. protection motivation (planning to deal with the threat)
3. leads to either adaptive or maladaptive coping response

Question 18

benefits of protection motivation theory

Answer 18

• offers hypotheses about health beliefs
• interventions with successful applications

Question 19

limitations of protection motivation theory

Answer 19

• ignores social pressures and motivation
• believes fear is an ethical and motivational tool to initiate the process

Question 20

theory of planned behaviour

Answer 20

azjen and madden (1986) based on social and cognitive factors, believe people are more likely to engage in behaviour and attitude change if they feel responsible for these

Question 21

what three factors influence behavioural intention and behaviour, in the theory of planned behaviour?

Answer 21

• behavioural attitude
• subjective norms
• perceived behavioural control

Question 22

intention-behaviour gap

Answer 22

considers that intention does not always lead to a behaviour

Question 23

benefits of theory of planned behaviour

Answer 23

• assessing health-related behaviours
• proposes people have the necessary resources to complete this

Question 24

limitations of theory of planned behaviour

Answer 24

• does not account for fear, threat, or mood
• assumes linear decision making and instant behavioural change

Question 25

the stages of change model

Answer 25

prochaska and diclemente (1983) goes through steps between intention behaviour change

Question 26

stages of intention behaviour change, within the stages of change model

Answer 26

• precontemplation
• contemplation
• preparation
• action
• maintenance
• termination

Question 27

benefits of the stages of change model

Answer 27

• successfully applied to health-related behaviour
• focuses on the process of change to tailor interventions

Question 28

limitations of the stages of change model

Answer 28

• oversimplification of the complex external process of behaviour
• assumes people make stable plans for change
• behaviour change occurs in discrete stages