Chapter 3

Question 1

Ecology

Answer 1

comes from biological science and refers to the relationships between organisms and their environments

Question 2

Ecological models

Answer 2

Shift from idea that perceptions of environment are important to the idea environments have direct effects on behaviors

Question 3

Five Principles of Ecological Perspectives

Answer 3

1. Multiple levels of influence
2. Environmental contexts determine behavior
3. Interactions across levels
4. Behavior-specific
5. Multi-level interventions probably most effective

Question 4

P1: Multiple Levels of Influence

Answer 4

• Factors at multiple levels influence health behaviors
  - Intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, community, public policy
• Distinguishes ecological models from other theories that focus on one or two levels

Question 4

P1: Multiple Levels of Influence

Answer 4

• Factors at multiple levels influence health behaviors
  - Intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, community, public policy
• Distinguishes ecological models from other theories that focus on one or two levels

Question 5

P2: Environmental contexts determine behavior

Answer 5

Behaviors may be better predicted by environmental contexts than by individual characteristics

 - Environmental context: social and physical environment
          - a.k.a. behavior settings -     - Responsible for restricting or promoting certain actions
          - Ex: Increased tobacco advertising  increased availability of individual cigarettes for purchase

Question 6

P3: Interactions Across Levels

Answer 6

Variables interact to influence behavior
- Typically include variables at multiple levels of ecological models
- Ex: Physical activity promotion may be most effective with combination of physician counseling, insurance discounts, increasing safe sidewalks

Question 7

P4: Behavior Specific

Answer 7

Ecological models require tailoring to specific health behaviors
- Applies to research and intervention

This is a key difference from other theories that have constructs (e.g. self-efficacy) that can be applied across multiple behaviors

Question 8

P5: Multi-level Interventions Are Likely Most Effective

Answer 8

Interventions targeting multiple levels promote long-term change and affect more people
- Especially organizational, environmental, and policy level interventions

Individual-level interventions show small and short-term effects by comparison

Question 9

Strengths of Ecological Models

Answer 9

Strengths:

• Reach large number of people
• Result in sustained behavior change
• Increased options for intervention

Question 10

Limitations of Ecological Models

Answer 10

Limitations

• Expensive, time consuming, and/or impractical to implement
• Lack of specificity about most important influences/interactions
• Not applicable across health behaviors
• Some variables can not be manipulated by researchers

Question 11

Future Directions of Ecological Models

Answer 11

• Investigate how and which variables interact, resulting in explicit and quantitative models
• Build models with multi-level data to test how interactions predict empirical outcomes
• Implement to target critical health problems
  - Tobacco use, obesity, diabetes, poor diet, alcohol use, violence, HIV/AIDS, etc…