HEALTH- Health Promotion Flashcards
Strategies for promoting health
Describe how fear arousal can promote health
- This uses vivid images to raise public awareness of risky health behaviours and encourage health promoting behaviours as a more suitable alternative
- In the Health Belief Model, once there has been an increased subjective apparaisal of pereceived susceptibility and perceived severity, it motivats a person to change their behaviour. An example of this can be through Fear appeals (Ads)
Strategies for promoting health
Describe how fear appeals are effective
> The effectiveness of fear appeals is affected by how graphic or anxiety provoking the campaign is
Strategies for promoting health
What did Janis and Feshbach suggest as a possible reaction to extreme anxiety
- The individual may fail to pay attention to the message and try to change the subject. But if anxiety rises even more, then it can lead to distractibility
- If anxiety becomes too high then the individual may become aggressive to the communicator as they are seen as responsible for producing the uncomfortable feelings.
- The person may simply turn off an advert if it makes them too uncomfortable.
Strategies for promoting health
what was methodology in Janis and Feshbach
- The sample was randomly allocated to either a strong moderate or minimal fear appeal group and a control group
- The fear appeal group received the same essential info about the causes of tooth decay and same recs.
- The Iv was the strength of the fear appeal:
> Strong: included the painful and serious consequences of poor dental hygiene
> Moderate: Dangers of poor dental hygiene were addressed
> Minimal: Fear-arousing material was replaced with neutral information such as growth and function of teeth
Control group: Given info regarding the eye
Providing information
How did Lewin et al. investigate the effectiveness of Home based exercise programmes on people who had an acute heart attack
- Patients were randomly assigned to one to one of 2 groups
> Experiment group: They followed a self-help rehabilition programme following discharge including stress management programmes. Spouses were also given info
> Control group: Received standard care plus a placebo package of information leaflets and counselling
Providing information
Tapper et al. focused on 3 different aspects of psychology when designing a health promotion which could be successfully with children both at home and at school:
1) Taste exposure: The more you taste a novel food, the more you learn to like it
2) Modelling: This is where the child will imitate a role models behaviour and this can sometimes be strengthened if the model is the same age or gender.
3) Rewards: The use of rewards after a behaviour can make the behaviour more likely to occur again. For example, saying to a kid they can have pudding after they eat their veggies.
Providing information
Describe the Whole -School Programme in Tapper et al.
- Investigated children aged 4-11 years in 3 primary schools
- School staff implemented the programme which consisted of:
> A Food Dude video with a total of 6, six-mins adventure episodes
> A set of Food Dudes rewards
> Letters from the Food Dudes to praise and encourage the children as well as reminding them how they get the rewards.
> A staff manual and briefing video - Lasted for 16 days
- Rewards were given for children for either tasting the food or eating a whole portion.
Worksites and health and safety
What was the aim in Fox et al.
To investigate whether token economies programmes are an effective way of reducing accidents and injuries in the USA
Worksites and health and safety
What was the methodology in Fox
- Token Economy Programmes (TEPs) were introfuced at 2 mines for health and safety concerns
- Workers were split into 4 hazard groups such as group 1 having the least hazardous jobs as they were mostly office-based and group 4 had the most hazardous jobs such as electricians.
- Miners would be medically treated with compensatedd injuries whereby they receive money for an injury.
- Everytime they did this, a stamp would be given and they can be exchanged for a wide range of goods in a local store.
Individual factors in changing health beliefs
Unrealistic optimism:
This refers to the cognitive belief that negative events are less likely to happen to you than other people and positive events are more likely to hapen to you.
Individual factors in changing health beliefs
What are some research evidence that supports unrealistic optimism
Gassen et al: Suggest that unrealistic optimism may lead to health benefits by reducing worry which can increase mental wellbeing.
Weinstein et al: They wanted to investigate whether people believe that negative events are more or less likely to happen to them than other people
- They had the students estimate how much their own chances of experiencing particular life events were different to the chances of their classmates.
- It involved a 42 life events self report with instructions such as ‘‘Compared to other students’’
- For both positive and negative events, unrealistic optimism appears when the event
is perceived as controllable
Individual factors in changing health beliefs
Evaluate unrealistic optimism
+This can reduce stress and worry allowing people to cope better
-Theres the conflict of opinion regarding whether unrealistic optimism reflects rational belief or is simply an expression of people’s desires and hopes. How should we measure to what extent these beliefs are false/irrational which could lower validity
What is positive psychology
- This is a new approach in psychology
- It focuses on how humans in everyday life can flourish, succeed and increase their happiness and wellbeing.
Positive psychology
Describe a pleasant life in this approach
Focuses on: Emotions
Description: We have positive emotions and take satisfaction from daily things
Positive psychology
Describe a good life
Focuses on: Positive traits
Description: We understand our signature strengths and use them to enhance our lives can help us lead a good life.
Positive psychology
Describe a meaningful life
Focuses on: Institutions e.g democracy, family
Description: This transcends making life better for ourselves. This approach suggests that we can use our signature strengths for a greater purpose to help make other peoples lives better too. This involves developing positive connections with others.
Seligman 2004
Describe the Homework tasks in the study
GRATITUDE NIGHT:
- Seligman organised this for his students and their families. The students would read testimonials to their guests, describing why and how they have been important in their lives and thanking them
PLEASURABLE DAY:
- They would learn the skills of ‘savouring’ which is sharing experiences with other people.
- The also learned how to practise mindfulness by being in the moment
SIGNATURE DAY:
- Seligmans students would first identify their signature strengths by taking the Values in Action (VIA) questionnaire.
- This would identify the respondants top 5 strengths out of a total of 24. e.g optimism, love e.t.c
- Students would then choose a boring task and they needed to do find a way of using their signature strengths to complete it.
Seligman 2004
Evaluate Seligman
+Research evidence such as Shoshani and steinmetz (2014) found that a school-based intervention programme with these tasks reduced mental health symptoms
+Seligmans seminar programme has many practical applications. His students could actively practise what they were learning. Can generalize results to other unis and schools
-A weakness is the use of self reports. Students could select strengths that make them look good rather than what they actually feel.
-They create an assumption that everyone will be happier if they think more positively. Rodriguez (2013) states that ignoring negative thoughts could have unwanted effects on our wellbeing. Taking a nomothetic approach may not be appropriate.
Key Study- Shoshani and Steinmetz
State the 2 aims of the study
- To ivestigate whether participants in the positive psychology intervention group had better health outcomes and lower distress throughout middle school compared to the control group
- They aimed to reveal whether the efficacy of the intervention was moderate by any specific socio-demographic factors, including gender.
Key Study- Shoshani and Steinmetz
Describe the sample
- 1038 adolescents
- 7-9th graders
- ages 11- 14 years
- From 2 large middle schools in Israel
- 537- experimental group
- 501-Control wait list group
Key Study- Shoshani and Steinmetz
Describe what type of experiment this was
- Field experiment
- Longitudinal over 2 school years
- Mixed design: Independent measures( exp vs control) and repeated measures(questionnaires)
Key Study- Shoshani and Steinmetz
Describe the materials used (6)
- Brief symptoms Inventory: Identifies psychological symptoms
- The Rosenberg Self-esteem scale: Evaluates self-worth
- The General Self-Efficacy scale: To asses people’s daily coping habits with hassles and life events
- Satisfaction with life scale: To assess an overall satisfaction with life
- The life Orientation Test Revised: Assess how optimistic or pessimistic a person is
- Socio-demographic measures: Gathers background info on students e.g age, gender , country of birth
Key Study- Shoshani and Steinmetz
Describe what the intervention group did
- school teachers were trained in group dynamics and positive psychology
- They conducted parallel sessions with their students. The school psychologist and counsellors randomly checked that the student sessions were being run appropriately.
- An important component of the programme was gratitude which refers to our awareness and appreciation of the positive aspects of our lives
- The intervention group discussed 5 or more things they were grateful for each week and also wrote gratitude letters.
Key Study- Shoshani and Steinmetz
State 3 results and what did they conclude
- prior to the intervention, there was a correlation found between living below the poverty level with a single parent and the participants mental health scores.
- Males showed lower depressive symptoms than females at the start and increased initial anxiety levels
- Participants in the intervention group showed significant increases over time for optimism, compared to the control group
The concluded that the intervention was found to be effective for both low and high-risk students.
Key Study- Shoshani and Steinmetz
Evaluate the study
+ Use of longitudinal design with follow ups for a 2 year period. Strenght as it shows long-lasting effects
+ The use of a control group. This showed the extent to which their mental health changes over time was there or not with the intervention, increasing the validity
+ Applicable to everyday life as it took place in schools. Reduces the pressure on support services such as therapy.
+ Focuses on the situational side
-The students completed the same self-reports at 4 points across the 2 years. Questions could have been recognised and answers may have been a product of demand characteristics
-Lack of generalisability with only 2 Israeli middle schools and agess being only between 11-15 years
-The control group may not have been able to benefit from the positive psychology intervention so at risk of increased mental health symptoms
