Health Psychology Flashcards
What is health psychology?
Study of the psychological factors invovled in maintaining health, illness and response to illness.
What is health behaviour?
The behaviours we engage in to improve or maintain our health, regardless of our health status.
What are the types of health behaviour?
Health destructive behaviours such as smoking or eating an unhealthy diet. Health promoting behaviours such as exercising, attending health screening checks.
Why is it important to study health behaviour?
Relationship between health behaviour and life expectancy, to coincide with treatment schedules, to determine behaviours caused by disease or disability, for lifestyle change for patinets.
What is the attribution theory?
Individual who is a layman/social perceiver will have a causal explanation for events that occur. This can be internal/external, stable/unstable (will always occur), controllable/uncontrollable, global/specific (contained to specific part of life or afffects multiple aspects of life.
What is the health locus of control?
The degree to which you attribute the causes of control in your life. It can be internal and believe you are responsible or external and that it is due to other factors like the environment. Determining this in patients can help individuals to make behaviour changes to reduce illness/increase health by taking control and cognitive changes to modify the impact.
What is Leventhal’s model of illness?
Illness is categorised by individuals to:
Identitiy (what the injury/illness is)
Timeline
Consequence
Cause
Control (can I self-medicate)
Why is understanding health behaviour important?
It influences the treatments that patients choose and the type of person they seek for health advice. It allows HCPs to determine how patients psychologically view illness in order to correct inaccuracies.
What encourages people to make health changes?
Based on their perception of the severity of threat, vulnerability and the self-efficacy. This comes under the protection-motivation theory.
What is the self-efficacy theory?
The belief in your own ability to change your behaviour. It includes outcome expectancy that there will be a positive outcome and self-efficacy expectancy that you can make a positive change.
What are the predictors of health behaviours?
Physical activity, nutrition, self-efficacy, alcohol and smoking behaviours, self esteem, socioeconomic background
What is the stages of change model?
The way people change behaviours which cause ilness, such as addiction.
They see no problem
Contemplative stage
Determinism stage to change or return to stage 1
Active change within the next 30 days
Maintaning- 6 month limit
-> Termination
Relapse
What is the health belief model?
Changing health behaviours is due to your perception of your own health and other health conditions due to:
Beliefs of your susceptibility to disease
Beliefs of severity
Beliefs of barriers such as effort and time
Beliefs abbout benefits of changing behaviours
What is the protection motivation theory?
You change health behaviours based on:
Threat appraisal
-> Perception of your vulnerability and the severity of the threat
Coping appraisal
->Self efficacy and the success of the strategy outcome
What is the theory of planned behaviour?
Prediction of individual’s intention to change behaviour based on attitudes, perceived behavioural control and social norms.
