Health psychology Flashcards
2 theories of health behaviour?
Theory of planned behaviour (TPB)
Protection motivation theory (PMT)
Theory of planned behaviour
3 factors that affect out intention?
states the most important factor that predicts our behaviour is our intention to engage in a particular behaviour
Whether we form a particular intention is affected by 3 factors:
1) Attitude- whether we evalutate the behaviour positively or negatively
2) subjective norms - our perception of whether those around us want us to engage in the behaviour
3) Perceived behavioural control - how easy or difficult we think it is to engage in a behaviour
Norman and Conner found?
Binge drinking
attitude, self-efficacy and perceived control negatively predicted binge-drinking intentions, which predicted binge drinking behaviour a week later
Limitations of TPB?
doesn’t take into account previous behaviour. And this has been found to be one of the strongest predictors of behavioural intention and behaviour
Protection motivation theory
2 cognitive processes due to potential threat to our health?
was specifically designed to understand health behaviours
states: when we encounter a potential threat to our health we use 2 cognitive processes:
1- threat apprasial - calculating how severe threat is
2- coping appraisal - evaluating the effectiveness of a corrective course of action and considering ones personal self-efficacy regarding this course of action
Our combined response to both appraisals result in our protection motivation level
-studies show the 2 types of appraisal significantly predict protection motivation, which in turn predicts our actual behaviour
(but, coping behaviour and self-efficacy is a stronger predictor than threat appraisal)
Limitation of both TPB and PMT
they don’t directly show us how we can change peoples behaviour
- also, intentions don’t always translate into behaviour
The transtheoretical model
(approach to changing health behaviour)
successful transition between stages is influenced by? (2 factors)
suggests 5 stages we must go through to change behaviour successfully:
1 - precontemplation
2- contemplation
3 - preparation
4- action
5 - maintenance
(at stage 4 = common to relapse so may have to go back to stage 1 2 or 3)
The model suggests that successful transition between stages is influenced by 2 factors:
1- self-efficacy = belief that one can achieve the change in behaviour
2 - decisional balance = weighing up pros and cons (if pros> cons = progress)
Implementation Intentions (approach to changing health behaviour)
why do people fail to perform intended behaviour? (2reasons)
How to avoid this?
people may have good intentions but fail to perform intended behaviour for 2 reasons:
1) we lead busy lives and have many competing demands = could forget to perform behaviour
2) may struggle to find a good time to act
To avoid this (Gollwitzer):
people should plan when and where they will engage in intended behaviour, in form of an if-then statement
(plan = implementation intention)
Binge Drinking
UK man and woman?
Man = 8+ units
Woman = 6+ units
(doesn’t take into account other variables that may affect blood alcohol levels)
2 types of campaign designed for reducing BD
1) increasing negative and reducing positive alcohol expectancies
(evidence for success of this is mixed)
2) changing normative beliefs about alcohol, commonly known as ‘social norm interventions’
-when our group membership is salient = look to other members of group and how they behave = guideline
What are the interventions for binge drinking based on?
based on the fact that individuals binge drink because they are driven to match overestimated perception of drinking
So, if you inform people of actual average consumption = reduce consumption
what it ‘personalised norms marketing’?
individuals provided with individual feedback on how their personal consumption compares with the average
– benefit of the approach = effective and easy to implement as it can be conducted on the internet, however, there must be a mismatch between actual and perceived drinking for intervention to work
AIDs and HIV prevention
no. of deaths from AIDs is decreasing (due to better treatment)
the reduction in new infections suggests that prevention effort have been effective
noted that behaviour change is the most important factor for the declines in new HIV infection (esp in younger people)
-lack of a clear model of behaviour in the media for safe sex (= no modelling)
Social Learning Theory - people are more likely to engage in a particular behaviour if they have seen a model of that behaviour being undertaken by someone else (provides appropriate scripts and increases self-efficacy about engaging in behaviour
