Health Psychology

Question 1

focus of Health psychology

Answer 1

• maintenance + promotion of health - preventative before illness develops
• heavily applied - uses psychological research for interventions, policy & health care systems
• prioritises changing behaviour of patient
• CHAnge behaviours (unhealthy)

Question 2

primary models in hp

Answer 2

• Biopsychosocial model - holistic approach to illness causes
• Theory of Planned Behaviour - effect of environment on personal behaviour
• Health Belief Model +Theory of Planned Behaviour = Major theorists model -
• Cognitive dissonance - beliefs with contradictory actions: e.g smoking perceived as harmful but still partakes

Question 3

Health Belief Model

Hochbaum et al 1952

Answer 3

• heavily based on social psych, personality theory
• not just behaviour cause + effect based, but looks to understand cognitive processes
• focus on threat perception: perceived threat/cost of behaviour, perceived severity, perceived benefit of health promoting behaviour + cue to action, self efficacy

ct: - does not account for unconscious habits
- does not consider emotional motivators, fear, dissonance that may result in contradictory behaviour despite understanding costs/benefits
+ explains unhealthy behaviours, simple

Quist-paulsen et al 2003 - study application of model to smoking

Question 4

Cognitive Dissonance model

Answer 4

inconsistencies in patients thoughts & behaviour:
- I like to smoke cigarettes and would like to continue, but - cigarettes are bad for my health
patient will have to resolve the inconsistency one of 4 ways:
- change one of the thoughts: cigarettes aren’t that bad/ I don’t want to smoke
- change behaviour: stop smoking
- add new thoughts to rationalise inconsistency: cigarettes are bad but I do many health promoting behaviours too so I’m not doing much harm. (invalidates 2nd belief of harm)
- trivialise inconsistency: yes I smoke & smoking is bad but I don’t care (self destructive), dismissing thoughts - smoking isn’t as bad as made out to be
ct: + lot of supporting research - testable = effective treatments

Question 5

theory of plan behaviour TPB

Answer 5

how beliefs lead to behaviours - likelihood to execute action given attitudes towards it
3 attitudes:
- (personal) attitude towards act/behaviour - good/bad impact to ur life
- subjective norm - influence of others on your decision - cultural norms, group beliefs - do they think its good/bad
- perceived behavioural control - (self efficacy) - belief that they can control action or not
the more of the attitudes scored highly, greater intention, higher likelihood of behaviour.

Question 6

optimism bias - Masiero, Lucchiari + Pravettoni 2015

Answer 6

present smokers, non smokers, ex smokers on perceived susceptibility to lung cancer from smoking Blue BOOK