Health Psychology, Behaviour Change & Smoking Cessation

Question 1

What are the 3 categories of health behaviours?

Answer 1

• health behaviour
• illness behaviour
• sick role behaviour

Question 2

What is a health behaviour?

Answer 2

Behaviour aimed to prevent disease.

Question 3

What is an illness behaviour?

Answer 3

Behaviour aimed to seek remedy.

Question 4

What is sick role behaviour?

Answer 4

Behaviour aimed at getting well.

Question 5

How can health behaviours be improved / promoted at a population level?

Answer 5

• health promotion campaigns
• promote screening
• promote immunisations

Question 6

What influences perception of risk of health damaging behaviours?

Answer 6

• lack of personal experience with the problem
• belief that the problem is preventable by personal action
• belief that if not happened by now, it’s not likely to
• belief that problem is infrequent

Question 7

What are some reasons why individuals engage in health damaging behaviours?

Answer 7

• inaccurate risk perception
• health beliefs
• situational rationality
• culture variability
• socioeconomic factors
• stress

Question 8

How can doctors help individuals to change their health behaviours?

Answer 8

• work with your patient’s priorities
• aim for easy changes over time
• set goals
• plan explicit coping strategies
• review progress regularly

Question 9

What interventions have the best smoking cessation success rates?

Answer 9

Individual / group behavioural support, plus medication.

Question 10

What is the health belief model?

Answer 10

Individuals will change if they believe:
- they are susceptible to the condition
- the condition has serious consequences
- taking action reduces susceptibility
- benefits of taking action outweigh the costs

Adapted to include health motivation and cues to action.

Question 11

Critique of the health belief model?

Answer 11

• alternative factors may predict behaviour (e.g. self-belief, outcome expectancy)
• cognitively based, does not consider influence of emotions
• does not differentiate between first-time and repeat behaviour

Question 12

What is the theory of planned behaviour?

Answer 12

Proposes that the best predictor of behaviour is intention, determined by:
- the person’s attitude to the behaviour
- perceived social pressure to undertake the behaviour
- the person’s perceived behavioural control

Question 13

Critique of theory of planned behaviour?

Answer 13

• lack of temporal element, direction, or causality
• rational choice model - doesn’t take emotions into account
• does not explain how attitudes, intentions, and perceived behavioural control interact
• does not consider habits / routines

Question 14

What is the transtheoretical model?

Answer 14

• pre-contemplation
• contemplation
• preparation
• action
• maintenance

Question 15

Critique of the transtheoretical model?

Answer 15

• not everyone moves through every stage
• change may be continuous rather than discrete stages
• doesn’t take into account values, habits, emotions, culture, social, and economic factors

Question 16

What is the social norms model?

Answer 16

• collect information on true norms - the majority show healthy behaviours
• educate population to change risk perceptions

Question 17

Critique of the social norm model?

Answer 17

• risks further marginalisation of groups
• self-reported damaging behaviours, lower than the true rate
• model doesn’t work if damaging behaviour is the norm