Intro to behavioural science

Question 1

what is behavioural science?

Answer 1

umbrella term that covers disciplines that deal with human actions including psychology, sociology etc

Question 2

what is behavioural medicine about?

Answer 2

concerned with the integration of knowledge in the biological, behavioural, psychological, and social sciences relevant to health and illness

Question 3

what is health psychology?

Answer 3

study of psychological and behavioural processes in health, illness, and healthcare

Question 4

what is the biomedical model?

Answer 4

model of illness that includes only biological factors in an attempt to understand a person medical illlness or disease
e.g. age, comorbidity, genetics, sex & gender

Question 5

what is the criticism of biomedical model?

Answer 5

model excludes environmental, social & psychological factors
does not consider prevention & health promotion

Question 6

what are some psychology & health factors?

Answer 6

• personality
• attitudes/beliefs
• coping styles
• trauma

Question 7

what are some social determinant of health?

Answer 7

• socioeconomic status
• employment
• social support

Question 8

what are health inequalities?

Answer 8

the unjust and avoidable differences in people’s health across the population & between specific population groups (deprived areas etc)

Question 9

what are all the behavior change theories i should know?

Answer 9

• social cognitive theory
• dual processing theories of behaviour
• transtheoretical model ( stages of change)
• COM-B model

Question 10

what are the 3 key constructs in social cognitive theory?

Answer 10

• self efficacy (self confidence in performing a particular behaviour e.g. exercising)
• outcome expectancies (consequences anticipated from behaviour e.g. improve fitness from exercise)
• barriers ( environmental, emotional, self control etc e.g. having resources and feeling supported)

Question 11

what are the 2 positives and 2 negatives for social cognitive theory?

Answer 11

(+) brings self efficacy to forefront
(+) integrates role of environment

(-) Lack of consistency in the implementation of the theory – difficult to pool the evidence.
(-) Measures of self-efficacy have been argued to overlap with or even reflect motivation rather than an individuals perceived capability.

Question 12

what is the dual processing theory?

Answer 12

recognise the impact of non-conscious, implicit factors on health behaviour
- assumes behaviour is controlled by 2 processes: automatic/impulsive & deliberate/reflective

Question 13

what is the transtheoretical/stage of change model?

Answer 13

proposes that health behaviour change involves progress through 6 stages of change:

• precontemplation (no intention of change)
• contemplation (aware a problem exists)
• preparation (intent upon taking action)
• action (active modification of behaviour)
• maintenance (sustained change - new behaviour)
• relapse/ set back

Question 14

what is negative of stage of change model?

Answer 14

criticism is that such a distinct stages can not capture the complexity of human behaviour

Question 15

what is COM-B model?

Answer 15

The COM-B model proposes that there are three components to behaviour (B):

Capability (C):psychological and physical capability for the behaviour (know what to do)

Opportunity (O):social and physical opportunity for the behaviour (family & friends support, live close to healthy supermarket)

Motivation (M):want or need to carry out the behaviour.

Question 16

what is the behaviour change wheel (BCW) ?

Answer 16

model adapted from COM-B and is tool used to encourage behaviour change
->it can help develop effective behaviour