Lecture 5

Question 1

Role of Behaviour in health

Answer 1

• Peoples health habits influence their likelihood of developing chronic and fatal diseases (ex. Heart disease, cancer, HIV/AIDS)
• Illness and early death can be substantially reduced if people would adopt lifestyles that promote wellness (ex. Eating healthy, exercising, not smoking)

Question 2

define Health behaviours

Answer 2

activities that people perform to maintain or improve health (or prevent disease and illness)
regardless of health status or whether the activity actually improves health

Question 3

well behaviour

Answer 3

any activity ppl undertake to maintain or improve current good health and avoid illness

Question 4

symptom-based behaviour

Answer 4

any activity ill people undertake to determine the problem and find a remedy

Question 5

sick-role behaviour

Answer 5

any activity people undertake to treat or adjust to a health problem

Question 6

List off examples of health compromising behaviours

Answer 6

Physical inactivity
Poor diet
Smoking
Alcohol consumption
Unprotected sex
Excessive sun exposure

Question 7

primary prevention

Answer 7

Actions taken to avoid disease or injury or prevent onset of illness (ex. Exercise, wearing a seatbelt, flossing, vaccination)

Question 8

Health belief model

Answer 8

The likelihood that a person will perform some health behaviour depends on the outcome of 2 assessments the person makes:
1. Perceived threat: the threat associated with a health problem
- Seriousness
- Vulnerability
- Cues to action/reminders
2. Perceived benefits and barriers: Pros and cons of taking action
- Belief that benefits outweigh the costs

Question 9

Cognitive Adaptation Theory

Answer 9

Those who do not fully accept their physiological risk may have better mental health and be better able to cope with the risk

Question 10

Theory of planned behaviour

Answer 10

Whether or not people will do the Health behaviour is influenced by 3 things:
1. Attitude regarding the behaviour - judgment of whether the behaviour is good or bad
2. Subjective norm: appropriateness or acceptability of behaviour (based on social norms)
3. Perceived behavioural control: expectation of success

Question 11

Theory of planned behaviour applied to the case of HPV vaccine

Answer 11

1. Attitude: belief that HPV vaccine is safe and HPV is severe
2. Subjective norm: parents and friends thought they should
3. Perceived control: belief that vaccine is effective against cervical cancer

Question 12

Transtheoretical Model for implementing a new health behaviour (5 steps)

Answer 12

Recognizes that it may not be possible to change all at once so follows 5 steps:
1. Precontemplation: not considering changing
2. Contemplation: aware of need to change, contemplating
3. Preparation: ready to change, plan to implement change soon
4. Action: starts successfully making changes to behaviour
5. Maintenance: work to maintain new behaviour

Question 13

Ways to help people advance through the stages of the transtheoretical model

Answer 13

• Describe in detail how a person would carry out the behaviour change
• Match strategies to the persons’ current needs to promote advancement to the next stage
• Plan for problems that may arise when implementing the change

Question 14

Motivated reasoning

Answer 14

• emotionally-biased reasoning intended to produce justifications or make decision that are most desired rather than those that reflect the evidence
• People may search for reasons to accept supportive information and discount disconfirming info

Question 15

Conflict theory

Answer 15

When people are faced w health related decisions, they experience stress due to conflict over what to do
- people deal with this conflict differently depending on their evaluations of risk, hope and adequate time

Question 16

4 emotional drivers found to be the most effective levers for behaviour change:

Answer 16

1. Disgust - desire to avoid and remove contamination
2. Nurture - desire for a happy, thriving child
3. Status - desire to have greater access to resources than others
4. Affiliation - desire to fit in

Question 17

empathy and disease threat

Answer 17

Higher the empathetic responding = higher recommended precautions

Question 18

Social benefits of empathy

Answer 18

• Reduces prejudice
• Reduces stereotype expression
• Reduces interpersonal aggression
• Mitigates the negative social consequences of pandemics (ex. Racism, discrimination, “othering”)

Question 19

Herd Immunity

Answer 19

The more people that are immunized for a virus, the more that chains of infection are disrupted, protecting the population at large

Question 20

antisocial traits in pandemic

Answer 20

Lower lvls of empathy and higher lvls of callousness deceitfulness, and risk taking are associated w lower compliance with contaminant measures (social distancing, mask-wearing, handwashing)

Question 21

pattern of men and masks

Answer 21

Men were less likely to resort intentions to wear face masks. They were more likely to label this practice as: shameful, not cool, sign of weakness and a stigma

Question 22

Empathetic advertising of mask wearing

Answer 22

Messages focusing on “your community” were the most effective in motivating mask wearing behaviour

Question 23

factors associated w anti-vax attitudes

Answer 23

individualism, over-confidence, narcisissm

Question 24

factors in vaccine hesitancy and resistance

Answer 24

Threat, fear, and disgust
Lack of trust
Conspiracy theories
Reactance
Narcissism, low empathy

Question 25

Dunning-Kruger Effect

Answer 25

• A cognitive bias by whereby ppl with limited knowledge or competence in a given intellectual or social domain greatly overestimate their own knowledge or competence in that domain
• Overconfidence is associated w increased support of non-expert views in policy decisions, and anti-vax ideas

Question 26

solution to vaccine hesitancy

Answer 26

Information on disease threat rather than information debunking vaccine myths works best to change attitudes about vaccines

Question 27

Backfire effect

Answer 27

A cognitive bias that causes people who encounter evidence that challenges their beliefs to reject that evidence and strengthen their support of their original stance