Lecture 7a Flashcards
What are health related behaviours?
Any behaviour that may lead to good health or illness
25% of deaths avoidable with lifestyle and health changes
What theories do we have to help understand people’s health related behaviour?
Learning theories
Social cognition model
Integrative model- COM-B
What learning theories do we have examples of?
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
Social learning theory
What is classical conditioning?
Learning by association eg associating work breaks with smoking a cigarette etc
Treat by avoiding cues and associating behaviour with an unpleasant response eg Disulfiram for alcohol treatment
Try and break unconscious habit
What is operant conditioning?
Learn through doing things and the consequence of that action.
Behaviour is reinforced if it is rewarded and removed if punished and a short time period between behaviour and reward is required. Eg give dog treat when it sits
Problem is short term rewards often detrimental eg drug taking and unsafe sex
Treat by making long term rewards more attractive eg saving money spent for holiday instead
What is the limitation of learning theories?
No account of cognitive processes, knowledge, beliefs etc
No account of social context
Classical and operant based on simple stimuli response interactions
What is social learning theory?
People learn the the behaviour of others and their subsequent punishment or reward.
Eg video of woman beating bobo doll. Those who saw her punished less likely to beat doll than those that didn’t.
This model is more like us if the models “like us” or of high social status.
Can promote harmful behaviour eg peer pressure
Celebrities in health promotion campaigns
What are the three social cognition models?
Cognitive dissonance theory
Health belief model
Theory of planned behaviour
What is cognitive dissonance theory?
Discomfort caused when your beliefs don’t match those around you
Used in health promotion eg smoking warnings on packets
Can either cause discomfort and prompt change or individual will just alter their beliefs or behaviour to make them feel better eg hide warnings on box
What is the health belief model?
Based on beliefs around the health threat and beliefs around health related behaviour.
Beliefs around health threats include perceived susceptibility and perceived severity
Beliefs around health related behaviour involve perceived benefits and barriers of the behaviour
Eg for condom use may feel that while susceptible friend got an STI before which was easily cured and while a condom prevents pregnancy you lose lots of sensation etc.
Balance scales and make a decision
What are the limitations of the social cognition models?
Don’t incorporate emotional influences like fear and reasoning is often only done after the behaviour
What is the theory of planned behaviour?
Consists of three domains:
Attitude towards behaviour (your own opinion)
Subjective norm (what do others thing)
Perceived control (can i do it or not)
The three of these are weighed up to give an invention or no intention
Invention may not always translate into action (heat of the moment) etc
What are the problems with interventions to change behaviour?
The models used aren’t integrative and suggest different targets for behaviour change
Outcomes are highly variable
Impact of interventions depends on the type of behaviour, population being targeted and the context
Behaviour and context?
Different people will respond better to different strategies.
A lazy person may need a push to exercise while and enthusiastic fat person may need a pull back
What would an integrated model for targeted intervention involve?
Specify behaviour for change
Make a behavioural diagnosis- understand nature of behaviour and underlying motivators for it
Prescription- match behaviour change technique to diagnosis
