Psychological Influences on Health Flashcards
What were the leading causes of death in the US in 2000?
Tobacco use
Poor diet and physical inactivity
Alcohol consumption
How can psychological factors influence health?
Indirectly: changing behaviours that affect health
Directly: change in hormones and/or heart rate
What are healthy behaviours strongly associated with?
Raised BP Raised cholesterol CBD or cerbrovascualr disease Cancer Type 2 diabetes Obesity Respiratory disease
Give an example of behaviours of individuals that could affect their health
Link between obese women and not using contraception, increasing their risk of STIs
Young people drinking and unintended pregnancies
What are the top risk factors in Scotland?
Exceeding drinking guidelines Smoking Not enough veg or fruit High salt intake Not active enough Overweight Saturated fat, highly processed food - diabetes
55% have 3 or more risk behaviours
How can risky behaviours impact people?
Impact beyond health and impact on mental health, families and communities (especially alcohol related harm) and the economy through absenteeism.
What are the two systems that influence behaviour?
Reflective system - behaviour as a result of our goals which reflects our values and where aware of what were doing
Automatic system - impulse
What are choices we makes influenced by?
Social factors
Large scale social context (i.e. economy)
Physical environment - i.e. availability of cheap and unhealthy food or no cycling lanes less likely to cycle
What are the 3 factors of the behaviours change theory?
Personal (beliefs, attitudes, knowledge)
Environment/social (culture, location, income)
Behavioural (habits)
What are the 5 concepts of the Social Cognitive Theory that influence a an individuals behaviour?
Observation learning Outcome expectations Self-efficacy Goal setting Self-regulation
According to SCT, what factors can influence behaviour and why?
Personal: belief in the ability to change (self-efficacy), the outcomes of changed behaviour and how important these consequences are to them
Behaviour: how habitual or autonomic it is
Environment: facilitators like social supports, barriers or perceived barriers such as time or money
These all interact with each other
Define self efficacy
Belief in the ability to change
For info/knowledge to influence behaviour, what must it be?
Relevant to goals
Easily understood
Readily available at moment of decision or action
What does self-efficacy underpin?
Goal setting
Effort investment
Persistence in face of barriers
Recovery from setbacks
What is the use of the General Self-Efficacy Scale?
To assess optimistic self-beliefs to cope with a variety of difficult demands in life
What is the choice architectures?
The environment in which an individual make choices. Changing the way options are presented or altering the social and physical environment can make it much more likely that a particular choice becomes the natural or default preference.
Individuals may often be unaware of the effect that changes in the choice architecture have on their individual choices and actions.
What are nudges?
Prompt choices without getting people to consider their options consciously, and therefore do not include openly persuasive interventions such as media campaigns and the straightforward provision of information
What are the behaviours change recommendations for NICE in 2007?
Take account of the circumstances in which people live, especially socioeconomic and cultural context
Build on people’s strengths and skills
Tailor interventions to tackle beliefs, attitudes, intentions and knowledge with the target behaviour
What are the NICE key concepts when trying to influence an individuals behaviours?
- Outcome expectancies – provide knowledge about health consequences
- Personal relevance – emphasising personal importance of health behaviours
- Positive attitude – promoting positive feeling towards the outcomes of behaviour change
- Self-efficacy – enhancing their beliefs of ability to change
- Descriptive norms – promoting visibility of positive health behaviours
- Subjective norms – enhancing social approval for positive health behaviours
- Personal and moral norms – promote personal and moral commitments to behaviour change
- Intention formation and concrete plans – forms a plan and goals for change
- Behaviours contracts – sharing their plans and goals with others
- Relapse prevention – helping people develop skills to cope with difficult situation and conflicting goals
What role does motivation play in health-related behaviour?
Motivation depends on seeing the value of change and having faith in your ability to manage the change
