Psychological models of health behaviour Flashcards
What is a theory and what is the purpose/benefits of one?
A coherent account of a phenomenon arrived at through inference and thought
-Explain a related set of observations
-Generate testable predictions or hypotheses
-Be parsimonious, i.e. be the simplest explanation of the phenomenon at hand
-Be comprehensible and coherent
-Not be contradicted by observations
What are health behaviours?
- Smoking, drinking, eating behaviour, sexual health, exercise behaviour
There are general models of human behaviour that can be applied to multiple consequential health behaviours, such as: smoking, drinking, overeating, sexual health, exercise behaviour and many more
What is the health belief model and what does it mean?
An expectancy-value model
Expectancies about the outcome of a behaviour, and the value placed on its consequences, relates to if the behaviour is carried out or not
The value placed is critical
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the health belief model?
Can compare different influences on health behaviours
Identifies importance of barriers to behaviour change
Disadvantages:
Threat does not predict behaviour change for many health behaviours, e.g. smoking. NOTE: Won’t deter regular uses but might stop you from starting
Leaves out emotions, habit, social norms motivations for behaviour change
Taylor and Brown 1988 – people consistently underestimate negative events occurring to them, and overestimate their potential
What is theory of planned behaviour?
Again is an expectancy-value model, an intentional theory
Intention is said to be the result of a process that takes account of:
o Attitudes
o Subjective norms
o Perceived behavioural control
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the theory of planned behaviour model?
Advantages:
Intentions predict some behaviours
Highlights social norms
Perceived control often the most important factor – this is bc lack of results in little action being taken at all
Disadvantages:
Most of the time intentions do not predict behaviour
Past behaviour is often the best predictor of behaviour
Does not adequately address: Environmental influences, Social support, Habits
What is the relationship between intention and behaviour?
Pashcal Sheeran – intentions generally predict about 28% of the variance in behaviour
What might predict the rest? Dostoyevsky’s protagonists –
consistently formulate an intention to behave in a certain way but nevertheless find themselves acting in a contrary way.
What is the transtheoretical model?
Advantages and disadvantages of the transtheoretical model?
Advantages:
Intuitively appealing model which is popular in practice
Predicts change in some behaviours
Broad, has identified many useful processes involved in behaviour change
Disadvantages:
Stage definitions are arbitrary and vary widely between studies and lead one to assume this process occurs in all behaviour change which is clearly not true
Assumes change is planned; spontaneous change left out
Doesn’t assess readiness to change
Doesn’t consider negative processes, e.g avoidance, blame
What is the cognitive dissonance theory?
Cognitions can be:
Dissonant– thoughts are contradictory, often induces negative feeling states, eg psychological stress
Consonant– thoughts are in agreement
Irrelevant – cognitions neither in agreement nor disagreement
What is an example of the cognitive dissonance theory?
Someone is alcohol dependent and holds the beliefs that:
1) drinking excessively is bad for the health
2) he/she is a heavy drinker
The resulting dissonance might be reduced by:
* Changing one or both cognitions: e.g. convincing yourself you are not a heavy drinker
* Eliminating one or both cognitions: e.g. dangers of drinking are exaggerated
* Avoiding thinking about the cognitions
* Adding a cognition that reconciles the conflict e.g. ‘I will reduce my drinking in the new year’ or ‘I am addicted, and it is out of my control’
* Changing behaviour
Former models of health behaviour don’t properly explain the data seen in practice
New models of health behaviour are needed to facilitate better links between models and interventions
What concepts will these need to include?
- Identity – Who I see myself as influences what I do
- Impulses/inhibitory forces – thought suppression
- Momentary priorities – changing priorities
- Spontaneous/chaotic change – accidents
- Triggers – environmental stimuli
- Motives/desires – changing desires
- Memory – state dependent memory
- Conditioning – past experience – learned helplessness
- Positive illusions – people underestimate risks and overestimate ability
What do you use to assess motivation to change?
- Common sense: How much do you want to stop smoking?
- Transtheoretical model / theory of planned behaviour: Are you planning to stop within the next…?
- Identity theories: Is smoking central to yourself identity?
What are the 3 factors considered when assessing whether change can be made?
Capability: having psychological & physical capacity and necessary skills
Motivation – brain processes associated with behaviour (e.g. intention, analytical decision-making, habits, emotion) Opportunity – no environmental barriers
NOTE: Under US criminal law, in order to prove that someone is guilty of a crime one has to show three things: means or capability, opportunity, and motive
How does the COM-B model help design interventions aimed at behaviour changes?
The task considers what the behavioural target would be, and what components of the behaviour system need to be changed to achieve that
