Week 8

Question 1

What is a belief?

Answer 1

Acceptance, trust, faith, confidence (in something/someone)
Pinot necessarily the same as fact/knowledge

Can be false, changeable and variable in strength

Question 2

What are the types of belief?

Answer 2

Attitude - evaluation, how positive or negative we feel

Value - worth, how much we care

Expectation - likelihood, do we expect something to happen

Subjective norm - social pressure, how we perceive others to influence us

Self efficacy - confidence, thoughts of our own ability

Perceived control - barriers, whether we think something is under our control or not

Question 3

What is expectancy-value principle?

Answer 3

Behaviour influenced by perceived value of outcome (e.g. health) and expectation that outcome is achievable through behaviour (e.g. exercise).

Assumes rational decision making (beliefs lead direct to behaviour)

Question 4

What is behavioural intention?

Answer 4

Cognitive representation of readiness to perform behaviour

Question 5

What is the theory of planned behaviour?

Answer 5

Attitude, subjective norm and perceived control all contribute to behavioural intention which leads to behaviour.

Question 6

What is the multi component theory of planned behaviour?

Answer 6

Behavioural beliefs lead to attitude, affective, instrumental

Normative beliefs lead to s.norm, injunctive, descriptive

Control beliefs lead to perceived control, controllability, self efficacy

These factors then all lead to behavioural intention which leads to behaviour

Question 7

What is attitude?

Answer 7

Overall positive/negative evaluation

Underpinned by behavioural beliefs (advantages/disadvantages)

Additional determinant: outcome value (value attached to the outcome)

Question 8

What two components determine overall attitude?

Answer 8

Instrumental - effectiveness/usefulness

Affective - enjoyment/pleasantness

Question 9

What is meant by subjective norm?

Answer 9

Received social pressure from significant others
Injunctive - verbal encouragement of others
Descriptive - behaviour of others
Underpinned by normative beliefs (who are the significant others)
Additional determinant: motivation to comply (desire to do what others say/do)

Question 10

What is meant by perceived control?

Answer 10

Perceived ease/difficulty of behaviour 
Controllability - volitional control 
Self efficacy - perceived capability 
Underpinned by control beliefs (barriers/facilitators) 
Additional determinant: perceived power

Question 11

What is belief-behaviour discrepancy?

Answer 11

Intention-behaviour gap - people intend to behave in a certain way but don’t

Question 12

Give an example of a study that illustrates belief-behaviour discrepancy

Answer 12

94 adults enrolled at gym
Reported strong intentions to attend regularly
Intention not a predictor of behaviour
29% attended 1 or more times / wk over 12 weeks

Question 13

What are implementation intentions?

Answer 13

Action plans - specifying what when where

Coping plans - anticipating and preparing for difficulties

Question 14

Give an example of a study on implementation intentions

Answer 14

246 patients after heart attack undergoing 3 week residential cardiac rehabilitation (exercise and education)
Randomised to 3 groups - control, action planning, action and coping planning

Achieved 3x30 min/wk exercise 2m later

• control 42%
• action 44%
• combined 71%

Question 15

What are the intervention principles for minimising belief-behaviour discrepancy?

Answer 15

Encourage positive attitudes - promote awareness of benefits, portray behaviour as enjoyable

Develop strong subjective norms - engage support of family/friends etc, identify appropriate role models

Perceptions of behavioural control - minimise practical barriers, provide info/training to ensure confidence

Make concrete plans - indenting what when where, anticipate difficulties with coping solutions