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Questions and Answers
Which psychological construct is specifically linked to health-protective behaviors as per the Five Factor Model?
Which of the following best describes a common factor among many health behavior theories?
In terms of demographic influences, which statement regarding gender and health behavior is accurate?
What factor is most crucial in the internalization of behaviors according to Self-Determination Theory?
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Which of the following dimensions of Health Locus of Control is associated with believing that one’s health is primarily determined by chance?
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Which of the following concepts describes the reasons behind an individual's decision to engage in health-related behaviors?
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What is a primary focus when considering interventions for health behavior change?
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Why is understanding the mechanisms that underpin health behavior important?
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What critical question should be addressed when aiming to change health behaviors?
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Which of the following is NOT a potential outcome when effective behavior change strategies are applied?
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What is considered a limitation when applying rewards to health behavior motivation?
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Which layer of influence directly addresses individual psychosocial determinants regarding health behavior?
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What is a key characteristic of individuals with an internal locus of control regarding their health?
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Which personality trait is linked with increased risk-taking behaviors according to health psychology research?
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According to self-determination theory, which psychological need must be fulfilled to promote internalization of behavior?
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What mediates the effect of demographic factors on health behavior according to the content?
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Which of the following best describes 'powerful others' locus of control?
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Which factor is NOT explicitly mentioned as influencing health behaviors?
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What tends to happen to autonomous motivation when substantial monetary rewards are introduced to encourage behavior?
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Which factor is NOT noted as influencing triggers and barriers to health behavior?
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Which statement best describes the role of theory in health behavior change?
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What is a key implication of using theory-based campaigns compared to atheoretical campaigns?
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In the Fundamental Process Model of Health Behavior Change, which aspect does the 'what' refer to?
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What is the primary purpose of posing questions and hypotheses within the context of health behavior theory?
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Which theory is associated with self-efficacy and its influence on health behavior?
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What are the three components that make up attitudes towards health behavior?
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Which factor can enhance self-efficacy beliefs according to Bandura's model?
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What is a common misconception regarding risk perceptions related to health behavior?
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How do social influences impact an individual's health behavior?
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Why is simply providing information about health behaviors often insufficient for inducing behavior change?
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Which statement best describes the relationship between self-efficacy and health behavior?
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What concept explains why individuals underestimate their own risk of developing health issues?
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How do social norms particularly influence certain demographics when it comes to health behaviors?
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Which of the following models focuses on individual expectancies and their influence on behavior?
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Which of the following factors is NOT associated with having unrealistic optimistic beliefs regarding health risks?
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Which source of self-efficacy refers to the influence of one’s own experiences and personal achievements?
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In Bandura's social cognitive theory, what is the primary role of modeling in the learning process?
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Which component of the Health Belief Model assesses an individual's personal belief about their likelihood of experiencing a health issue?
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What aspect of self-efficacy does physiological arousal influence according to Bandura’s theory?
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Which element addresses understanding the obstacles one faces in making a health behavior change in the Health Belief Model?
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Study Notes
Explaining Health Behaviour
- Health behaviours can be influenced by various factors, including social and personal influences.
- Understanding the mechanisms behind health behaviours allows for better intervention strategies to promote positive changes.
- Research has shown the effectiveness of theory-based campaigns compared to atheoretical ones.
Theoretical Models of Health Behaviour
- Social Cognitive Theory: emphasises the role of self-efficacy, observational learning, and reinforcement in shaping behavior.
- Health Belief Model: predicts health behaviour based on perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, and barriers.
- Theory of Planned Behaviour: suggests that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control influence intentions and subsequent behaviour.
- Transtheoretical Model (Stages of Change Model): describes the stages people go through when changing a behaviour, including precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination.
Demographic Influences
- Social class can influence health behaviours: lower socioeconomic status is associated with higher rates of smoking, drinking, and poorer diets.
- Age plays a role in health behaviour initiation: many health-related behaviours start in childhood or adolescence.
- Gender can influence behaviour: males often engage in activities associated with masculinity, such as drinking and physical activity.
- Ethnicity and religion can also impact health behaviour: religious beliefs can be a strong influence, as seen in Muslim males.
- Models of health behaviour primarily focus on modifiable proximal factors, like attitudes and beliefs, rather than fixed demographic factors.
Personality and Health Behaviour
- The Five Factor Model of Personality: identifies five key personality traits - neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness; these traits can be associated with certain health behaviours.
- Locus of Control: describes individuals' perceived control over their health outcomes; internal locus of control is linked to greater self-efficacy and health-protective behaviour.
Self-Determination Theory
- Focuses on intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation: internal motivation stems from personal satisfaction, while external motivation comes from external rewards or pressures.
- Emphasises three psychological needs that support internalisation of behaviour:
- Belongingness and relatedness: feeling connected to others while engaging in the behaviour.
- Competence: feeling capable and skilled in performing the behaviour.
- Autonomy: feeling in control of one's choices and actions.
Applications of Self-Determination Theory
- This theory has been applied to understand and change health behaviours, such as smoking, exercise, weight loss, medication use, and healthy eating.
Limitations of Self-Determination Theory
- Large or monetary rewards can undermine autonomous motivation.
- The theory primarily predicts deliberative behaviours, and further research is needed to understand its application to automatic behaviours.
Self-Determination Theory
- This theory suggests that people are motivated by both intrinsic (personal satisfaction) and extrinsic (external approval) factors.
- Behavior is on a continuum, ranging from not motivated to externally regulated (rewards, social pressure) to intrinsically regulated (personal value, identity).
- Internalization of behavior occurs when it fulfills three psychological needs:
- Relatedness: Feeling connected to others.
- Competence: Feeling capable of successfully engaging in the behavior.
- Autonomy: Feeling in control and having choices.
- Meeting these needs increases self-determination, leading to internalization and better performance.
Social Cognition & Health Behavior
- This model explains how people make decisions regarding health behavior by considering factors like:
- Attitudes: Cognitive (thoughts), emotional (feelings), behavioral (intended actions).
- Risk perceptions: Optimistic bias (belief that one is less likely than others to experience negative health outcomes).
- Self-efficacy: Confidence in one's ability to perform a behavior.
- Social Influences: Social norms, media portrayals, and interpersonal interactions all impact behavior choices.
Social Cognitive Theories
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Social Cognitive Theory (SCT): Emphasizes the role of individual expectancies in shaping behavior:
- Situation-outcome expectancies (linking situations to outcomes).
- Outcome expectancies (believing in the effects of a behavior).
- Self-efficacy beliefs (belief in one's ability to perform the behavior).
- Health Belief Model (HBM): Focuses on individual perceptions of health threats, benefits of behavior change, and perceived barriers to overcome.
- Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB): Considers attitudes, subjective norms (social pressure), and perceived behavioral control (belief in one's ability to act).
Key Factors Influencing Health Behavior
- Inconsistent Behavior: People can exhibit inconsistent behaviors across different health domains (e.g., smoking is discouraged yet easily accessible).
- Varying Attitudes: Individuals have unique perspectives on the value of different health behaviors.
- Motivational Changes: Motivations for specific behaviors change throughout the lifespan (e.g., dieting for appearance versus health).
- Social Context: Social norms, policies, and access to resources influence behavior choices.
Limitations of Social Cognition Models
- Environmental Changes: Models do not adequately explain how environmental changes alone directly lead to behavioral change.
- Influence Ranking: It's unclear which factors are most influential on behavior.
- Biological Factors: Social cognitive models focus on learning and disregard biological predispositions.
- Emotion & Motivation: Limited focus on emotion and motivation beyond past experiences.
- Broad Scope: The wide scope of social cognitive theories can make them difficult to apply in specific settings.
Social Cognition Theories
- Assumption: behavior is motivated by outcomes and goals.
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Goals:
- Focus attention
- Guide effort
- Encourage persistence
Self-Efficacy
- Definition: Belief in one's ability to perform a task.
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Four Sources:
- Mastery experiences: Direct achievement from effort and persistence.
- Physiological arousal: Anxiety lowers self-efficacy, excitement enhances it.
- Vicarious experiences: Observing others succeed.
- Social persuasion: Encouragement from others.
Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory
- Focus: Modeling, self-efficacy, and personal agency in learning and behavior.
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Applications:
- Health-promoting behaviors (e.g., physical activity, nutrition)
- Health-risky behaviors (e.g., sexual risk behaviors, addiction)
Health Belief Model
- Focus: Understanding why people don't adopt health prevention strategies.
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Key Components:
- Perceived susceptibility: Belief in the likelihood of experiencing a health problem.
- Perceived severity: Belief in the seriousness of a health problem.
- Perceived benefits: Belief in the effectiveness of actions to prevent or cure a health problem.
- Perceived barriers: Belief in the obstacles to performing actions.
- Cues to action: Stimuli that trigger decision-making regarding health action.
- Health motivation: Importance of maintaining health.
Theory of Planned Behavior
- Focus: Predicting intention and behavior in specific situations.
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Key Components:
- Attitude towards the behavior: Positive or negative evaluation of the behavior.
- Subjective norms: Social approval or pressure to engage in the behavior.
- Perceived behavioral control: Belief in having control over the behavior.
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Assumptions:
- Individuals behave in a goal-directed manner.
- Actions and outcomes are rationally weighed.
Limitations of Social Cognition Theories
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Social Cognitive Theory:
- Limited focus on biological factors.
- Difficulties in operationalization and measurement.
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Health Belief Model:
- Older models lack cues to action and health motivation.
- Overestimates the role of threat and risk perceptions.
- No standard method of measurement.
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Theory of Planned Behavior:
- Doesn't account for automatic and habitual actions.
- Intentions don't always translate to behavior.
- Focus on initiation, not maintenance, of behavior.
Potential Additions to the Theory of Planned Behavior
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Moral norms: Motivation based on moral obligations.
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Anticipatory regret: Anticipating regret from a decision influencing future behavior.
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Self-identity: Self-perception affecting intentions.
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Planning and implementation intentions: Turning intentions into action.
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Past behavior: Best predictor of behavior, but difficult to modify.### Self-Regulation Skills
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Self-regulation skills are not innate, they can be taught, and are foundational for social-emotional skills.
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The three key cognitive skills that form the basis of self-regulation are: flexible attention, working memory, and inhibitory control.
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These skills help us focus our attention, make plans, set goals, and follow through, especially in complex situations.
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Flexible Attention helps us shift our focus to the most important tasks and sustain it until they are complete.
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Working Memory is the ability to retain and use essential information such as directions or instructions.
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Inhibitory Control helps us pause and think before acting, allowing us to resist impulsive actions.
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Strong self-regulation skills allow individuals to consciously direct, sustain, and shift their attention as needed.
Intention-Behaviour Gap
- Motivation is necessary but insufficient for behavior change.
- People often intend to engage in a health behavior but fail to do so, known as the intention-behaviour gap.
- This gap highlights the limitations of social cognition theories and models, which focus on motivation but do not adequately explain this disconnect.
Implementation Intentions
- Implementation Intentions are specific plans that address how, when, and where a person will implement their intention.
- They emphasize the “If Then” plan strategy, creating concrete actions for specific situations.
- Research shows that implementation intentions can significantly increase the likelihood of people honoring their commitments.
Stage Models of Behaviour Change
- Stage models of behavior change are based on the idea of stages individuals pass through in the process of making and maintaining changes.
- They have four properties: a classification system, ordering of stages, common barriers in each stage, and different barriers based on the stage.
The Transtheoretical Model
- The Transtheoretical Model (TTM) identifies five stages of change: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance.
- The TTM highlights changes in self-efficacy, barriers, and benefits throughout the stages.
- Relapse is a common occurrence and can happen at any stage.
Limitations of the Transtheoretical Model
- It ignores the social context in which change occurs.
- The lines between the stages can be arbitrary and lack clear standardized criteria.
- Questionnaires used to assign individuals to stages may not be standardized or validated.
- There is no clear timeline for each stage or how long a person can remain in a stage.
- The model assumes individuals make coherent and logical plans in their decision-making process.
Precaution Adoption Process Model
- The Precaution Adoption Process Model (PAPM) focuses on the process of adopting precautionary behaviors to reduce risks.
- It identifies seven stages: unaware, unengaged, consideration, decide not to act, decide to act, action, maintenance.
Health Action Process Approach
- The Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) aims to fill the intention-behavior gap by prioritizing self-efficacy and action plans.
- It acknowledges that behavior change is a process with a pre-intentional motivation phase and a post-intentional volition phase.
- HAPA highlights the importance of task self-efficacy, coping self-efficacy, and planning for barriers.
Limitations of The Health Action Process Approach
- Similar limitations to previous models, such as limited consideration of automatic processes.
- More research is needed to better understand volition-action processes.
Stage Based Models
- The Transtheoretical Model is a well-known stage-based model that outlines five stages of change - precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance
- The Transtheoretical Model is a self-regulatory theory focused on the readiness to change across stages of intentional behavior
- There are two additional stages outside of the five: termination and relapse
- The termination stage is when the person has maintained behavior change for a considerable time, feels no temptation to lapse, and has total self-efficacy to maintain the behavior change
- Relapse is when a person lapses into their former behavior pattern, returning to a previous stage, and is common
- The Precaution Adoption Process Model is a framework for understanding deliberative actions taken to reduce health risks
- The Precaution Adoption Process Model has seven stages: Unaware of Issue, Aware of Issue, Engaged, Considering Action, Deciding Not to Act, Deciding to Act, and Acting
- The Health Action Process Approach bridges the intention-behavior gap and applies to health-compromising and health-enhancing behaviors
- The Health Action Process Approach proposes a motivational stage of behavior change and a volitional stage of behavior change
- In the motivational phase, the Health Action Process Approach suggests that self-efficacy, outcome expectancies (risk perceptions), and threat severity play a role in intention formation
- In the volitional phase, the Health Action Process Approach suggests that planning, action control, and situation-specific self-efficacy are needed to translate intention into behavior
- The Health Action Process Approach emphasizes the role of stage-specific self-efficacy beliefs, which are task self-efficacy, coping and maintenance self-efficacy, and recovery self-efficacy
- The Health Action Process Approach also highlights the role of planning, with action planning (task-facilitating) and coping planning (barrier-focused)
- Action control, which is a concurrent self-regulatory skill, focuses on monitoring progress and comparing performance with goals
- The Health Action Process Approach considers both motivational and volitional stages and emphasizes self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, risk perceptions, planning, and action control as key constructs
Health Behaviours and Habits
- Health behaviors are intentional and conscious actions that impact health, like exercising, eating a balanced diet, or smoking
- Health habits are automatic routines regularly performed without much thought, developed through repetition, and harder to change, like brushing teeth or snacking
- Habits are formed when a behavior is consistently practiced in the same context, in response to a cue, and is repeated over a long period of time while being reinforced
Temporal Self-Regulation Theory
- The Temporal Self-Regulation Theory (Hall & Fong, 2007) states that traditional social cognition models don’t account for temporal weighting for anticipated outcomes
- This theory attempts to explain inconsistencies between intentions and behaviour
Reflective-Impulsive Model
- The Reflective-Impulsive Model (Strack and Deutsch, 2004) is a dual-systems theory that suggests behavior is a product of reflective (explicit, deliberative) and impulsive (implicit, automatic) systems
- The two systems operate in parallel, competing for control of overt responses
- The reflective system executes behavior through an explicit, deliberative decision-making process and is influenced by intentions
- The impulsive system operates without conscious awareness and has a direct influence on behavior
Implicit Measurement
- Implicit Association Tests (IAT) are used to assess the strength of implicit associations in memory by measuring differences in reaction time
Theoretical Integration
- There are many theoretical approaches in health psychology, with varying degrees of predictive validity
- Considerable overlap exists between constructs and operationalizations of competing theories
- Integrating theoretical frameworks may improve understanding and prediction of health behavior
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Description
Test your knowledge on key concepts in health psychology, including aspects of the Five Factor Model and various health behavior theories. The quiz covers important factors such as gender influences, Self-Determination Theory, and Health Locus of Control. See how well you understand the psychological factors impacting health-protective behaviors.
