PU505: Health Behavior Unit 5 Protection Motivation Theory Flashcards
What is the essence sentence?
Fear motivates people to change attitudes and behaviors
What are the constructs of Protection Motivation Theory?
Threat appraisal - assessing personal vulnerability to and seriousness of a threat
Coping appraisal - assessing the effectiveness of the recommended action, personal ability to carry it out, and its related costs
What does PMT have its roots in?
Health communication and the fear appeal.
Fear, remember, is an emotional state that protects us from danger. This fear changes attitudes, intentions, or behaviors through the threat of impending harm, and this is how they motivate people to take protective action against the threat (Rogers & Deckner, 1975). With few exceptions, they are generally effective (Roger, 1983).
What two types of information does fear appeal expose people to?
- Presents some threat as a way to raise fear about something the person may find serious and be vulnerable or susceptible to
- The other information has to do with health-protective actions or recommendations the person can adopt to avert the threat
What are the three stimulus variables or limited set of factors that were proposed by Rogers in PMT?
Two appraisals of threat
- Severity - how awful or terrible the person believed the threat was
- Vulnerability - how likely the person believed the threatened outcome would happen
The outcome of these appraisals is influenced by the rewards (positive reinforcers) associated with the maladaptive (unhealthy) response.
Third variable
Response efficacy - is an appraisal of the adaptive or recommended response. It is how effective the person believes the recommended response is in eliminating or minimizing the feared outcome (Rogers, 1975)
Example (see attached photo)
In 1983, during a revision of PMT, a fourth process or factor was added - What was it?
Self-efficacy expectancy - is a person’s belief in his or her own ability to perform a given behavior.
This behavior is the one recommended to thwart the feared outcome.
Review - What are the four thought processes of PMT?
Severity appraisal
Vulnerability appraisal
Response efficacy
Self-efficacy expectancy
These are responsible for triggering the motivation to protect oneself from a threat (i.e., protection motivation)
Protection motivation has the typical characteristics of any behavioral motivation; it arouses, sustains, and directs some activity. Based on this, Rogers proposed that the motivation to protect oneself–to adopt the recommendations in the appeal–does not come from fear itself, but rather the cognitive processes used to appraise the feared outcome (Rogers, 1975).
So what is the underlying concept or basis of PMT?
Fear triggers a set of thought processes that motivate us to protect ourselves from the threat and feared outcome by adopting recommended health-protective actions.
The thought processes are not the constructs of PMT, but they do make up the constructs. What are the two constructs of PMT and what falls within them?
Threat appraisal
- Perceived severity and vulnerability
- Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards
Coping appraisal
- Response efficacy
- Response self-efficacy
- Response cost
What is the sum of our perception of the severity of the threat, the risk of it happening to us, and the rewards we get from the behavior that is putting us at risk of the threat?
Threat appraisal consisting of perceived severity and vulnerability and Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.
More information on threat appraisal (see attached photos)
For the appraising in PMT, what information is used for them?
Sources of information can be environmental or intrapersonal.
Environmental sources of information include verbal persuasion and observational learning.
Intrapersonal sources include personality factors (knowledge, personality variables) and prior experience (Rogers, 1983).
What is the outcome we get from engaging in a maladaptive response, that is risky, dangerous, or harmful behavior and is part of threat appraisal?
Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.
These rewards decrease the likelihood of adopting the adaptive response or the health-protective recommendation and instead increase the likelihood of continuing the unhealthy behavior (Floyd et al., 2000; Maddux & Rogers, 1983).
What entails how the recommended action or adaptive response is assessed in terms of effectiveness (response efficacy), personal ability to carry out the action (self-efficacy), and cost (response cost)?
Coping appraisal
Information on response efficacy
What is an individual’s belief in his or her own ability to perform the recommended (adaptive) action (Maddux & Rogers, 1983)?
Response self-efficacy
What includes any cost of expenditure associated with adopting the adaptive response?
In addition, response costs of cervical screening (embarrassment and anxiety) can be reduced by providing clear explanations and having female healthcare providers conduct the test are measures to reduce response costs for these women and increase screening intention (Bai et al, 2018).
Response cost (& Overview photo)
