W5 Health behaviours

Question 1

Health behaviour

Answer 1

= any activity undertaken for the purpose of preventing or detecting disease or for improving health/wellbeing (Conner & Norman, 1996)

Question 2

Changing health behavior

Answer 2

= link between health behavior and mortality. Health behaviors are hard to change, they can become habits. Often comes with immediate costs and long-term benefits. Tendency to maximize immediate rewards and ignore long-term benefits. These behaviors can also be reinforced by social environment + peers.

Question 3

Non-communicable disease (NCD)

Answer 3

(kills over 41 million) Health behaviors are modifiable risk factors for NCDs, important to reduce the risk of NCDs. (cancer, cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes)

Question 4

Types of Health behaviors

Answer 4

Protective (positive) (exercise, personal hygiene, eating well) and Risky (negative) (binge eating/drinking, smoking, vaping, unsafe sex) health behavior.

Question 5

Predicting and Explaining health behavior

Answer 5

Individual differences = demographics, emotional, social, genetic factors, perceived symptoms, cognition (peoples talks, beliefs and attitudes towards their health), personality, access to health care.

Question 6

Social cognitive models of health behavior change

Answer 6

Individual differences (i.e., social cognitions) = social cognition about health includes = beliefs attitudes, knowledge etc. Targets of interventions to change behavior.

Question 7

Binge drinking

Answer 7

Binge drinking is more common in Scotland (37.3%) followed by Wales (30.4%) and England (26.2%)
In England, highest proportion of binge drinking on heaviest drinking days was in the Northwest = 33% of drinkers in the Northwest of England “binged” alcohol on their heaviest drinking day

Question 8

Theory of planned behavior

Answer 8

= Subjective norms + attitude + perceived behaviour control impact intention which therefore impacts behaviour

Question 9

Theory of Planned behavior predict binge drinking (Norman & Conner, 2006)

Answer 9

Predicting intentions = Attitudes (+), self-efficacy (+) and perceived control (-) as significant predictors. No significant effect of subjective norms.
Predicting behaviour = Intentions (+), self-efficacy (+) and past binge drinking (+) as significant predictors.

Question 10

Planned Behavior, binge drinking (Norman, 2019)

Message (interventions)

Answer 10

= Exposure to ToPB messages resulted in more negative cognitions about binge drinking:
- Weaker intentions to engage in binge drinking.
- More negative attitudes towards binge drinking.
= However, no effect on the frequency of binge drinking at follow-up, in line with the intention behavior gap.
Interventions targeting ToPB constructs can successfully change attitudes, norms self-efficacy and intentions but additional work needed to bridge the intention-behaviour gap

Question 11

Key findings on Planned behavior and binge drinking

Answer 11

Attitude was the most important predictor of binge drinking. Attitude and intention could be change but it didn’t translate into behavioral change.

Question 12

Social Norm Theory (SNT)

Answer 12

An individual’s behavior is influenced by the perception of how their peers think and act. Social comparisons are linked to the potential influence of social norms for changing health behavior. If a peer group engages in healthy behaviors, then this becomes a source of normative influence.

Question 13

Social norms theory to predict binge drinking

Answer 13

Overestimation of drinking norms = Nearly half of students (42%) incorrectly believe that their peers regularly drink 6 or more drinks in one session (Robinson et al., 2014). 
Students who correctly identify that most students drink less than 6 drinks in a session are more likely to drink responsibly (Robinson et al., 2014)

Question 14

Social Norms theory binge drinking

Answer 14

(Robinson et al, 2014) = Norm messages to correct misperceptions of social norms-related behaviors (i.e., drinking norms).
= influenced normative drinking perceptions but only among norms believers.
= ineffective for participants who overestimated peers’ drinking at baseline.
= not successful in increasing intentions to drink responsibly. (viewed as not credible)
Impersonal nature of social norms messages -> unsuccessful at changing drinking behavior.

Question 15

Personalised normative feedback ( Neighbors, et al 2004)

Answer 15

Personalised feedback about own drinking, perceived drinking norm, actual drinking norm.
= led to change in perceived drinking norms, reduced drinking.

Question 16

Smoking in the Uk

Answer 16

Being early (adolescence), initial experience, peer pressure, develop attitudes about what a smoker is like.
3.8% of people aged 18 years and above smoked cigarettes = around 8 million people in the UK. Smoking is highest among those aged 25-34 years.

Question 17

Protection Motivation Theory, Rogers 1975

Answer 17

Threat Appraisal
- Intrinsic and extrinsic rewards “smoking makes me feel calmer”,
- Perceived severity of the threat “smoking means I could get cancer”.
- Vulnerability = Probability of being vulnerable to the threat
Coping Appraisal
- Response efficacy: The efficacy of the health behavior for dealing with the threat. = “I smoked for 20 years; it won’t make a difference to my risk of cancer if I quit now”
- Self-efficacy or confidence for being able to engage in the behavior = “I tried to quit five times before and it never works”
- Response costs = “If I quit smoking, I will be more anxious/ less sociable”

Question 18

Messages targeting the Threat Appraisal

Answer 18

Heighten threat by targeting the perceived severity of the problem or the probability of vulnerability (E.g., “Smoking significantly increases your risk of developing life-threatening conditions such as lung cancer”)
= Threat alone can backfire.

Question 19

Messages target the Coping Appraisal

Answer 19

Assuring individuals of response efficacy (e.g., quitting smoking will reduce risk of cancer).
Increasing individuals’ self-efficacy (e.g., that they are capable of quitting smoking)

Question 20

Fear appeals + low disengagement beliefs

Answer 20

Stronger intention to quit.
Higher percentage of smokers cutting down.
No significant effect on quitting
Only when disengagement beliefs did not interfere with fear appeals, smokers’ perceived level of threat was increased – led to some effects on behaviour.

Question 21

Fear appeals have more effects

Answer 21

When sued for one time behavior, women (tend to be more “prevention focused”. Work sbest if accompanied by a message ecoking efficacy message.

Question 22

Risk denial + Fear appeals

Answer 22

defensive response, susceptible to the threat will react with denial.