Health promotion Flashcards
(16 cards)
What are the two strategies for promoting health?
-fear arousal
2)Providing information
Describe fear arousal as a strategy for promoting health
-Fear should be moderate not too extreme if it is extreme people will start to focus on the fear itself at the expense of the health message
Example study Janis and Feshbach (1953)
Aim;
-To investigate the effectiveness of fear appeals in communicating a dental hygiene message in the target audience.
-To explore the possible adverse effects that might arise from defensive reactions
Sample;
-200 high school students
-There were 3 grps and a control group
-The four groups were approximately equal in age, gender, sex, education level
Procedure;
-The study used 3 different levels of fear appeal in communication to the students about dental hygiene.
-Questionnaires gathered students emotional responses and changes in dental hygiene beliefs, attitudes due to the communication.
-Each group was presented with a recorded lecture and accompanying slides all were the same in terms of ; length, same speaker, manner, information about causes of tooth decay and recommendations for hygiene.
-The only difference was the amount of fear arousing material.
Form 1;
-Contained strong fear arousal and focused on consequences of tooth decay,and other dangers due to bad dental hygiene.
-Personalised threat references were used.
-They included 11 graphic and realistic photos of tooth decay and mouth infections.
Form 2;
-Contained moderate fear appeal, dangers were described in a milder and more factual manner only using impersonal language.
-Had 9 photos of milder examples than in slide 1
Form 3;
-Minimal appeal and hardly any mention of the negative consequences of poor dental hygiene.
-No realistic photos only use of x-ray and diagrams.
Control grp;
-Given a similiar lecture on a completely different topic.
Results;
-Results showed that those in the strong fear grp were more concerned than the other 2 groups.Those in the moderate were more concerned than those in the minimal grp.
-Those in the minimal group showed significantly more improvement in teeth cleaning and that those in the strong group showed the least improvement.
conclusion;
-A strong fear arousal does not increase the likelihood of the audience taking the information and guidance on board, in fact it has the opposite effect.
Evaluate the study by Janis and Feschbach (tooth decay)
Describe providing information as a strategy for promoting health
In order for people to live healthy lives, it is important that they have the correct
information to understand what to do and how to do it. For example, to lower the risk of
getting cancer, people need to know to keep fit and exercise and to minimise how much
alcohol they drink and to not smoke.
Describe the study by Lewin et al
Aim;
-to investigate the effect of giving information to help people improve their own health.
Sample;
-190 ss who had been admitted to the hospital after experiencing a confirmed myocardial infarction.
Procedure;
-3 days after MI, patients were assigned to either the control or the experimental group. This was carried out in a stratified way to ensure each group had an equal proportion of age, social class and initial level of psychological distress.
The experimental group followed a self-help rehabilitation programme following discharge
including exercise, relaxation and stress management programmes and self-help
treatments for symptoms of anxiety and depression. Spouses were also given
information, invited to also take part and to encourage compliance from the patient.
The control group received standard care plus a placebo package of information leaflets
and informal counselling.
Follow up after discharge
Both groups were followed up at one, three and six weeks by telephone, clinic
appointment or home visit.
· Experimental group: Progress with the rehabilitation programme was checked and
patients were encouraged to comply with the exercises in the manual.
· Control group: Patients were asked about their recovery and given general advice.
Postal questionnaires were distributed at six weeks, six months and one year to measure
symptoms of anxiety and depression, general health and use of health services.
Results;
1) There was a significant improvement in anxiety and emotional disturbance in the
rehabilitation group at six weeks and at one year compared to the control group.
Specifically, 52 per cent of the heart attack patients had significant anxiety or depression
at discharge.
2) Those who were allocated to the rehabilitation group showed significantly
less depression and anxiety at six weeks, six months and twelve months compared with
the participants in the control grp.
Conclusion;
Providing patients with information and with self help programme can significantly improve
Health promotion in schools. Describe the study by Tapper
Aim ;
-to investigate the use of 3 main techniques to get children to eat healthy
Background ;
-Taste exposure ; the more you tastes a new food the more likely you are to like it.
-Modelling; A child is more likely to model someone they admire, someone slightly older than them or the same age, and if they observe more than one model.
-Rewards; Research by Cameron et al has shown that rewards can encourage certain behaviours.
Sample;
-It was carried out at home with five to six year old “fussy eaters” who rarely ate fruits and vegetables.
Procedure;
-Four different procedures were used; presentation only , rewarded taste exposure, peer modelling and rewarded taste exposure combined with peer modelling.
-Peer modelling involved a video of slightly older children “The food dudes” who gained superpowers from eating fruit and vegetables and battle against the junk punks who want to destroy all fruits and vegetables.
-The rewarded aspect involved food dude stickers and pens for eating target amounts of fruits and vegetables.
Results;
-The combination of peer modelling and rewards was very effective in increasing children’s consumption of fruits and vegetables.
-Initially children ate 4% of fruits and 1% of vegetables however this changed to 100% of fruits and 83% of vegetables after modelling and rewards
Nursery programme
Aim;
-To see if the program could have a significant impact on the consumption of large groups of children.
Sample;
-Children at a nursery aged two-four years.
Procedure;
-There were rewards and video modelling using two cartoon characters tailored to the age of the nursery children 2-4.
-The intervention was introduced at mid -morning snack time, first fruit and then vegetables. Levels of fruit and vegetables consumed during lunchtimes were also recorded to see if any effect of the intervention was seen at lunchtime as well.
RESULTS;
-After the intervention fruit consumption increased from 31% to 71%.
-At a 15 month follow up consumption levels were at 79% with lunchtime consumption also increasing from 17% baseline to 79%.
Evaluate the study by Tapper
1) Long term effectiveness
2)Ecological validity
3)Determinism vs free will
4)Individual vs situational
Health promotion in worksites. Describe the study by Fox et al
Aim;
-Investigate how a token economy could be used to encourage a focus on health and safety
of workers in open-pit mines.
Sample;
-Took place at two open pit mines, both of which used similar methods for mining.
-They both had higher than average injury rates in the five years before the study.
-SS were employees at all areas of the mines.
Procedure;
-Workers were split into four groups;
1)Group 1- workers in the least hazardous jobs.they spent at least 75% of their time in the office.
2)Group 2-foremen , supervisors, technicians etc
3)Group 3- mechanics , labourers , machinery operators
4)Group 4- Workers in the most hazardous jobs, electricians, scarper operators, fuel workers
-Token economy was introduced, miners were given a certain number of tokens each month along with their pay, only for every month they didn’t suffer a lost time injury or compensation injury.
-The tokens could be traded in for house items.
-The number of trading stamps was greatest for group 4 and lowest for group 1.
-Employees were given extra stamps if everyone under a supervisor was injury free during the month and if safety suggestions were adapted by the mine. or acts that prevented serious injury to others.
-Miners who were injured lost monthly stamps depending on the numbers of days work missed, 5 or 6 days resulted in 3 months of missed stamps.
Results;
-The number of days lost due to injury fell to 11% and 2% of the baseline for each of the mines.
-The number of lost time injuries fell to between 15% and 32% of the baseline rates.
-Cost of accidents and injuries at both mines decreased by approximately 90% during the token economy.
Conclusion;
-Token economies are a cost-effective way of reducing work related injuries in mining leading to long-lasting changes in working practices.
Evaluate the study by Fox
1)longitudinal research
2)Generalisability
3)Applications to everyday life
4) Determinism vs free will
explain unrealistic optimism
Unrealistic optimism refers to the cognitive belief that negative events are less likely
to happen to you than other people and positive events are more likely to happen to you.
People can feel invulnerable to disease and believe that it is ‘something that happens to
other people’ and this may lead them to disregard health advice. Unrealistic optimism
may lead to more risky behaviour. For example, people with a high clinical risk of getting
Covid-19 severely did not appear to be more cautious in their behaviour than those people
who were at lower risk, suggesting they may have been experiencing unrealistic optimism
describe the study by . Weinstein
Aim;
To investigate whether people believe that negative events are more or less likely to
happen to them than other people.
Study 1;
Sample
-a diverse group 259 American college students
Procedure:
- The students estimated how much their own
chances of experiencing particular life events were different to the chances of their
classmates. 42 life events were used, 18 positive, (for example, owning your own home)
and 24 negative (for example, being fired from a job].
The 42 life events were then randomly divided between two rating forms. The different
versions of the rating form (each listing 21 events) were handed to alternate students.
Instructions on the form said ‘Compared to other students … same sex as you …. what do
you think are the chances that the following events will happen to you?’ (Ratings ranged
from: much less than average to much more than average). Beneath the description of
each event were the following choices: 100% less (no chance), 80% less, 70% less and so
on - through to 90% more than 100% more.
Study 2;
Event characteristics group/experimental grp
The same life events were rated by 120 female students on an introductory psychology
course (event rating group); they were instructed to estimate ‘the percentage probability
of students at the university to whom each event would occur’.
Events were also rated for:
· controllability (1 = there is nothing one can do that will change the likelihood that the
event will take place, to 5 = completely controllable)
· desirability (1 = extremely undesirable, 5 = extremely desirable)
· personal experience (1 = has not happened to anyone I know, 2 = has happened to
acquaintances, 3 = has happened to friends or close acquaintances, 4 = has happened
to me once, 5 = has happened to me more than once).
-Some participants were then given copies of lists made by other students and asked to consider this when making their comparative judgements. It was predicted that this would decrease or eliminate unrealistic optimism.
Results ;
study 1- Results showed that the average comparative judgement for all positive events was 15.4% above zero (zero being the actual likelihood of the event occurring and for all negative events was 20.4% less than zero.
This shows that students do show unrealistic optimism.
study 2 - Participants in the experimental group (who saw other peoples lists) were significantly less optimistic with negative events compared to the control groups.
-The results from the negative events suggested that unrealistic optimism comes from an inaccurate view of other people.
Evaluation of Weinstein
1)Generalisability
- Weinstein only sampled students from one American university. This makes the results not generalisable to the wider public especially the older generation. As older individuals may have responded differently and had a more realistic outlook.
2) Self report
-The study by Weinstein used a self-report to measure unrelaistic optimism. This is a weakness as this is a weakness as the students may give inaccurate answers due to demand characteristics as they may relaise what the study is about and change their answers accordingly. The students may also not give accurate answers because of social desirability , they may not want to look silly.
3)Useful application to everyday life
explain positive psychology
One of the assumptions of the positive approach is that we can develop our strengths and virtues and use them to lead happy lives. Positive psychology is broken down into 3 parts;
1)The pleasant life , which focuses on emotions -We have positive emotions and take
satisfaction from daily things.
Pleasant life – Enjoying daily pleasures in life; doing things you enjoy. For
example, eating good food, doing activities you enjoy (reading, walks, sport,
watching films, games, etc.). Positive emotions.
2) The good life, which focuses on traits - We understand our signature strengths,
the positive personality traits that are
an essential part of who we are. Finding
out what these are (such as humour,
creativity and bravery) and using them
to enhance our lives can help us lead a
good life.
3) The meaningful life which focuses on institutions e.g family , religion -Having a purpose in your life that is greater than oneself.
. Positive psychology
suggests that we will be happiest if
we use our signature strengths for a
greater purpose, to help make other
people’s lives happier too. e.g Volunteering at a charity
describe the study by seligman
Aim ;
Seligman wished to find out whether a science of positive psychology can lead us to happiness.
Procedure;
-He did this by teaching an annual seminar to students at the university of Pennsylvania.
The students underwent a four-week course introduced students to positive psychology and included weekly ‘real-world’ homework assignments.
The students reviewed scientific literature
examining ‘the past’ where they focused on contentment and satisfaction, ‘the present’ , joy, comfort and pleasure and ‘the future’ on optimism, hope, trust .
They researched topics such as ;
-Depressive realism(happy people may be less accurate than miserable people)
-Wealth and life satisfaction (The richest people are no happier than the average people)
-Set ranges for positive emotion (lottery winners revert to their pre-existing level of happiness within a year because the capacity for pleasure is thought to be 50% inherited so its hard to change.
-The class also discussed techniques for increasing positive emotions e.g students learned how to dispute unrealistic catastrophic thoughts to increase optimism.
-The students did 3 homework tasks;
1) Gratitude night;
Research has shown that by focusing on what we are grateful for, we can increase our
happiness. Seligman organised a ‘Gratitude night’ for his students and their families and. The students then read testimonials to their guests, describing why and how they have been important in their lives and thanking them
2)Pleasurable day
The students learn the skills of ‘savouring’ which is sharing experiences with other
people, taking mental photographs of the experience and collecting physical mementos
like actual photos
3)Signature strengths ;
Seligman’s students first identify their signature strengths by taking the Values in Action
(VIA) questionnaire. It identified their top five strengths which included optimism, kindness, love of learning, fairness and spirituality.
THE MEANINGFUL LIFE
The final part of the course involved the meaningful life, where the
students participated in a number of tasks:
» Creating a family tree of strengths and virtues by having their family take the VIA test
and interviewing their parents about relatives who had died.
» Mentoring a younger student who was facing similar issues that they themselves had
overcome.
» Writing their positive vision for the future of humankind and what their role will be in it.
» Writing their own obituary from the viewpoint of their future grandchildren.
Evaluation of Seligman
1)Useful application;
The study be seligman can help Individuals live a better and meaningful life. Individuals could use his study to understand positive psychology and the science behind it e.g gratitude and gratification and live a more fulfilling and meaningful life.
2)Determinism vs Free will
The study by seligman supports the free will side of the debate. The free will side argues that individuals have the ability to
