Healthy Living - Health Belief Studies and Theories Flashcards
(41 cards)
Which theory was behind Becker’s study and what does it mean?
The Health Belief Model. It is used to predict whether an individual will engage in a healthy behaviour. This is according to 6 factors: perceived threat, perceived susceptibility, perceived seriousness, whether the benefits outweigh the costs, internal and external cues and demographic variables such as age, gender and marital status.
What was the background to the health belief model?
In 1954, many people decided not to go to free Tuberculosis screenings. The health belief model was therefore introduced by Rosenstock and Becker in 1966, to try and find out or explain why people didn’t use the free tuberculosis screenings.
What was the aim of Becker et al’s study on compliance of medical regimes with asthma?
To use the health belief model to explain mother’s adherence to a drug regime for their asthmatic children.
Describe the participants used in Becker et al’s study.
Becker interviewed 111 mothers aged between 17 and 54 years about their asthmatic children, who were aged 9 months to 17 years.
What was the procedure for Becker’s study?
Each mother was interviewed and asked questions about their perceptions of:
- Their child’s susceptibility to illness and asthma
- Their beliefs about how serious asthma is
- How much their child’s asthma interfered with their child’s education, caused embarrassment and interfered with the mother’s activities.
- Their doctor’s effectiveness
- The effectiveness of the medication used.
What method was used in Becker’s study?
Self report/correlation/clinical tests. 70% of participants used a covert blood test to measure the actual level of medication in their system.
Describe the results for Becker’s study
Positive correlation between:
- mother’s belief about her child’s susceptibility to asthma and compliance to the medical regime.
- severity of child’s asthma and compliance.
- compliance and married mothers.
- education of mothers and compliance.
Negative correlation between:
- disruption of daily routines and compliance
- inaccessibility of chemists and compliance
- child complaints about the medication and compliance.
What was concluded from Becker’s study?
The HBM is a useful model to predict and explain different levels of compliance with medical regimes.
What are 3 strengths of Becker’s study on compliance to a medical regime?
+ Good sample size - ok external reliability.
+ Concurrent validity - correlation, self report and blood tests all used.
+ Correlation - good basis for further experimental research.
What are 3 limitations of Becker’s study on compliance to medical regimes?
- Self report (interviews) used, which decrease validity and PPS may be subject to social desirability bias.
- Gynocentric sample - only the mothers of the asthmatic children were asked questions, not the fathers. This decreases the generalisability of the findings.
- Correlation used - so difficult to establish cause and effect relationships between variables.
What are 3 strengths of the health belief model?
+ Holistic, as 6 different variables are considered to predict compliance.
+ Can be applied and used to predict the behaviour of most people - not limited to certain types of people.
+ Useful, as interventions can take place once it’s known which patients are less likely to engage in healthy behaviour than others.
What are 3 limitations of the health belief model?
- Not a very scientific method - interviews etc may be affected by interviewer bias/subconscious cues, etc.
- Only predicts the likelihood of a healthy behaviour - so is it really useful?
- Not all health behaviour arise as a result of a conscious thought process (e.g brushing teeth is habit) so the HBM cannot be applied to all health behaviours - limited usefulness and validity.
Which theory was behind Rotter’s study?
The Locus of Control theory.
What was the aim of Rotter’s study?
To investigate the Locus of Control theory.
What is the Locus of Control theory?
The theory, applied to health behaviours, measures the extent to which an individual believes they can influence their health.
Name and describe the 3 dimensions of the health locus of control.
- Internality - the extent to which an individual perceives internal control over their health.
- Chance - The belief that chance or fate can influence health or ill health. (external factors)
- Powerful Others - The belief in the control of health professionals in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Which method was used in Rotter’s study on Locus of Control?
Review Article
What was the sample in Rotter’s study on the Locus of Control theory?
6 pieces of research into individual perceptions of ability to control outcomes based on reinforcement.
What were the results of Rotter’s study on the Locus of Control theory?
Results from the studies consistently showed that participants who felt they had control over the situation were more likely to behave in a way that would let them cope with potential threats, than those who thought that chance or other external, uncontrollable forces, determined the effects of their behaviours.
What were the conclusions made from Rotter’s study on the Locus of Control theory?
- The locus of control would affect many of our behaviours, not just health behaviours.
- From a study by James et al (1965), male smokers who gave up smoking and did not relapse were found to have more of an internal locus of control than those who did not quit.
- There was no significant difference in the loci of control for women who gave up smoking compared to those who didn’t, indicating that factors such as weight gain were influential in giving up smoking.
What are 3 strengths of the Locus of control theory?
+ High face validity - actually measures an individual’s locus of control.
+ Reductionist, which is good as it can isolate the locus of control.
+ Effective (3-point) scale, which means the theory has good validity.
What are 3 weaknesses of the locus of control theory?
- Unreliable, as a person’s locus of control changes at different times in their life and for different health problems/parts of the mind or body.
- Low ecological validity, as the LoC can ony be measured through self reports/answering questions.
- Low validity in general, as the answers participants give can be affected by social desirability bias.
What are 3 strengths of Rotter’s study?
+ High concurrent validity, as 6 studies’ results were all in agreement/came to the same conclusions.
+ Holistic, as 6 different studies were read and considered before making conclusions.
+ Useful - we can improve people’s locus of control to increase their likelihood of engaging in healthy behaviours
What are 3 weaknesses of Rotter’s study?
- Low validity, as information about the samples from the studies that were reviewed is not included in this study.
- Low reliability, as this study is second hand research and therefore misinterpretation of the first hand research may have occurred.
- The participants in the studies may not necessarily have been in health “situations” or had to take part in health related tasks. This means the study lacks mundane realism, ecological validity and face validity.
