Introducing Health Psychology Flashcards
(29 cards)
A researcher is talking about a behaviour outcome model of some sort and describing it as having a cost–benefit-type analysis and threat as a component. What model is this researcher most likely describing?
The health belief model
Low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with:
- dying before 65 years of age
- negative health habits, attitudes, and norms
- lower birth weight
Psychological models like the health belief model and the theory of planned behaviour are used within(4):
psychology, education, medicine and business
Your client has been told by her GP to cut fast food and sugar-sweetened beverages from her diet. She has come to see you to get help with implementing these changes. What are some of the factors needed for her to succeed?
Change in family norms away from fast food and sugar-sweetened beverages
Find alternatives to fast food and sugar-sweetened beverages
Discuss some of the factors that might be important in building a better model to explain health-related behaviour.
Norms - culture, SES, and social support networks
Control - assessments of self-efficacy and locus of control.
Societal - political, corporate, religious and healthcare services
Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the health belief model (HBM)
Strengths:
* Explains a large percentage of the variance in the behaviour.
* It is flexible, enabling examination of a variety of outcomes and contributing factors.
Weaknesses:
* There is still a lot of unexplained variance
* Habitual and irrational behaviour may not fit the HBM well.
Your client has been told to improve their diet and increase their activity levels. If you wanted a model to capture your client’s progress or relapse, which model might provide the best fit?
The transtheoretical model
Discuss the main predictors of behaviour as per the health belief model (HBM).
- Cost–benefit analysis
- Perceptions are central to outcome behaviour including perceived barriers, benefits, susceptibility, seriousness, threat, cues to action and self-efficacy.
- Perceptions weighed up against the behaviour and if the threat is high enough along with high benefits, a behaviour change may be made
Discuss the main predictors of behaviour as per the theory of planned behaviour model.
- Behaviour is predicted by intentions, norms and perceived control.
- Intentions are influenced by attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control.
- Attitudes stem from behavioural beliefs and evaluations of what the behaviour will achieve/gain
- Subjective norms stem from the beliefs (norms) of significant others
A model that tries to explain behaviour needs to explain a high percentage of the variance in question. If a study reports that a model explains 67% of the variance in the outcome behaviour (e.g. increased physical activity levels) you can conclude that:
the model is adequate as a large percentage of the variance is still explained
A colleague of yours wants to conduct research into the effects of health behaviour norms, intentions and control on smoking and alcohol use. What health behaviour model is your colleague most likely to go with?
The theory of planned behaviour
How is the health belief model (HBM) different from the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) model?
- HBM is a cost-benefit model with a focus on perception of barriers and benefits as well as the perceived threat to the individual’s health, taking into account self-efficacy
- TPB focuses more on intentions, behavioural control and norms.
- Thus the HBM seems to centre more on the individual through his or her perceptions of a cost–benefit analysis given a certain threat.
- The TPB is concerned with both societal norms and the individual’s intentions.
Could a tobacco company use models like the health belief model and theory of planned behaviour to increase smoking?
Yes, these models can be used for positive or negative health behaviour outcomes
A research participant in a quit-smoking study is sure she will manage to quit smoking and not start again. You would expect this participant to have:
high self-efficacy
Alcohol consumption in Australia has been associated with:
- about 65 000 hospital submissions every year
- a cost to society of about $15 billion per annum
- about 3000 deaths per year
Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander life expectancy is:
20 years shorter in than in other Australians
Believing that your own culture is somehow superior is referred to as:
ethnocentrism
Health psychologists can work (3):
- With individuals as well as their friends and families
- To promote behaviour change to prevent illness
- To support people through diagnosis and treatment of illness
Key behavioural risk factors for illness in Australia include (3):
sleep loss
smoking
poor diet
Health psychologists work as/in(3):
- Researchers, educators and practitioners
- Private practice, in hospitals and in policy-making organisations
- Multidisciplinary healthcare teams
Health is conceptualised as:
a continuum, from death to optimal wellness
The biomedical model has achieved/failed:
- Enormous advances in healthcare
- A reduction in deaths due to infectious illness
- Fails to acknowledge the contribution of psychological and social factors to disease
What is the biopsychosocial model?
The biopsychosocial model acknowledges the biological, psychological, and social aspects of how health is generated, experienced and treated.
Why do we think about health as a continuum?
- Health is not simply the absence of illness.
- At any given point in time, we are in a dynamic state of health.
- Every day we engage in patterns of behaviour that influence our health in positive and negative ways.
