PSY2001 W10 Social Influences on Helath (L)

Question 1

What is the influence of social modelling on health behaviours

Answer 1

[empircal research]
Eating behaviours: review reported that social modelling influenced food choice or food intake (Cruwys et al. 2015)
Cigarette smoking ( Harakeh et al. 2007)

Question 2

What are descriptive norms?

Answer 2

What people around you do, contrast with the concept of subjective norms

Question 3

What are injunctive norms?

Answer 3

subjective norm
reflecting what other’s think (not what they actually do)

Question 4

What factors moderate social infleunces on health and envionrmental behaviours?

Answer 4

modelling, social norms, social facilitation, group pressures, social support

Question 5

How effective of social norm-based interventions to change health and environmental behaviours?

Answer 5

Social norm-based interventions can backfire, resulting in a boomerang effect.
Care is needed when applying social norm-based messages to interventions to promote engagement in pro-health and pro-environmental behaviours.

Question 6

What are some social norm theoretical approaches?

Answer 6

The Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1991).
Focus Theory of Normative Conduct (Cialdini et al., 1990)
Theory of Normative Behaviour (Lapinski & Rimal, 2005)

Question 7

What is pro-health/environmental behaviours?

Answer 7

Purposeful action or behaviour that can reduce a negative impact on health or the environment

Question 8

Why should we promote pro-health/environmental behaviours?

Answer 8

Promote health, well-being, quality of life, longevity (e.g. handwashing, alcohol intake, smoking, physical activity, diet, using sunscreen, attending health checks etc.).

Question 9

How does social influences impact behaviour?

Answer 9

Change in thoughts/feelings/attitudes/behaviours that resultfrom interaction with another individual or a group. Engagement in those behaviours are influenced by others

Question 10

What are some different types of social influences?

Answer 10

modelling (mimicking behaviour), social norms, social facilitation, group pressures, social support.

Question 11

How does Modelling affect alcohol intake?

Answer 11

Experimental study using a naturalistic bar setting.
Drink orders: confederate ordered first and drank either:
1. Two fizzy drinks (Control)
2. One alcohol drink and two fizzy drinks (light drinking)
3. Three or four alcohol drinks (heavy drinking)

DV: alcoholic drinks consumed.

Results: Participants in the heavy condition consumed significantly more alcohol compared to participants in the control and light drinking condition (p < .001).

Question 12

How does the influence of social modelling vary ?

Answer 12

The influence of social modelling is affected by individual factors such as a high need for social approval, as well as group identification.
Depending on:
High need for social acceptance [low self-esteem and high empathy associated with greated modelling (Robinson et al.2011)]
Body weight [greater modelling if the social other is the same weight as the participant)

Question 13

What are some explanations of social modeling?

Answer 13

Social approval and Informational influence (accurate decision making)

Question 14

How does informational influence expain social modelling?

Answer 14

accurate decision making.
Others provide a point of reference for appropriate behaviour, automatic mimicry. Mimic and conform to those with whom we identify, communicating liking and a desire to affiliate

Question 15

How does social approval expain social modelling?

Answer 15

conformity to a social model is more pronnounced when concerns about affiliation are increased.

Question 16

What are social norms?

Cialdini & Trost, 1998

Answer 16

Social norms are unwritten rules about how to behave

Question 17

What are the three types of norms?

Answer 17

Descriptive (‘is’ norms), Injunctive (‘ought to’ norms) and prescriptive vs proscriptive

Question 18

What is the descriptive norm?

‘is’ norms

Answer 18

Describe one group and distinguish it from other groups. Perceptions about what other people tend to do.

Question 19

What is a prescriptive norm?

Answer 19

Prescriptive: (how we should behave) focus on what others do, encouraged to do, or approve of doing

Question 20

What is a Poscriptive norm?

Answer 20

Proscriptive: (prohibitive) - focus on what others do NOT do, or are discouraged from doing, or behaviours that are not approved.

Question 21

What is a injunctive norm?

‘ought to’ norms

Answer 21

Perceptions of what others approve of.

Question 22

What are the types of delivery of social norms?

Answer 22

social norms marketing, personalised normative feedback (PNF)

Question 23

What is the towel reuse study about descriptive norm messages?

Answer 23

A descriptive norm message increased towel reuse compared to a control message. Similar effects found for other pro-environmental and health behaviours (Robinson et al., 2013; Yamin et al., 2019).

Question 24

How does social norms influence binge drinking?

Answer 24

Inaccurate perceptions: Students overestimate how much peers drink and peer support for drinking. Drives problematic drinking behaviour (Borsari, & Carey, 2003). Social norms widely developed and applied to reduce problematic student drinking.

Question 25

What was the study about intentinos to down drinks about? | Smith et al 2018

Answer 25

Descriptive norms and problematic drinking. Four conditions: * No messages * Campaign only (e.g. Think before you drink) * Descriptive norm only (based on data e.g. 65% of students at this uni do not down drinks on a night out) * Campaign + descriptive norm DV: intentions to down drinks Results: A sensible drinking campaign with a descriptive norm message reduced intentions to down drinks in students.

Question 26

What are the strenghts of Smith et al. 2018 binge drinking study?

Answer 26

Experimental design - establish effect of descriptive norm.

Question 27

What were the limitations of the Smith et al. 2018 study on binge drinking?

Answer 27

Measured intentions, no measure of actual downing behaviour. No data collected on participants’ individual alcohol intake. Small convenience sample. No baseline data on attitudes or current consumption. Ethical considerations.

Question 28

Can we use descriptive norms to encourage sustainable diets at the university?

Answer 28

Aligns with other findings whereby descriptive social norms are not always effective. Results: No significant differences were found (all p > 0.05).

Question 29

What was the study of sun protection and injunctive norms?

Answer 29

Perceptions that other women thought tanned skin was perceived as positive was overestimated. Perceptions about support to use sun cream was underestimated. Measures (baseline, intervention 4-weeks post-intervention) Intentions: “I plan to stay in the shade as much as possible when I am outside” Self-reported sun protection behaviours: use of sunscreen, protective clothing and shade. Information: Immedietaly post-test: P in injunctive norm condition reported greater intentions to engage in sun protective behavoiur compared to control. 4 week follow up: injunctive group still had stronger intentions to engage in sun protective behaviour and self-rerorted more use of sun hats compared to control

Question 30

When are descriptive norms useful and effective?

Answer 30

informational influence Guide on the appropriate way to act. Tend to be more effective in unfamiliar or ambiguous situation (Griskevicius et al., 2016)

Question 31

When are nijunctive norms effects ?

Answer 31

Social approval. Enable affiliation with social group.

Question 32

Can social norms messages backfire? | Miller & Prentice, 2016

Answer 32

Yes. Social norm messages have resulted in mixed findings. Boomerang effect. Engagement in the targeted desired behaviours reduces for some individuals AFTER the social norm message intervention.

Question 33

What is the boomerang effect?

Answer 33

refers to unintended negative consequences of social norm messages

Question 34

Why does the boomerang effect happen?

Answer 34

1.Realise an undesirable behaviour is more common than realised: “Most people use more water than they need” 2.Individuals who already engage in the desirable behaviour reduce it to avoid being a sucker to free-riders.

Question 35

What are the implications of the boomerang effect on interventions?

Answer 35

Social norm message-based interventions need to be designed with care to avoid boomerang effects. Message framing: * Praise those who engage in the behaviour rather than risk resentment. * Avoid inadvertently promoting an undesirable behaviour. Target only those who do not engage in the desired behaviour (or engage in low levels).

Question 36

How does share group membership affect the influence of group norms?

Answer 36

The influence of group norms are stronger if individuals identify with the referent group. Group membership can also explain reactance against group norms if the group norm made salient is from an undesirable outgroup.

Question 37

What is the focus theory of normative conduct ? | Cialdini et al 1990

Answer 37

Motives for conforming: informational, social approval and positive self-image

Question 38

What is the Theory of Normative Behaviour ? | Lapinski & Rimal, 2005

Answer 38

The influence of descriptive norms is moderated by injunctive norms, group membership, behaviour identification and outcome expectations.