Health Psychology - Healthy Living

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HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY

HEALTHY LIVING

Theories of Health

  • Becker - Health Belief Model - how serious threat is perceived to be - perceived seriousness and perceived susceptability - e.g. mothers adherence to a drug regimen for asthmatic children - 111 mums - each mother was interviewed for 45 mins, asked about perception of childs susceptability to asthma, beliefs on how serious asthma is, disadvantages of asthma, faith in doctors etc... - pos correlation between belief about childs susc. to asthma and adherence to the medical regimen - neg correlation between disruption of daily activies, child complaining about chemists etc.. and adherence - married/educated mothers more likely to adhere - HBM model useful to predict levels of adherence
  • Rotter - Locus of Control - either internal (control yourself) or external (down to other people/fate) - Reviewed 6 pieces of research - particpants who had internal control were more likely to show behaviours that would help them cope with threats - HIGHLY REDUCTIONIST
  • James - Locus of Control - males with internal cnotrol more likely to stop smoking and less likely to relapse - women showed no difference (Women look at other factors - HBM)
  • Bandura - Self-efficacy - how effective someone thinks they will be at adopting a health behaviour - key factors: vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, emotional arousal (can reduce) - VERY HOLISTIC - 10 snake-phobic partients - each pre-tested for avoidance behaviour towards boa constrictor, fear arousal and self efficacy (how much they thought they'd be able to perform different behaviours with snakes) - then had systematic densitisation learning relaxation techniques - then mesasured again on self-efficacy in coping and behaviours - higher levels of post-test self-efficacy correlated with higher levels of interactions with snakes - i.e. desensitisation enhanced self-efficacy levels which lead to belief that participant could cope with snake!

Health Promotions

  • Cowpe - Media Campaigns - testing effectiveness of an advertising campagin which demonstrated procedure, provided info and encouraged preventative actions - quasi expt - surveys sent out to find out understanding about chip pan fires - media campaigns shown in 10 regional tv areas - 2x60 seconds ads - in 3 regions reminders were shown a year later - Tyne Tees region had 33% reduction during campaign, 17% during next 6 months, 15% during following 15 weeks - if area received more than one…

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