Lecture notes, lecture Health Psychology - Health Psychology - just brief PDF

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Health Psychology - just brief...

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Health Psychology 

Health behaviours

Health belief model -

Predicting likelihood of action

Perceived susceptibility (how likely you think you are going to something) and perceived seriousness (if you do succumb to problem, how bad its gona be)  perceived threat  likelihood of action Perceived benefits (of changing your behaviour) & Perceived barriers (things that are going in the way, preventing you from doing things)  outcomes expectations  likelihood of action Cutes to action  likelihood of action (e.g. non-smoking signs are a cue and reminder for not smoking) E.g. illustration of HBM (safe sex) Will I get an STI & How bad will it be if I do?  Perceived threat  use condom during sex Will using condoms prevent STIs & Embarrassing/uncomfortable when you go chemists/bringing it up with a partner  outcome expectations  use condom during sex Theory of Reasoned Action -

Engagement in a particular health behaviour, premise on an intention of changing your behaviour  predicts your actual behaviour in that action

Attitude towards behaviour (positive and negative) & subjective norms  behavioural intention  actual behaviour e.g. illustration of TRA -

Wearing our seatbelt  intention to wear your seatbelt  your attitude toward wearing seatbelt?/ Does your family want to buckle up?

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Wasn’t the default.

Theory of planned behaviour -

Designed to take into account that some behaviour are very difficult to change

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Has the same elements as theory of same action, except add that perceived behaviour control (confidence) that contribute to behavioural intention and actual behaviour

Illustration of TPB Attempt to quit  intention to quit smoking  your attitude about smoking/do your friends want you to quit?/do you have the willpower to quit?

Implementation Intentions -

If you examine your norms, and they lead to the fact that you want to smoke quitting  you’ll actually quit

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Bridge the gap between attempting to do something and actually doing it

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Translate intention to action o

Develop a specific plan about what, where and when

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If ‘X’ happens then I will do ‘Y’

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HOW can be very important in the implementations to work

Obesity Definition: -

Based on BMI

BMI = kg/m^2 -

Increased risk of high blood pressure/stroke/heart diseases

Causes of obesity -

Genetic factors  hieight and intelligence

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Energy balance: calories in and calories out

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Excess of energies is stored as extra calories

Treating obesity -

Average weight loss is 4kg

Better solution -

Change your habits in everyday life

Be aware: -

Subway

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Gloria jeans = hamburger

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Stress and coping

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Health promotion and public health

Transactional model of stress Stimiulus event  primary appraisal: is it stressful? (relevance and potential threat is less)  beningn event and nothing to worry about. However if it is stressful to you  can you cope with it?  you’ll engage in coping behaviour BUT if you cannot cope  you’ll experience stress Stress and health -

When you’re stressed you’re more likely to be sick o

Lead to unhealthy behaviour (smoking and drinking, eat junk food, less exercise)

o

Releases stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline)

Coping with stress -

Different coping styles for different people

Problem-focused coping -

Doing something directly to solve the problem o

Direct action to solve problem

e.g. if you blow up tyre, you get out and fix it, or call NRMA. This is e.g. of direct-solving Emotion-focused coping -

Reduces emotional consequences of problem

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Doesn’t necessary fix the problem at all

e.g. when you’re dumped, you call your best mate, not to mend the broken relationship, just to feel better. Crying on somebody’s shoulder.

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we can have both problem and emotion focused. Some situations are better suited to one or another.

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When something is done, when a problem can be fixed/someone spilling a drink, it is best using a problem-focused coping strategy E.g. you break the car, and calling your best friend to cry is not going to help.

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When you cannot control something, it is best to use emotion-focus coping.

Social support and stress -

Social support can make us feel better about ourselves, and interpret situations differently. Strong social support network people aren’t gona interpret an event to be very stressful, if they do, they can use other people as resources  provide you with emotional support and informational support (instructions on how to do things), intangible support. Will build up supply of coping stuff

Social support and common cold -

Can prevent sickness

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Having people in your life who care for you and who you can rely on. Not how many facebook friends you have (social support network)

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Judgamental people however can backfire

Public Health Why focus on public health -

Best interventions for smoking obesity and drinking are not particularly effective

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Targeting one person at a time is inefficient, better to reach a broader audience

Framework for public health interventions 1. Physical environment/access to various resources 2. Changes to economic environment -

Can change attitude to tobacco/drinking/obesity  better health

3. Changes to communication environment -

These focus change how we view health, norms in society and changes to normative attitudes.

Changing the physical environment 1. Minimize barriers to healthy behaviours -

When there’s a well-lighted foot path, people are more likely to use them and use them for more exercise

Changes to physical environment 2. Increase barriers to health-damaging behaviours e.g. increasing drinking age or removing vending machines from our site Economic factors -

People from lower socio-economic bracket are more likely to smoke

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People in lowest income bracket are less likely to eat healthy and more likely to be obese than people in the highest income bracket

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People of low SES are aware of health risks

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Daily stress  unhealthy behaviours

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Lack opportunities to change/lack access to resources they cannot afford

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Fruits and veggies prices have gone up drastically

Changing the economic environment -

Raising the cost of unhealthy behaviours o

E.g. there is a new cigarette tax coming for smokers. All focuses on financial and not economic health

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As price of cigarettes increases, the consumption of tobacco decreases

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Most effective way to reduce smoking consumption

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Can think about ‘fat tax’ or ‘soda tax’

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If we start putting taxes on unhealthy tax, people will stop consuming then

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However don’t know where to define unhealthy. Most foods have something that’s useful in them. When we start raising issues about taxation, food industry will raise issues.

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People are not in favour of this idea, because they don’t know where the money is going to go, govt should subsidise the healthy food, make it more cheaper, so people will be more acceptive of that idea

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Changing price structure  e.g. in smoking:

Communication environment -

Advertising bans/regulations: e.g. marketing of tobacco o

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Tremendous improvements in advertising tobacco

Plain packaging cigarettes  get younger people less attached to smoking

Changing communication environment -

Public service announcements o

Knowledge is not enough

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Just giving people information has zero impact on behaviour, hence people appeal through emotional appeal

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When people have a negative emotion, they’re gona disconnect from it cos they don’t like it. it doesn’t tell you what to do about it. they don’t tell you the alternatives.

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Self-efficacy information o

Which tells them how they can go about changing

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E.g. quit smoking ads provide self-efficacy info

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If you can provide information, on how they can change after providing a freaky image, can help them change otherwise it’ll backfire

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Swap it, don’t stop it  good example for being healthy. However it didn’t work, because there was no changes made to the environment that existed, because it’s easier to drive than to walk, easier to get a bigger serving than a smaller serving

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These programs won’t be effective if the environment won’t support the change

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It all has to work simultaneously for it to work...