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Lifestyle and health behaviour
(a)
Describe what psychologists have discovered about lifestyle
and health behaviour
[10]
(b)
Evaluate what psychologists have discovered about lifestyle
and health behaviour
[16]
(c)
Suggest one technique to improve the health behaviour of
teenagers.
[8]
Describe what psychologists have discovered about lifestyle and health
behaviour [10]
When we refer to heath behaviour we are referring to something a person does,
such as going to the doctor. A lifestyle, on the other hand, is a pattern of
behaviours that are often tied into the type of job an individual has, the culture
and sub-culture they feel part of, and the people they live with.
The health belief model (Becker) aims to predict when a person will engage in
health behaviour. According to the health belief model, the likelihood that
individuals will practice health behaviour depends directly on two assessments
that they make. Firstly people evaluate the threat. There are several factors
that can influence a person's perceived threat of illness, including; perceived
seriousness, perceived susceptibility, and cues to action. Secondly people are
said to make a cost-benefits analysis. The cost-benefit assessment looks at
whether the perceived benefits exceed the perceived barriers. The barriers
might be financial (prescription charges are about to rise again,) situational
(difficult to get to the health clinic), social (don't want to acknowledge getting
old). The benefits might be improved health, relief from anxiety, and reducing
health risks.
Another model which attempts to predict health behaviour is the reasoned
action theory (Fishbein) and this is often referred to as a type of health belief
model. Reasoned action theory states that intention is the best predictor of
health behaviour. According to this theory intention is determined by two
attitudes. One attitude is personal in nature - the person’s attitude regarding the
behaviour, which is simply a judgment of whether or not the behaviour is a good
thing to do. This judgment is based on two types of behavioural beliefs: beliefs
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as to the likely outcomes of the behaviour and evaluations of whether the
outcomes would be rewarding. The second attitude that determines people’s
intention to practice a behaviour reflects the impact of social pressure or
influence. This second attitude that determines people’s intention is based on
two normative beliefs - beliefs regarding others’ opinions about the behaviour
and the person’s motivation to comply with those opinions.
The narrow-band approach to personality known as Type A & Type B
personality can also be used to discover more about why some people have
healthier lifestyles. According to Freidman and Rosenman certain personality
types are less likely to follow a healthy lifestyle. Friedman and Rosenman
(1974) observed that the people who seemed to be particularly susceptible to
coronary heart disease also tended to have certain personality similarities.
These they argued formed the Type A pattern, which consists of three major
facets. The first is a competitive achievement orientation, in that these people
tend to be very self-critical and to strive towards goals without feeling a sense of
joy in their efforts or accomplishments. The second personality characteristic is
time urgency: Type A individuals seem to be in a constant struggle with the
clock. They often become impatient with delays and unproductive time, and are
likely to arrange too many commitments into their diaries and often try to do
more than one thing at once. The third facet of Type A personality is a high level
of anger and/or hostility, which may or may not show outwardly. By contrast,
Type B individuals are less competitive, show less time urgency and experience
less hostility.
Social Learning Theory can explain cultural and gender differences in lifestyle
and health behaviour. According to social learning theory, people can learn
health behaviour by observing the behaviour of others. For example if a
teenager sees people enjoying and receiving social attention for smoking
cigarettes, these people serve as powerful models and increase the likelihood
that the teenager will begin smoking too. But if models receive punishment for
smoking, such as being avoided by classmates at school, the teenager may be
less likely to smoke. In general people are more likely to perform the behaviour
they observe if the model is similar to themselves, that is, of the same sex, age,
or race, and is a high status person, such as a physically attractive individual,
movie star, or well-known athlete. Advertisers of products such as alcoholic
beverages know these things and use them in their commercials. Using social
learning theory we can see why, for example, males are less likely to go to the
doctors as they are simply imitating their role models - fathers, male media
celebrities, friends and so on.
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Evaluate what psychologists have discovered about lifestyle and health
behaviour [16]
Reductionism can be a problem when investigating lifestyle and health
behaviour. Reductionist explanations ignore different levels of explanation.
When investigating lifestyle and health behaviour psychologists have to be
aware of reductionism as there could be many reasons why people practice
health behaviours. The health belief model is useful because it takes into
account the many factors which influence whether we engage in health
behaviour. The model uses a social cognitive approach because it
acknowledges the role of cognitive processes such as beliefs and social factors
such as social class.
Similarly rational action theory takes into account the many factors which
influence whether we engage in health behaviour although it does have a
weakness in that it argues that intention is the best predictor of health
behaviour. It has been found that intentions and behaviour are only moderately
related - people do not always do what they plan (or claim they plan) to do.
Reasoned action theory also does not include anything about the person’s prior
experience with the behaviour.
Another problem psychologists have when investigating lifestyles is demand
characteristics. That is, participants may simply be giving socially desirable
answers. Both the health belief model and reasoned action theory rely on the
questionnaire method to collect evidence. However, psychologists might not
be getting at the truth as people may give socially desirable responses. This is
particularly so when we are investigating sensitive issues such as a persons
lifestyle.
Psychological explanations can be evaluated for how useful they are in terms of
using them to improve people’s health behaviour and lifestyles. Part of the aim
of health psychology is to improve the health of the nation. Social learning
theory has been a very useful theory as it has been used to good effect in the
media in terms of providing healthy role models for people to imitate. Numerous
health campaigns have used role models to target particular social groups such
as celebrities not smoking and so on. Freidman and Rosenman’s work on
type A and B behaviour types has also been useful in terms of identifying
susceptible people (type A men) and warning them of the dangers of such
lifestyles.
A further problem that psychologists have is gaining a representative sample.
When studying lifestyle and health behaviour psychologists should have a
representative sample if they are to generalise their findings to the rest of the
population. A major problem with Friedman and Rosenman’s study is that they
used a bias sample. Studies carried out on women have not shown such a
major difference between Type A and Type B and subsequent health. Similarly
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most of the evidence supporting social learning theory was carried out on
children and it is possible that adults are not so susceptible to role models as
children so we should be careful generalising the findings to adults.
Suggest one technique to improve the health behaviour of teenagers.
One improvement could for the media to be more aware of the behaviour of
teenagers’ role models in the media. Role models for teenagers are likely to be
pop stars, actors, sports stars and so on. Findings from work into role models
have demonstrated that people tend to imitate those role models who we find
attractive, who are rewarded for what they do and so on. Therefore these role
models should have an effect on teenagers’ behaviour. These role models
should be encouraged to carry out health behaviour such as eating healthy, not
smoking and practicing safe sex.
This may work as role models in the media are an important source of
information for teenagers. However, teenagers also have other role models
such as family and friends and it is may not be possible to change the behaviour
of such people. It can also be argued that teenagers enjoy rebelling and
therefore may always be a tendency for teenagers to carry out risky and
unhealthy behaviour as they see this as a type of rebellion and also as a type of
group identity behaviour.