🌟 Health Promotion: Getting People to Choose Health 🌟

Welcome to the final chapter of Health Psychology! This section is all about how psychologists help people adopt and maintain healthy behaviours. It explores various strategies, where these strategies are best used (like schools and workplaces), and why some individuals find change harder than others.

Understanding health promotion is incredibly important because it shows the practical application of Psychology to real-world issues, helping to reduce illness and improve quality of life globally.

3.5.1 Strategies for Promoting Health

How do we convince someone to quit smoking, start exercising, or attend a doctor's check-up? Psychologists use two main strategies: Fear Arousal and Providing Information.

Fear Arousal (The Scare Tactic)

Fear arousal involves attempting to change behaviour by creating anxiety or fear about the consequences of unhealthy actions (e.g., showing graphic images of lung damage from smoking).

Think of the severe warnings on cigarette packets or gruesome public health campaigns about drunk driving.

  • The Goal: To motivate the individual by highlighting the severity of the threat and their vulnerability to it.
  • The Challenge: If the fear is too intense, people might switch off or go into denial rather than changing their behaviour. This is often called defensive avoidance.
Key Study: Janis and Feshbach (1953) - Fear and Dental Hygiene

This classic study investigated whether using high levels of fear was more effective than low levels in promoting dental health practices.

  • Aim: To compare the effects of different levels of fear (minimal, moderate, and strong) in health communications on adherence to health recommendations.
  • Procedure: High school students were split into four groups and shown a 15-minute lecture on dental hygiene:
    • Group 1 (Strong Fear): Showed vivid images of diseased mouths and painful consequences of poor hygiene.
    • Group 2 (Moderate Fear): Less intense images, described consequences mildly.
    • Group 3 (Minimal Fear): Very factual, little emotional content.
    • Group 4 (Control): Received a lecture on an unrelated topic.
  • Results & Conclusion: The minimal fear group reported the greatest change in tooth-brushing behaviour and adherence to dental advice. The strong fear group was the least effective, suggesting that high fear messages led to defensive avoidance.

💡 Key Takeaway: The 'Goldilocks Effect' applies to fear. The message should be just right—enough to worry the person, but not so much that they ignore it completely.

Providing Information

This strategy assumes that people will change their behaviour if they simply have the knowledge and skills needed to do so. Information alone is often not enough, but it is the critical first step.

Study Example: Lewin et al. (1992) - Breast Self-Examination (BSE)

Lewin and colleagues studied how information could encourage women to perform regular Breast Self-Examination (BSE), which is vital for early detection of breast cancer.

  • Context: Many women do not perform BSE because they lack knowledge about the procedure or belief in its usefulness.
  • Intervention: Researchers provided women with clear, structured information and training on how and when to perform BSE.
  • Finding: Simply providing comprehensive information and instruction significantly increased the frequency and accuracy of BSE reported by the participants.
  • Connection: This supports the idea that for health promotion to work, individuals must understand the action required (the 'how-to').

Quick Review: Strategies
Fear Arousal = Uses emotion/threats.
Providing Information = Uses logic/education.

3.5.2 Health Promotion in Schools and Worksites

Instead of targeting individuals one-by-one, health promotion is often most effective when applied in settings where people spend a lot of time—like schools and workplaces.

Health Promotion in Schools (Focus: Healthy Eating)

Schools are key settings because they reach children early, establishing lifelong habits. Interventions often focus on improving diet and physical activity.

Study Example: Tapper et al. (2003) - The Food Dudes Programme

This programme was a fun, multi-component intervention designed to increase children’s consumption of fruit and vegetables.

  • Design: Used positive role models (the 'Food Dudes' characters) and motivational elements, drawing heavily on the Learning Approach.
  • Procedure: Children watched videos of the "Food Dudes" (older children) enjoying fruit and vegetables. They received small, non-food rewards (e.g., pencils, stickers) for trying and eating these healthy foods.
  • Finding: The programme was highly successful, showing significant long-term increases in the consumption of fruits and vegetables both at school and at home.
  • Did You Know? This intervention uses Social Learning Theory (seeing others rewarded) and Operant Conditioning (receiving rewards).

Health Promotion in Worksites (Focus: Health and Safety)

Workplaces often run health promotion programs to reduce accidents, lower sick days, and increase productivity. Safety campaigns often use behavioural interventions.

Study Example: Fox et al. (1987) - Safety Promotion using a Token Economy

Fox and colleagues studied how to reduce unsafe working practices in an open-pit mining company using a system of rewards.

  • Intervention: A Token Economy was implemented. Employees who followed safety rules and procedures correctly were given "tokens" (stamps/vouchers).
  • Rewards: These tokens could be exchanged for desirable items, such as company goods, gift certificates, or even extra time off.
  • Finding: The study found a substantial decrease in reportable accidents and unsafe conditions after the token economy was introduced. This demonstrated that positively reinforcing desired safety behaviours is very effective.
  • Why it Works: Instead of punishing mistakes (which encourages workers to hide them), this system rewards good behaviour, making safe practices desirable.

💡 Key Takeaway: Changing the environment (school, workplace) and using psychological principles like reinforcement and modelling is often more effective than just lecturing individuals.

3.5.3 Individual Factors in Changing Health Beliefs

Health promotion doesn't always work because of internal, psychological barriers. Two key factors are Unrealistic Optimism and the shift towards Positive Psychology.

Unrealistic Optimism (Optimistic Bias)

This is a cognitive bias where people believe that negative events are less likely to happen to them than to others, and positive events are more likely. This is a huge barrier to health promotion because if you think you won't get cancer, why bother with healthy advice?

Study Example: Weinstein (1980) - Risk Perception

Weinstein conducted studies looking at students' estimates of their risk compared to the average student.

  • Procedure: Participants estimated their personal chances of experiencing various positive (e.g., owning a house) and negative events (e.g., developing a drinking problem) compared to their peers.
  • Finding: Participants consistently rated themselves as significantly less likely to experience negative events (like illness or injury) and significantly more likely to experience positive events.
  • Implication for Health: This bias means that when health campaigns warn about risks, people tend to think, "That applies to other people, not me." Psychologists must find ways to reduce this bias by making the threat feel personal and relevant.

Positive Psychology

Unlike traditional psychology, which often focuses on fixing problems (like depression or phobias), Positive Psychology focuses on human strengths and optimal functioning. It asks: "What makes life worth living?"

  • Definition: The study of the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing or optimal functioning of people, groups, and institutions.
  • Three Focuses (The "Three Lives"):
    1. The Pleasant Life: Focusing on positive emotions and sensations (e.g., pleasure, comfort).
    2. The Good Life: Focusing on engagement and flow by identifying one's signature strengths and using them in work, love, and leisure.
    3. The Meaningful Life: Using one's strengths and talents to serve something greater than oneself (e.g., religion, community, humanitarianism).
  • Application in Health: Instead of just trying to prevent mental illness, Positive Psychology aims to actively build mental resources, resilience, and happiness, which in turn acts as a buffer against poor health.
Key Study: Shoshani and Steinmetz (2014) - Positive Psychology at School

This study applied Positive Psychology principles in a school setting to boost adolescents’ mental health and well-being.

  • Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of a Positive Psychology school-based intervention on adolescents' mental health and well-being over time.
  • Procedure: Students took part in a longitudinal study, with an intervention group receiving a 14-session programme focusing on strengths, gratitude, and goal setting, while the control group received standard life skills lessons.
  • Measures: Happiness, life satisfaction, resilience, and anxiety were measured using questionnaires (psychometric tests).
  • Results & Conclusion: The intervention group showed significant increases in measures of happiness, life satisfaction, and resilience, and decreased anxiety, even six months later. This confirms that actively cultivating positive traits can improve long-term mental health.
  • Connection: This shows the application of the Good Life focus, helping students identify and use their strengths to feel more engaged and satisfied.

💡 Key Takeaway: Individual cognitions, like Unrealistic Optimism, can block health promotion efforts. A shift to Positive Psychology provides proactive ways to build mental health, making individuals more resilient to future problems. Don't worry if this seems tricky at first—just remember that Positive Psychology is about focusing on the good stuff (strengths) rather than just fighting the bad stuff (illness).