Definition of Health: Health & Ill-health, Stress, Addiction
Health & Ill-Health: 3 definitions
- Biomedical: A person is ‘healthy’ based on bio + med factors.
Health: ‘Absence of disease’
Health & Ill health, determined by a medical professional, looks at symptoms, treated
with physical methods (drugs, exercise)
Does not consider mental health separate to physical health
- Biopsychosocial: Suggests ill health is caused by factors, biological (genes &
neurotransmitters), psychological (stress) & social (family)
Best way for someone to be healthy is to prevent ill health, not treat e.g. education
programmes.
Does include mental health consideration.
- Health as a continuum suggests people sit somewhere in the middle of unhealthy and
healthy. Includes aspects of biopsychosocial.
People may show positive behaviours in one area but not another. e.g. eat well, have a
stressful job.
Stress
- Emotional/physical response to situations of psychological/physical threat
Stressors
- Physical Stressors: Things in your environment that cause stress. e.g loud noises.
- Psychological Stressors: Things in your life that may cause stress. e.g getting married
Stress Response
- Physiological Response: How the body responds when stressed, e.g. heartrate
increased and sweating.
- Psychological Response: Emotions when stressed, e.g. anxious
Stress
• Someone has the perceptibility cover with stressor they will not feel the effects of stress
• People confuse dresses as a fret challenge opportunity and to improve those who see as a
fright filled the most impact of stress psychologically
• Internal coping resources: the personal qualities, skills, and abilities within you that help you
manage stress, for example: self-awareness, confidence, optimism
• External coping resources: outside of yourself and include social support from family,
friends, and community, and formal resources like mental health services and crisis lines
,Addiction
• where a person takes a substance or engages in a behaviour which is pleasurable but
eventually becomes compulsive and harmful consequences
Two types:
• Physiological (smoking & alcohol): also called physical dependence, the body's
adaptation to a substance, resulting in withdrawal symptoms when its use is stopped or
reduced
• Behavioural (gambling and shopping): where someone is addicted to doing something
rather than a substance and addiction they develop will draw symptoms into
intolerance as they were with a physiological addiction
Griffith 6 components of addiction:
• Salience: (physiological and psychological dependence)
happens when it becomes an impossible for the person to live a normal life without
carrying out their addiction becomes dominant.
All they can think about will do if they’re not carrying out the addiction they are thinking
about it.
• Tolerance: the person needs an increased dose of their addiction to feel the same buzz
they first had means they snowball and spend more on their addiction to get the same
buzz as when they started
• Withdrawal: when an individual suddenly stops their addiction and they feel the effects
either psychological or physical
• Relapse: when someone goes back to their addiction, after quitting for days or years
• Conflict:
Interpersonal conflict: outside conflict between the person who is addicted and their
close family friends, etc.
Intrapersonal: conflict within the person they know their behaviour is wrong but cannot
control their addiction.
• Mood altercation: addiction has an impact on persons mood. They have different
effects at different times of day and on different occasions.
,Health Belief Model
- Used to explain why people do and do not engage in healthy behaviours
- Suggests that people engage in healthy and unhealthy behaviours based upon their
belief system
Perceived Seriousness
- Individual's personal belief in the severity or significant consequences of a disease or
health condition, if you think it’s going to have a bad, serious effect, you won't do the
unhealthy behaviour.
- Considering both medical aspects (potential pain or disability) and non-medical
impacts (effects on social relationships or work)
- Example: sex education classes they showed pictures of sexually transmitted diseases
& the long-term effects. This was to get people to use condoms and highlight to have
protected sex.
Perceived Susceptibility
- Individual's subjective belief about their likelihood of developing a specific health
problem or experiencing an undesirable health outcome.
- People are more likely to take preventive actions if they perceive themselves as
vulnerable to a condition.
- For example, someone who believes they are at high risk for heart disease due to family
history is more likely to adopt a healthier lifestyle.
- If you think the bad outcome are likely to affect you, you won't do the unhealthy
behaviour
Cost Benefit Analysis
- Individual's evaluation of the perceived benefits of a health-promoting action against its
perceived costs or barriers.
Perceived Benefits:
- These are the positive outcomes an individual believes they will gain from taking a
recommended health action.
- e.g. someone will hear a mask if they feel it'll protect them from disease or protect
those around them.
Perceived Barriers (Costs):
- These are the obstacles or negative aspects of taking a particular health action.
- e.g. if a person thinks they don't have the time to cook, that takeaways are quicker
and easier. If the benefits outweigh the cost (or thought to), they won't do the
unhealthy behaviour
,Modifying Factors – what can make someone change?
Cues to action:
- Can be external/internal factors which make someone more ready or prepared to be
healthy
- Internal: prompt individuals to act, such as previous experiences of the behaviour
- External: prompt individuals to act such as guidance from others, media, etc
Demographic:
- individual characteristics such as age, gender, personality, and socio-economic
status that influence a person's health beliefs and, consequently, their health-
related behaviours.
Self-Efficacy:
- Refers to an individual’s belief in their own ability to perform a specific behaviour or
task effectively
- Higher self-efficacy is associated with greater motivation to change and a higher
likelihood of engaging in the desired behaviour.
,Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths of the Health Belief Model
Comprehensive framework: Provides a comprehensive framework for understanding health-
related behaviours by considering multiple factors that influence behaviour change. It
considers an individual's perception of their susceptibility to a health problem, the severity of
the problem, the perceived benefits of acting, and the barriers to behaviour change.
Individual-focused: The HBM recognizes that individuals have unique beliefs, attitudes, and
perceptions that influence their health behaviours. It emphasizes the importance of tailoring
interventions to individuals' specific needs and beliefs, which can increase the effectiveness of
behaviour change efforts.
Practical application: The HBM can be applied to various health behaviours and settings,
making it a versatile model for understanding behaviour change. It has been used successfully
in areas such as smoking cessation, medication adherence, and preventive health behaviours.
Weaknesses of the Health Belief Model
Limited scope: The HBM primarily focuses on individual-level factors and may not fully capture
the complex social, cultural, and environmental influences on health behaviours. It does not
consider the role of social norms, peer influence, or structural factors that can impact
behaviour change.
Lack of dynamic nature: The HBM assumes that individuals make rational decisions based on
their perceptions of health threats and benefits. However, it does not account for the dynamic
and often irrational nature of human behaviour. People's beliefs and motivations can change
over time, and the HBM does not adequately address these fluctuations.
Limited predictive power: While the HBM provides insights into individuals' beliefs and
attitudes, it has limited predictive power in determining actual behaviour change. Other factors,
such as motivation, self-control, and environmental cues, also play significant roles in
behaviour change and may not be fully captured by the HBM.
, Locus Of Control
- Explains why people believe something good or bad has happened to them
- Belief system then means that someone is more or less likely to show a behaviour.
Types of Locus of Control:
Internal: Believe their ability to influence outcomes through their own actions and decisions
“I can do it and if I don’t, I can work harder and try again”
External: External forces (luck, other people’s actions) determine outcomes. “I didn’t pass the
test because the teacher was never in”
The scale continuum:
- Most will fit somewhere on the scale; they’ll be more external or internal.
- But never fully internal or external.
How does Locus of Control influence behaviour?
Internal Locus of Control:
Motivation: Individuals with an internal LOC, more likely to be motivated to achieve goals,
improve their lives
Coping: Help individuals cope with stress by fostering sense of control & resilience.
Mental Health: Internal LOC tend to experience low levels of stress & anxiety
Attributions and Health Behaviours:
- Attribution: process of explaining behaviour in relation to external/internal causes.
If people attribute behaviour to external causes, less likely to believe they can change their
behaviour as it caused by something else.
Example: Addiction.
- Those who’re likely to give up, have an internal LOC, as they believe what they do makes
it more likely to succeed.
- Less likely to give up (external LOC), they believe no matter what they do, it won't work,
that their addiction is out of their control.
Health & Ill-Health: 3 definitions
- Biomedical: A person is ‘healthy’ based on bio + med factors.
Health: ‘Absence of disease’
Health & Ill health, determined by a medical professional, looks at symptoms, treated
with physical methods (drugs, exercise)
Does not consider mental health separate to physical health
- Biopsychosocial: Suggests ill health is caused by factors, biological (genes &
neurotransmitters), psychological (stress) & social (family)
Best way for someone to be healthy is to prevent ill health, not treat e.g. education
programmes.
Does include mental health consideration.
- Health as a continuum suggests people sit somewhere in the middle of unhealthy and
healthy. Includes aspects of biopsychosocial.
People may show positive behaviours in one area but not another. e.g. eat well, have a
stressful job.
Stress
- Emotional/physical response to situations of psychological/physical threat
Stressors
- Physical Stressors: Things in your environment that cause stress. e.g loud noises.
- Psychological Stressors: Things in your life that may cause stress. e.g getting married
Stress Response
- Physiological Response: How the body responds when stressed, e.g. heartrate
increased and sweating.
- Psychological Response: Emotions when stressed, e.g. anxious
Stress
• Someone has the perceptibility cover with stressor they will not feel the effects of stress
• People confuse dresses as a fret challenge opportunity and to improve those who see as a
fright filled the most impact of stress psychologically
• Internal coping resources: the personal qualities, skills, and abilities within you that help you
manage stress, for example: self-awareness, confidence, optimism
• External coping resources: outside of yourself and include social support from family,
friends, and community, and formal resources like mental health services and crisis lines
,Addiction
• where a person takes a substance or engages in a behaviour which is pleasurable but
eventually becomes compulsive and harmful consequences
Two types:
• Physiological (smoking & alcohol): also called physical dependence, the body's
adaptation to a substance, resulting in withdrawal symptoms when its use is stopped or
reduced
• Behavioural (gambling and shopping): where someone is addicted to doing something
rather than a substance and addiction they develop will draw symptoms into
intolerance as they were with a physiological addiction
Griffith 6 components of addiction:
• Salience: (physiological and psychological dependence)
happens when it becomes an impossible for the person to live a normal life without
carrying out their addiction becomes dominant.
All they can think about will do if they’re not carrying out the addiction they are thinking
about it.
• Tolerance: the person needs an increased dose of their addiction to feel the same buzz
they first had means they snowball and spend more on their addiction to get the same
buzz as when they started
• Withdrawal: when an individual suddenly stops their addiction and they feel the effects
either psychological or physical
• Relapse: when someone goes back to their addiction, after quitting for days or years
• Conflict:
Interpersonal conflict: outside conflict between the person who is addicted and their
close family friends, etc.
Intrapersonal: conflict within the person they know their behaviour is wrong but cannot
control their addiction.
• Mood altercation: addiction has an impact on persons mood. They have different
effects at different times of day and on different occasions.
,Health Belief Model
- Used to explain why people do and do not engage in healthy behaviours
- Suggests that people engage in healthy and unhealthy behaviours based upon their
belief system
Perceived Seriousness
- Individual's personal belief in the severity or significant consequences of a disease or
health condition, if you think it’s going to have a bad, serious effect, you won't do the
unhealthy behaviour.
- Considering both medical aspects (potential pain or disability) and non-medical
impacts (effects on social relationships or work)
- Example: sex education classes they showed pictures of sexually transmitted diseases
& the long-term effects. This was to get people to use condoms and highlight to have
protected sex.
Perceived Susceptibility
- Individual's subjective belief about their likelihood of developing a specific health
problem or experiencing an undesirable health outcome.
- People are more likely to take preventive actions if they perceive themselves as
vulnerable to a condition.
- For example, someone who believes they are at high risk for heart disease due to family
history is more likely to adopt a healthier lifestyle.
- If you think the bad outcome are likely to affect you, you won't do the unhealthy
behaviour
Cost Benefit Analysis
- Individual's evaluation of the perceived benefits of a health-promoting action against its
perceived costs or barriers.
Perceived Benefits:
- These are the positive outcomes an individual believes they will gain from taking a
recommended health action.
- e.g. someone will hear a mask if they feel it'll protect them from disease or protect
those around them.
Perceived Barriers (Costs):
- These are the obstacles or negative aspects of taking a particular health action.
- e.g. if a person thinks they don't have the time to cook, that takeaways are quicker
and easier. If the benefits outweigh the cost (or thought to), they won't do the
unhealthy behaviour
,Modifying Factors – what can make someone change?
Cues to action:
- Can be external/internal factors which make someone more ready or prepared to be
healthy
- Internal: prompt individuals to act, such as previous experiences of the behaviour
- External: prompt individuals to act such as guidance from others, media, etc
Demographic:
- individual characteristics such as age, gender, personality, and socio-economic
status that influence a person's health beliefs and, consequently, their health-
related behaviours.
Self-Efficacy:
- Refers to an individual’s belief in their own ability to perform a specific behaviour or
task effectively
- Higher self-efficacy is associated with greater motivation to change and a higher
likelihood of engaging in the desired behaviour.
,Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths of the Health Belief Model
Comprehensive framework: Provides a comprehensive framework for understanding health-
related behaviours by considering multiple factors that influence behaviour change. It
considers an individual's perception of their susceptibility to a health problem, the severity of
the problem, the perceived benefits of acting, and the barriers to behaviour change.
Individual-focused: The HBM recognizes that individuals have unique beliefs, attitudes, and
perceptions that influence their health behaviours. It emphasizes the importance of tailoring
interventions to individuals' specific needs and beliefs, which can increase the effectiveness of
behaviour change efforts.
Practical application: The HBM can be applied to various health behaviours and settings,
making it a versatile model for understanding behaviour change. It has been used successfully
in areas such as smoking cessation, medication adherence, and preventive health behaviours.
Weaknesses of the Health Belief Model
Limited scope: The HBM primarily focuses on individual-level factors and may not fully capture
the complex social, cultural, and environmental influences on health behaviours. It does not
consider the role of social norms, peer influence, or structural factors that can impact
behaviour change.
Lack of dynamic nature: The HBM assumes that individuals make rational decisions based on
their perceptions of health threats and benefits. However, it does not account for the dynamic
and often irrational nature of human behaviour. People's beliefs and motivations can change
over time, and the HBM does not adequately address these fluctuations.
Limited predictive power: While the HBM provides insights into individuals' beliefs and
attitudes, it has limited predictive power in determining actual behaviour change. Other factors,
such as motivation, self-control, and environmental cues, also play significant roles in
behaviour change and may not be fully captured by the HBM.
, Locus Of Control
- Explains why people believe something good or bad has happened to them
- Belief system then means that someone is more or less likely to show a behaviour.
Types of Locus of Control:
Internal: Believe their ability to influence outcomes through their own actions and decisions
“I can do it and if I don’t, I can work harder and try again”
External: External forces (luck, other people’s actions) determine outcomes. “I didn’t pass the
test because the teacher was never in”
The scale continuum:
- Most will fit somewhere on the scale; they’ll be more external or internal.
- But never fully internal or external.
How does Locus of Control influence behaviour?
Internal Locus of Control:
Motivation: Individuals with an internal LOC, more likely to be motivated to achieve goals,
improve their lives
Coping: Help individuals cope with stress by fostering sense of control & resilience.
Mental Health: Internal LOC tend to experience low levels of stress & anxiety
Attributions and Health Behaviours:
- Attribution: process of explaining behaviour in relation to external/internal causes.
If people attribute behaviour to external causes, less likely to believe they can change their
behaviour as it caused by something else.
Example: Addiction.
- Those who’re likely to give up, have an internal LOC, as they believe what they do makes
it more likely to succeed.
- Less likely to give up (external LOC), they believe no matter what they do, it won't work,
that their addiction is out of their control.
