Social Psychology and Health

by Stroebe, Wolfgang

• ISBN13: 9780335238095
• ISBN10: 0335238092
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-06-01
• Publisher: Open Univ Pr

Summary

Which behaviour patterns are detrimental to health? Why do people engage in such behaviour, even if they know about its negative effects? How can people be influenced to change their behaviour? This popular textbook addresses these key questions from a social psychological perspective. Recent research has been added to the new edition including the author's own research into obesity, sexual risk behaviour, and the stressful consequences of losing a marriage partner through death. The epidemiological information and references have been extensively updated. By integrating theories and research on automatic behaviour with the more traditional reasoned action approach, the book provides a new answer to the age-old puzzle of health research; why people engage in behaviour which they know will damage their health. The book also: Discusses determinants of health behaviour, based on the most recent research on social cognition Includes a review of research on the health impact of health behaviour and stress Considers how behaviour is influenced by environmental factors outside individual awareness Argues for an integrative approach that combines psychological, economic and environmental interventions in order to reduce the potential risk to health arising from behaviour or stressful events. Social Psychology and Health 3rd editionis essential reading for students taking social and health psychology courses. It is also useful for students of health and social welfare and provides a reference for health researchers and health professionals.

Author Biography

Wolfgang Stroebe is Professor of Social Psychology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, where he was founding director of the Research Institute for Psychology and Health, incorporating leading health researchers from Dutch and Belgian universities.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Changing conceptions of health and illness	p. 1
The modern increase in life expectancy	p. 1
From disease control to health promotion	p. 3
The impact of behaviour on health	p. 5
The impact of stress on health	p. 8
From the biomedical to the biopsychosocial model of disease	p. 8
Social psychology and health	p. 9
Plan of the book	p. 10
Further reading	p. 11
Determinants of health behaviour: deliberate and automatic instigation of action	p. 12
Attitudes, beliefs, goals, intentions and behaviour	p. 13
The changing conception of attitudes	p. 13
The relationship between attitudes and beliefs	p. 18
The relationship between attitudes, goals and intentions	p. 19
The relationship between attitude and behaviour	p. 20
Health behaviour	p. 22
Models of deliberate behaviour	p. 24
The health belief model	p. 24
Protection motivation theory	p. 28
The theories of reasoned action and planned behaviour	p. 33
Narrowing the intention-behaviour gap: forming implementation intentions	p. 42
Beyond reasons and plans: when intentions are derailed	p. 45
Automatic and deliberate influence of goals	p. 46
Self-control dilemmas and their resolution	p. 49
Automatic influence of attitudes on behaviour	p. 51
Automatic influence of habits on behaviour	p. 53
The breaking of habits: implications for interventions	p. 57
Deliberate and automatic instigation of action: an attempt at integration	p. 57
Summary and conclusions	p. 61
Further reading	p. 63
Beyond persuasion; the modification of health behaviour	p. 64
The nature of change	p. 64
Precaution adoption process model	p. 65
The transtheoreticaf model of behaviour change	p. 67
Implications of stage models for interventions	p. 74
Conclusions	p. 74
The public health model	p. 75
Persuasion	p. 75
Limits to persuasion	p. 85
Beyond persuasion: changing the incentive structure	p. 89
Conclusions	p. 90
Settings for health promotion	p. 90
The physician's office	p. 90
Schools	p. 91
Worksite	p. 91
Community	p. 92
Web	p. 94
Conclusions	p. 95
The therapy model: changing and maintaining change	p. 96
Cognitive-behavioural treatment procedures	p. 96
Relapse and relapse prevention	p. 99
Changing automatic response tendencies	p. 102
Summary and conclusions	p. 105
Further reading	p. 106
Behaviour and health: excessive appetites	p. 107
Smoking	p. 107
The health consequences of smoking	p. 107
The economic costs of smoking	p. 111
Determinants of smoking	p. 111
Stopping smoking unaided	p. 115
Helping smokers to stop	p. 118
Primary prevention	p. 125
Conclusions	p. 128
Alcohol and alcohol abuse	p. 129
Alcohol and health	p. 129
Morbidity and mortality	p. 129
Behavioural and cognitive consequences of alcohol consumption	p. 134
Hazardous consumption levels and alcoholism	p. 137
Theories of alcohol abuse	p. 140
Clinical treatment of alcohol problems	p. 147
Community-based interventions for alcohol problems	p. 152
Primary prevention	p. 155
Conclusions	p. 157
Eating control, overweight and obesity	p. 158
Overweight, obesity and body weight standards	p. 158
Obesity and health	p. 158
Social and psychological consequences of obesity	p. 160
Genetics and weight	p. 162
The physiological regulation of eating behaviour	p. 162
Psychological theories of eating	p. 164
Clinical treatment of obesity	p. 175
Commercial weight loss programmes	p. 181
Trying to lose weight without help	p. 182
Is long-term weight loss possible?	p. 183
Can dieting be harmful?	p. 184
Prevention of overweight and obesity	p. 186
Conclusions	p. 188
Summary and conclusions	p. 189
Further reading	p. 189
Behaviour and health: self-protection	p. 191
Healthy diet	p. 191
Fats, cholesterol and coronary heart disease	p. 191
Salt intake and hypertension	p. 197
Conclusions	p. 198
Physical activity	p. 199
Physical activity and physical health	p. 200
Physical activity and psychological health	p. 206
Physical activity and healthy ageing	p. 208
The determinants of physical activity	p. 209
The efficacy of interventions to promote physical activity	p. 213
Conclusions	p. 215
Prevention of HIV infections and AIDS	p. 216
The cause of AIDS	p. 216
Modes of transmission	p. 217
The epidemiology	p. 218
Diagnosis of HIV infection	p. 219
Treatment of HIV and AIDS	p. 220
Prevention of HIV infection through safe(r) sex	p. 222
Psychosocial determinants of sexual risk behaviour	p. 224
Implications for interventions	p. 227
Conclusions	p. 230
Prevention and control of unintentional injuries	p. 230
The epidemiology	p. 230
The control of unintentional injury	p. 230
Conclusions	p. 234
Summary and conclusions	p. 235
Further reading	p. 236
Stress and health	p. 237
Physiological stress and the breakdown of adaptation	p. 237
Psychosocial stress and health	p. 239
The health impact of cumulative life stress	p. 239
The health impact of specific life events: the case of partner loss	p. 246
What makes critical life events stressful?	p. 248
Stress as a person environment interaction	p. 249
Stress as learned helplessness	p. 251
Conclusions	p. 254
How does psychosocial stress affect health?	p. 255
physiological responses to stress	p. 255
Cognitive responses to stress	p. 257
Behavioural responses to stress	p. 257
Stress and disease	p. 258
Summary and conclusions	p. 269
Further reading	p. 269
Moderators of the stress-health relationship	p. 271
Strategies of coping	p. 271
Dimensions of coping	p. 272
The differential effectiveness of strategies of coping	p. 275
Conclusions	p. 278
Coping resources as moderators of the stress-health relationship	p. 278
Extrapersonal coping resources	p. 279
Intrapersonal coping resources	p. 292
Other moderators of the stress-health relationship	p. 298
Hostility	p. 298
Anxiety	p. 302
Summary and conclusions	p. 304
Further reading	p. 305
The role of social psychology in health promotion	p. 307
Limits to persuasion	p. 307
Some side-effects of health education	p. 309
Beyond persuasion: changing the incentive structure	p. 311
Freedom and constraint	p. 311
Summary and conclusions	p. 313
Glossary	p. 314
References	p. 323
Author index	p. 366
Subject index	p. 375
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.