Psychology 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 32: Blood Transfusion, Junk Food, Nicorette

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Mark Holden

Document Summary

Health psychology studies psychological & behavioural factors in health maintenance and illness prevention. Health enhancing behaviours: maintain or increase health, e. g. exercise, healthy diet, safe sex, medical checkup, breast or testicular self-examination. Health compromising behaviours: promote development of illness, e. g. smoking, fatty diet, sedentary lifestyle, unprotected sex. 1. pre-contemplation no desire to change: often fail to see behaviour as a problem, may deny negative consequences of behaviour, or, feel powerless to change (so why try?) 2. contemplation see problem with current behaviour (or desirability of alternative behaviour) but, still haven"t decided to change e. g. smoker knows its bad for health, but isn"t ready to make the decision to quit. 4. action actively begin to modify behaviour and environment: e. g. quiet smoking; also discard all packs stage uses greatest amount of effort & energy. Most changes have 3-5 setbacks/relapses overall (at any of the. 6. termination stages) once the new behaviour is so ingrained and under personal control that the problem behaviour will never return.