Health Psychology (PSYC 502) - Core Models and Theories

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the definitions, theoretical frameworks, models of health, and barriers from PSYC 502 Health Psychology.

Health Psychology

The field devoted to understanding psychological influences on how people stay healthy, why they become ill, and how they respond when they do get ill (Shelley E. Taylor, 2003).

Health Promotion

A branch of health psychology focusing on population-wide health, preventive measures, lifestyle habits, and public policy interventions at the population and prevention level.

Clinical Health Psychology

A branch of health psychology focusing on individual patient care, coping with diagnosis, medical adherence, and managing chronic illness at the individual and healthcare level.

Biomedical Model

A health model that focuses exclusively on biological dysfunction and pathogens, treats mind and body as separate entities, assigns a passive role to the patient in recovery, and defines health simply as the absence of disease.

Biopsychosocial Model

A health model that integrates biological, social, and psychological factors, recognises mind-body interactions in health, fosters an active partnership between patient and clinician, and defines health as holistic physical and mental wellbeing.

Health Promoting Behaviours

Actions and habits that maintain, improve, or protect physical, mental, and social wellbeing and reduce the risk of disease.

Health Compromising Behaviours

Actions and habits that increase the risk of illness, injury, or premature death and negatively affect physical and psychological wellbeing.

Social Cognitive Theory (SCT)

A framework proposing that behaviour is influenced by reciprocal interactions between personal factors, behaviour, and the social environment, driven by self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, goals, and socio-structural factors.

Health Belief Model (HBM)

A health behaviour model (Hochbaum, 1958; Rosenstock, 1966) positing that health behaviour is determined by modifying factors, perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits and barriers, and cues to action.

Perceived Severity

A person's perception of how serious they think the impact of a particular illness or health threat would be on their life.

Perceived Susceptibility

A person's perception of their likelihood or vulnerability of contracting a particular health threat or illness.

Perceived Benefits and Barriers

The cognitive evaluation within health behaviour models assessing whether the advantages gained from a behaviour change outweigh the personal costs, effort, and inconvenience associated with it.

Cues to Action

Internal triggers (e.g., physical symptoms) or external prompts (e.g., warning labels, public health campaigns, doctor advice, social reminders) that stimulate the decision-making process to take health action.

Unrealistic Optimism

The cognitive bias identified by Weinstein (1983) wherein individuals rate their personal likelihood of experiencing a health problem as lower than that of comparable peers of the same age and gender.

Protection Motivation Theory (PMT)

A theory developed by Rogers (1983) positing that health behaviour is driven by protection motivation arising from two cognitive processes: threat appraisal and coping appraisal.

Threat Appraisal

A component of Protection Motivation Theory in which an individual evaluates the severity and personal vulnerability of a health threat against the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards of continuing the risky behaviour.

Coping Appraisal

A component of Protection Motivation Theory evaluating a person's ability to cope with a threat, comprising self-efficacy, response efficacy, and the response costs associated with the adaptive behaviour.

Response Efficacy

The belief in whether a proposed protective action or preventative behaviour will effectively reduce or eliminate the health threat ('Will it work?').

Response Cost

The perceived disadvantages, expenses, effort, physical pain, or psychological discomfort required to implement a protective health behaviour ('What will it take?').

Self-Efficacy

The belief in one's capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations (Albert Bandura, 1986).

Mastery Experience

The direct, successful performance of a behaviour that serves as the most effective means to build confidence and enhance self-efficacy for future attempts.

Behavioural Intentions

Conscious plans or decisions to execute a specific behaviour in the future, recognized as the single strongest direct predictor of future health-related actions.

Intention-Behaviour Gap

The disconnect that occurs when an individual fails to translate good behavioural intentions into action due to constraints such as lack of time, resources, or environmental support.

Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA)

A theory developed by Ajzen & Fishbein (1980) stating that behavioural intentions are determined by attitudes toward the behaviour (outcome beliefs and evaluations) and subjective norms.

Subjective Norms

The perceived social expectations and pressure from significant others (e.g., family, friends, clinicians) to perform or refrain from a given behaviour, along with the motivation to comply with them.

Self-Presentation

The process of managing how one is perceived by others, which influences behavioural intentions independently of personal attitudes, especially when actions are publicly observable.

Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB)

An extension of the Theory of Reasoned Action by Ajzen & Madden (1986) and Ajzen (1991) that adds perceived behavioural control as a core determinant of intentions and behaviour.

Perceived Behavioural Control (PBC)

An individual's perception of the ease or difficulty of performing a behaviour, dictated by internal control factors (skills, information, emotions) and external control factors (resources, opportunities, obstacles).

Transtheoretical Model of Behaviour Change (TTM)

A stage-based model developed by Prochaska & DiClemente (1984) proposing that health behaviour modification progresses through five distinct stages: Precontemplation, Contemplation, Preparation, Action, and Maintenance.

Precontemplation Stage

The first stage of the Transtheoretical Model in which an individual has no intention of making changes in the foreseeable future and often minimizes or denies the problem.

Contemplation Stage

The second stage of the Transtheoretical Model where an individual is aware that a problem exists and considers taking action in the near future, but is not yet committed to executing change.

Preparation Stage

The third stage of the Transtheoretical Model in which a person is preparing to alter behaviour and is already implementing small preparatory actions to achieve their goal.

Action Stage

The fourth stage of the Transtheoretical Model during which an individual is actively engaging in and applying time and energy toward the new target behaviour.

Maintenance Stage

The fifth stage of the Transtheoretical Model where an individual has reached their desired behaviour change and focuses on sustaining the new pattern long-term to prevent relapse.

Wellbeing

A multidimensional state of being comfortable, healthy, and happy across environmental, social, biological, lifestyle, vocational, societal, and socioeconomic dimensions.

WHO-5 Well-being Index

A widely utilized 5-item self-report questionnaire assessing positive psychological wellbeing over a two-week recall period, scored on a scale from $0$ to $5$ per item.

Socio-Ecological Model

A multilevel conceptual framework categorizing barriers and determinants of health promotion across individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and policy/societal levels.

Food Swamps

Geographic physical environments defined by a high concentration and overabundance of retail outlets selling unhealthy, energy-dense fast foods and snacks relative to healthy options.

Food Deserts

Geographic areas characterized by limited or nonexistent access to fresh, nutritious, and affordable whole foods.

KidsCam Study

A study (Signal et al., 2017; Chambers et al., 2018) tracking children aged $11\text{--}13$ using automated wearable cameras, revealing average daily exposures of $4.5$ times to alcohol marketing, $27.3$ times to unhealthy food marketing, and only $12.3$ times to core foods.