Health Psychology - Brynildsen: Exam 3

main takeaway mann article

Health behavior messages are more effective when the message framing matches a person’s motivational orientation. Approach-oriented individuals respond better to gain-framed messages, while avoidance-oriented individuals respond better to loss-framed messages, leading to greater behavior change such as increased flossing

What is the congruency hypothesis? mann article

The congruency hypothesis states that health messages are most effective when the message frame matches a person’s motivational orientation. Approach-oriented individuals respond better to gain-framed messages, while avoidance-oriented individuals respond better to loss-framed messages.

What are BIS and BAS? mann article

BIS (Behavioral Inhibition System) and BAS (Behavioral Activation System) are motivational systems that measure how sensitive people are to punishment and rewards. BIS is related to sensitivity to threats and punishment, while BAS is related to sensitivity to rewards and incentives.

What are approach and avoidance orientations? mann article

Approach orientation refers to being motivated by rewards and positive outcomes, while avoidance orientation refers to being motivated by avoiding punishment or negative outcomes. These orientations reflect how people naturally respond to incentives versus threats.

Is this study experimental or non-experimental? mann article

This study is experimental because researchers manipulated the type of message participants received (gain-framed vs loss-framed) and then measured its effect on flossing behavior.

What were the IVs? mann article

The independent variables were the type of message frame (gain-framed vs loss-framed) and participants’ motivational orientation (approach vs avoidance based on BIS/BAS scores).

What was the DV? mann article

The dependent variable was self-reported flossing behavior, specifically how many of the seven floss picks participants used during the following week.

What were the effects of gain-framed and loss-framed messages on flossing behavior? mann article

Gain-framed messages led to more flossing among approach-oriented individuals, while loss-framed messages led to more flossing among avoidance-oriented individuals. This supported the congruency hypothesis that messages are most effective when they match a person’s motivational orientation.

What is primary prevention?

Primary prevention involves actions taken to prevent illness before it occurs.

What is an example of primary prevention?

Examples include exercising, eating healthy, wearing sunscreen, or getting vaccinated to prevent disease.

What is secondary prevention?

Secondary prevention involves detecting or treating illness early to reduce its severity or progression.

What is an example of secondary prevention?

Examples include cancer screenings, mammograms, blood pressure checks, or other medical screenings.

What is tertiary prevention?

Tertiary prevention involves minimizing damage or complications from an illness that has already developed.

What is an example of tertiary prevention?

Examples include rehabilitation after a stroke, physical therapy after injury, or treatments that slow disease progression.

What are the levels of prevention?

Levels of prevention include individual, group, organization, community, and population levels.

What is individual-level prevention?

Individual-level prevention targets behavior change in a single person.

What is group-level prevention?

Group-level prevention targets behavior change in specific groups of people.

What is organization-level prevention?

Organization-level prevention targets behavior change within institutions such as schools or workplaces.

What is community-level prevention?

Community-level prevention targets health behaviors within a local community.

What is population-level prevention?

Population-level prevention targets the entire population through policies or public health programs.

What is prospect theory?

Prospect theory states that people’s decisions are influenced by how information is framed, especially in terms of gains or losses.

What are gain-framed messages?

Gain-framed messages emphasize the benefits of performing a health behavior.

Example: Using sunscreen protects your skin and prevents damage.

What are loss-framed messages?

Loss-framed messages emphasize the negative consequences of not performing a health behavior.

Example: Not using sunscreen increases your risk of skin cancer.

For what types of health behaviors are gain-framed messages most effective?

Gain-framed messages are most effective for prevention behaviors that reduce the risk of disease.

For what types of health behaviors are loss-framed messages most effective?

Loss-framed messages are most effective for detection behaviors such as screenings or tests that may reveal disease.

What did Meyerowitz and Chaiken (1987) study?

They tested gain- vs. loss-framed messages about breast self-exams to see which increased women’s intentions to perform the exams.

What were the results of Meyerowitz and Chaiken (1987)?

Loss-framed messages were more effective at increasing breast self-examination behavior.

What did Detweiller et al. (1999) study?

They examined the effects of gain- and loss-framed messages on sun-protective behaviors among beachgoers.

What were the results of Detweiller et al. (1999)?

Gain-framed messages were more effective at encouraging sunscreen use and other prevention behaviors.

What are information-based interventions?

Information-based interventions provide people with facts or education about the risks or benefits of behaviors.

How effective are information-based interventions (Leventhal et al., 1965)?

Providing information alone is usually not very effective at changing behavior.

What are emotion-based interventions?

Emotion-based interventions attempt to change behavior by evoking emotions such as fear, guilt, or concern.

What are fear-based interventions?

Fear-based interventions use messages that highlight serious health threats to motivate behavior change.

How effective are fear-based interventions?

Fear-based interventions can be effective but only under certain conditions.

What factors contribute to the effectiveness of fear-based interventions?

Fear messages are most effective when they create a moderate level of fear and provide a clear strategy for how to change behavior.

Why can fear-based messages sometimes fail?

High levels of fear can create anxiety, which may impair cognitive processing and prevent people from acting.

What are behavioral nudges?

Behavioral nudges are subtle interventions that encourage positive behaviors without restricting people’s choices.

What did Dai et al. (2021) study about behavioral nudges?

They tested whether text message reminders and psychological ownership messages could increase Covid-19 vaccination rates.

What were the results of Dai et al. study on behavioral nudges and Covid-19 vaccinations (2021)?

Text message reminders and messages that created psychological ownership of the vaccine increased vaccination appointments.

What psychological and social factors are associated with smoking initiation?

Psychological factors include optimistic bias (low perceived risk), depression, low self-esteem, perceived benefits, and weight control. Social factors include modeling, media influence, and influence from parents, siblings, and friends.

What are tolerance and withdrawal symptoms?

Tolerance is when the body no longer responds to the same dose of a substance. Withdrawal symptoms are negative physical and psychological effects that occur when a person stops using the substance.

What are the effects of nicotine?

Nicotine stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and increases neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins, leading to increased alertness, pleasure, and relaxation.

What is the nicotine fixed-effect model?

The nicotine fixed-effect model states that nicotine directly increases pleasure and positive feelings by enhancing neurotransmitter activity, making smoking feel good.

What is the nicotine regulation model?

The nicotine regulation model states that smokers try to maintain a certain level of nicotine in their body (a set-point), adjusting their smoking behavior to keep nicotine levels stable.

What was Strasser et al.’s (2007) study?

Strasser et al. (2007) found that smokers using lower-nicotine cigarettes took more and larger puffs to compensate and maintain their nicotine levels.

What is the affect-regulation model?

The affect-regulation model states that people smoke to increase positive emotions or reduce negative emotions like stress, anxiety, or boredom.

What were the results of studies supporting the affect-regulation model (McEwen et al., 2008; Schachter et al., 1977)?

Schachter et al. (1977) found that people under high stress smoked more. McEwen et al. (2008) found that people smoke for reasons like stress relief, enjoyment, boredom, and concentration.

What are important aspects of social influence programs to prevent smoking?

They target high-risk groups (like adolescents), highlight negative short-term effects, emphasize that peers disapprove of smoking, and use role models.

What are the nicotine-fading and nicotine-replacement strategies?

Nicotine-fading gradually reduces nicotine intake over time, while nicotine-replacement provides nicotine (e.g., patches, gum) without smoking to reduce withdrawal symptoms.

What are government programs aimed at reducing smoking?

They include increasing cigarette prices, restricting advertising, banning smoking in public places, and setting legal age limits for purchasing tobacco.

What are self-management strategies?

Self-management strategies include stimulus control (avoiding triggers), response substitution (replacing smoking with another behavior), stress management, and contingency contracting.

Q: What is behavioral disinhibition?

A: Reduction in the association between attitudes and behavior.

Q: What is alcohol myopia?

A: Behavior influenced by the most salient (but not most important or relevant) cues.

Q: What were the results of MacDonald et al.’s (1995) study with contingent and non-contingent questions?

A: Intoxicated participants reported higher intentions to drink and drive when asked contingent questions compared to non-contingent questions.

Q: What is tension-reduction theory?

A: People drink alcohol to cope with negative emotions.

Q: What were the results of Hull and Young’s (1983) study on self-consciousness and alcohol consumption?

A: High self-conscious individuals drank more alcohol after negative feedback (failure) than after positive feedback.

Q: How does social learning theory explain alcohol use?

A: People learn norms for alcohol use through modeling, advertisements, and social norms.

Q: What is pluralistic ignorance? What was Prentice and Miller’s (1993) study?

A: Pluralistic ignorance is believing your attitudes differ from others even when behavior is the same; students thought others approved of alcohol use more than they actually did.

Q: What are aspects of intervention programs to prevent alcohol abuse? How effective are they?

A: Intervention programs include early intervention for at-risk people, providing information about consequences, teaching strategies for decreasing alcohol use, challenging expectations about alcohol, and correcting perceptions about how much others drink. The slides list these as prevention approaches, but they do not give one overall effectiveness conclusion for all of them together.

Q: Providing information about the consequences of alcohol use

A: Giving people information about negative consequences of alcohol use.

Q: Providing strategies for decreasing alcohol use

A: Teaching skills like how to drink in moderation.

Q: Challenging expectations about alcohol

A: Changing beliefs about alcohol (e.g., using placebo or real alcohol).

Q: Challenging perceptions about others’ alcohol use

A: Correcting beliefs about how much peers actually drink.

Q: What are aversion techniques to treat alcohol abuse (e.g., Antabuse)?

A: Pairing alcohol with an unpleasant stimulus to discourage drinking.

Q: What are self-management techniques to treat alcohol abuse (e.g., contingency contracting)?

A: Techniques like stimulus control, response substitution, contingency contracting, and coping with stress.

Q: How is obesity measured (e.g., BMI)?

A: BMI is weight in kg divided by height in meters squared.

Q: What is problematic about the use of BMI to measure obesity?

A: Many overweight people are healthy and many normal-weight people are unhealthy.

Q: What did Tomiyama et al. (2016) find about using BMI to predict health (e.g., blood pressure)?

A: BMI does not accurately predict health, as many overweight people are healthy.

Q: How does the distribution of fat (i.e., apples vs. pears) relate to health outcomes of obesity?

A: Fat distribution (waist-to-hip ratio) is related to health outcomes.

Q: What is the evidence of a genetic contribution to obesity (e.g., adoption studies)?

A: Adoption and twin studies show genetic factors influence obesity.

Q: What did Levine et al. (1999) find when participants consumed 1000 extra calories per day?

A: There was a large range in weight gain among participants.

Q: What is set-point theory?

A: The body tries to maintain a certain weight by adjusting metabolism.

Q: What is the internal-external hypothesis?

A: Eating is driven by external cues (like taste or smell) rather than internal hunger cues.

Q: What is mood regulation theory?

A: People eat to manage moods like stress, anxiety, or depression.

Q: What was Rutters et al.’s (2009) study?

A: Participants under stress ate more food even when not hungry.

Q: What is restraint theory?

A: People restrict food intake to try to lose weight.

Q: What was Herman and Mack’s (1975) study?

A: Dieters who drank milkshakes ate more ice cream than non-dieters, showing disinhibition.

Q: What was Tomiyama et al.’s (2009)?

A: After a diet violation, restrained eaters either ate more (disinhibition) or less (compensation).

Q: What are disinhibition and compensation?

A: Disinhibition is overeating after breaking a diet; compensation is eating less afterward.