Health Psychology K/U

Health Psychology

The WHO defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease.”

• This way of conceptualizing health falls more into the biopsychosocial model of explaining health

  • Implies that health exists on a spectrum from premature death to high-level functioning

• Health psychology aims to examine how these factors influence health and illness

Health Promotion

• Strategies or initiatives designed to encourage healthier behaviours, improving wellbeing

  • May involve education, policy changes, and campaigns based on scientific evidence

• Effectiveness of health promotion is defined primarily as its long-term impacts on behaviour

  • These changes can be induced through highlighting risks and targeting harmful attitudes and beliefs

Health Belief Model

• Explains why some individuals engage in healthy behaviours while others do not

• Focuses on perceptions as the basis for health-related decisions rather than absolute facts

  • Individuals must have an incentive for change, feel threatened by their current behaviour, and believe that change is beneficial

• Evaluation of threat (perceived severity and probability of harm) and cost-benefit analysis (perceived benefits vs perceived risks) help inform if an individual will engage in healthy behaviour

• Self-efficacy provides a feeling of competency towards improving health

  • Influenced by previous experiences, observations of others, and emotional/physical state

Ethical Consideration in Health Promotion

Barriers to Access

• Equal access to health promotion to ensure equity across members of a group

  • Certain treatments are catered towards wealthier and more privileged individuals because they have the means to access the treatment recommended

• Often achieved through ensuring that both the experimental and control conditions receive treatments if they are useful

• Lowe et al. (2004)

Stigmatization

• A phenomenon possibly caused by fear arousal-based health promotion that causes negative associations related to a certain group of people

  • Fear arousal-based promotion may portray a certain health issue and those suffering from it negatively to highlight the risks

  • This may also lead to worsened perceptions of these individuals either from themselves or others

• Quist-Paulsen et al. (2003)

Ethical Considerations in the Study of Health Promotion

Informed Consent

• Consent is necessary to ensure that all participants are aware of their rights

  • Allows for individuals to understand that they can remove their data or leave the study if they feel uncomfortable

  • This ensures that there is minimal undue stress and harm

  • Especially important for research on health promotion since this may involve participants’ sensitive information (eg. medical history) and may be a difficult topic for them to engage with publicly

• This may also detriment the study by causing participants to understand the research’s true aim and cause demand characteristics

Anonymity

• Participants’ data must be released in a way that ensures their identities cannot be linked to the associated data

  • Protects the participants from being doxed and ensures that they feel safe participating in the study

  • Especially important for Sanderson and Yopyk (2007) since one’s sexual activity can be considered sensitive information

• Allows for participants to provide more accurate information since they know they cannot be judged directly, improving the study’s validity

• Also leads to lower experimental mortality since participants will experience less stress from received risk of having their private information shared