Health Education (February 8, 2019)
HOMEOSTASIS AS A MOTIVATION
Energy from homeostasis directs a
person towards actions for one’s
maintenance of health and the
actualization of individual potentials
2 Levels:
1. Biological Level – the ability to resist
disease and maintain body temperature
and total biological chemistry
2. Interpretive Level – need to establish
self – work, interact socially, and avoid
those things that are identified as
painful – in short, to behave in ways
that result in personal satisfaction,
growth, and actualization
Learning is directly related to
successful balance between the
biological and interpretive levels since
the actions a person takes can assist in
the maintenance and promotion of
health.
Example
1. Knowledge of getting vaccinated will
help boost body resistance to the
disease.
2. Adequate nutrition –> improved health
–> good body image
HOMEOSTASIS, LEVEL OF HEALTH
(Illustration)
The level of health learning needed
biological or interpretive is associated
with homeostasis as a motivational
force
FACTORS THAT MOTIVATE
The kinds of things that act as
motivators at one time may actually
act as demotivators at another
1. INTENT TO LEARN
- Stimulated by external forces in
the environment
- Educators
- Audiovisual stimuli
External Stimuli = INCENTIVES
Intent to Learn = MOTIVATION
May be superimposed through
aspirations, wants, and desires.
 For direct learning to take place,
the person must want to learn, and
learning opportunities must be
made available when READINESS
to learn is attained.
 Health educators must help people
understand the importance of new
knowledge
 The individual is able to reproduce
the knowledge for a test, but is not
learning to attain any meaningful
change in behavior
 Know the characteristics of your
target population sometimes,
students resist learning for general
personal reasons
The stronger the desire to learn the
more intense the motivation and the
greater the learner’s enthusiasm for
becoming involved in the learning
process.
2. REWARDS AND PUNISHMENT
 Motivation is much more intense
when an individual experiences
success rather than merely avoids
punishment
 When the reward is related to the
satisfaction of a need, rather than
being artificial, it is more likely to
motivate
3. INCENTIVES
 External or environmental forces
that activate motives
 An incentive is something that an
individual looks forward to upon
completing an assigned task (by
self or others)
Positive incentives – more desirable
than negative incentives
The quality of learning improves as the
strength of the motivation increases

Strong motivation may create anxiety

Health educators should avoid rewards over possible failure and thus interfere
as the goal of learning with learning

 Rewards should be incidental or a The building of confidence through

reinforcement, not the sole reason success is an essential part of the
for learning health education learning experience

Forms of Rewards and Punishments Knowledge one has learned is

a. Material things – salary, grades,
and tokens
b. Abstractions – failure, satisfaction,
or dissatisfaction
frequently sufficient incentive
When an individual translates an
incentive into the force behind an
action, it becomes a motive

Learners learn rapidly when they are

aware of the progress they are
making, rather that when they are
evaluated only at the termination of a
learning experience (Psychological
Feedback)

When the learning experience in

health is inconsistent with the
learner’s developmental level and
capabilities, learner may feel the
threat of failure