ASSIGNMENT 4

QUE 2 -examine health belief model and behaviour modification

citing examples.
Ans - The Health Belief Model (HBM) is a tool that scientists use to try and
predict health behaviors. It was originally developed in the 1950s and updated
in the 1980s. The model is based on the theory that a person's willingness
to change their health behaviors is primarily due to their health perceptions.

According to this model, your individual beliefs about health and health
conditions play a role in determining your health-related behaviors. Key factors
that affect your approach to health include:

 Any barriers you think might be standing in your way

 Exposure to information that prompts you to take action
 How much of a benefit you think you'll get from engaging in healthy
behaviors
 How susceptible you think you are to illness
 What you think the consequences will be of becoming sick
 Your confidence in your ability to succeed

The probability that a person will change their health behaviors to avoid a
consequence depends on how serious they believe the consequences will be. For
example:

 If you are young and in love, you are unlikely to avoid kissing your
sweetheart on the mouth just because they have the sniffles and you
might get their cold. On the other hand, you probably would stop kissing
if it might give you a more serious illness.
 Similarly, people are less likely to consider condoms when they think
STDs are a minor inconvenience. That's why receptiveness to messages
about safe sex increased during the AIDS epidemic. The perceived
severity increased enormously. 

The severity of an illness can have a major impact on health outcomes.

However, a number of studies have shown that perceived risk severity is
actually the least powerful predictor of whether or not people will engage in
preventive health behaviors.

People will not change their health behaviors unless they believe that they are at
risk. For example:
  Individuals who do not think they will get the flu are less likely to get a
yearly flu shot.
 People who think they are unlikely to get skin cancer are less likely to
wear sunscreen or limit sun exposure.
 Those who do not think that they are at risk of acquiring HIV from
unprotected intercourse are less likely to use a condom.
 Young people who don't think they're at risk of lung cancer are less likely
to stop smoking.

It's difficult to convince people to change a behavior if there isn't something in

it for them. People don't want to give up something they enjoy if they don't also
get something in return. For example:

 A person probably won't stop smoking if they don't think that doing so

will improve their life in some way.
 A couple might not choose to practice safe sex if they don't see how it
could make their sex life better. 
 People might not get vaccinated if they do not think there is an individual
benefit for them.

These perceived benefits are often linked to other factors, including the
perceived effectiveness of a behavior. If you believe that getting regular
exercise and eating a healthy diet can prevent heart disease, that belief increases
the perceived benefits of those behaviors.

One of the major reasons people don't change their health behaviors is that they
think doing so is going to be hard. Changing your health behaviors can cost
effort, money, and time. Commonly perceived barriers include:

 Amount of effort required

 Danger
 Discomfort
 Expense
 Inconvenience
 Social consequences

Sometimes it's not just a matter of physical difficulty, but social difficulty as
well. For example, If everyone from your office goes out drinking on Fridays,
it may be very difficult to cut down on your alcohol intake. If you think that
condoms are a sign of distrust in a relationship, you may be hesitant to bring
them up. 
One of the best things about the Health Belief Model is how realistically it frames people's
behaviors. It recognizes the fact that sometimes wanting to change a health behavior isn't
enough to actually make someone do it.

Because of this, it includes two more elements that are necessary to get an individual to make
the leap. These two elements are cues to action and self-efficacy.

 Cues to action are external events that prompt a desire to make a health change. They
can be anything from a blood pressure van being present at a health fair, to seeing a
condom poster on a train, to having a relative die of cancer. A cue to action is
something that helps move someone from wanting to make a health change to actually
making the change.
 Self-efficacy is an element that wasn't added to the model until 1988. Self-efficacy
looks at a person's belief in their ability to make a health-related change. It may seem
trivial, but faith in your ability to do something has an enormous impact on your
actual ability to do it.

Finding ways to improve individual self-efficacy can have a positive impact on health-related
behaviors. For example, one study found that women who had a greater sense of self-efficacy
toward breastfeeding were more likely to nurse their infants longer. The researchers
concluded that teaching mothers to be more confident about breastfeeding would improve
infant nutrition

QUE 2 – EXAMINE THE ROLE OF RELAPSE PREVENTION

AND COGNITIVE BEHAVIOUR APPROACH IN HEALTH
PSYCHOLOGY.
Ans - Relapse prevention is designed to teach clients to anticipate and cope
with the possibility of relapse. In the beginning of relapse prevention training,
clients are taught to recognize and cope with high-risk situations that may
precipitate a lapse and to modify cognitions and other reactions to prevent a
single lapse from developing into a full-blown relapse. Because these
procedures are focused on the immediate precipitants of the relapse process,
they are referred to collectively as “specific intervention strategies.” As clients
master these techniques, clinical practice extends beyond a microanalysis of the
relapse process and the initial lapse and involves strategies designed to modify
the client’s lifestyle and to identify and cope with covert determinants of relapse
(early warning signals, cognitive distortions, and relapse setups). 
Relapse prevention training is that stage of recovery from a substance use
disorder in which the individual has obtained abstinence from psychoactive
substances and effort is directed at reducing vulnerability to relapses of
substance use. Individuals with primary or comorbid substance use disorder
frequently fluctuate between different stages of recovery over the course of their
illness. Therefore, it is common for individuals to cut down on their use of
substances and to achieve abstinence, but to remain vulnerable to relapse. The
goal of the relapse prevention stage is to bolster the patient’s skills for averting
such relapses.
One of the most important components of relapse prevention is helping patients
maintain a high level of awareness of their vulnerability to relapses of substance
use. After a period of successful abstinence, many patients feel increasingly
confident that they will now be able to handle moderate use of alcohol or drugs.
However, abundant evidence indicates that patients with schizophrenia have
extraordinary difficulty using moderate amounts of drugs or alcohol. Therefore,
helping patients maintain an awareness that they are vulnerable to relapses of
their substance use disorder is an important element of relapse prevention.
In addition to maintaining a high level of awareness of vulnerability, a range of
other clinical strategies may be used to facilitate relapse prevention. It may be
helpful to develop a relapse prevention plan to prepare patients for the
possibility of a relapse. A relapse prevention plan should include information
about those situations associated with relapses in the past, early signs of a
relapse, and a specific plan for responding to these warning signals. This relapse
prevention plan is similar to the plan for responding to relapses of psychotic
symptoms, and serves the main purpose of anticipating stressful situations and
formulating a plan for responding to these situations.
Aside from maintaining awareness and developing a relapse prevention plan, it
is critical at this stage of treatment that efforts focus on achieving interpersonal
goals and developing competencies that will improve the quality of patients’
lives and lower their susceptibility to substance abuse. For example, improving
interpersonal skills, the ability to manage stress, skills for recreation and leisure,
and health and fitness may help patients feel better about themselves and less
inclined to resort drug and alcohol use. Thus, the essence of effective relapse
prevention involves addressing factors related to vulnerability to substance
abuse, rather than substance use behavior itself.