More handpicked essays just for you.
What influences behavior in social settings
Influence of social environment to human behaviors
Influence of social environment to human behaviors
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Originators and Purpose
In the 1960’s and 70’s there was an assumption that attitudes towards behavior is what determined behaviors. This was not true, and there was no evidence to back it up. Martin Fishbein and Icek Azjen conducted research experiments and studies in 1975 about attitudes and behaviors that once again confirmed there was no relationship between those two variables. Fishbein and Azjen said that behavior depends on the intention to participate in a behavior and does not depend on the attitude towards the behavior. This is where the Theory or reasoned Action and Theory of Planned Behaviors came from. These theories say that behavior is based on intention and provided an alternative to the previous belief that behavior is related to attitude. Intention is how likely someone is to participate in a certain behavior. Intention is affected by attitudes, subjective norms, volitional control and behavioral control. These are the four main constructs of the theories. The theories are relatively the same, with the exception of the behavioral control construct. The Theory of Planned Behavior has an extra construct to it which is called behavioral control. This theory is helpful whenever the behavior is not under volitional control.
Overview of Core Constructs
The constructs of the Theory of Reasoned Action and Theory of Planned Behavior are attitudes, subjective norms, volitional control, and behavioral control. All of these constructs affect a person’s intentions. Attitudes are beliefs that someone has that place a value on an outcome of a behavior. It depends on what a person’s feelings are about the behavior. For example, if a person views eating healthy as a good thing and something they want to do, then they will hav...
... middle of paper ...
... wants their patients to start eating healthier it could help give them ideas on how to change their patient’s intentions. The health care provider could help the patient realize that the important people in their life want them to eat healthy, and this could help change their behavior. They could educate them on the effects of eating healthier and ultimately change their attitude about eating healthy. For example, the patient does not have to cut junk food out completely; they just have to eat it in moderation. This is just one situation were the theories could help in the health care field. There are many other ways these theories are useful. It is important to understand these theories in order to understand that behavior is affected by someone’s intentions. This makes it easier to understand what affects a person’s intentions and how they can be changed.
A of his current state of health and lifestyle behaviours (Harris, Nutbeam, Wise, 2004). For example, the model explores 6 behavioural stages; pre-contemplation, contemplation, determination, action, maintenance and termination. These stages focus on the individual’s experience, behavioural changes and processes as opposed to an event which has determined a behaviour change. Evidently, the transtheoretical model determines that Mr. A is at the pre-contemplation stage (Prochaska & Velicer, 1997). Due to Mr. A experiencing this stage, he is not planning change to his current lifestyle choices. Although Mr. A is not planning changes in the foreseeable future, the transtheoretical model in conjunction with an education campaign can inform Mr. A about different behavioural stages that he may experience. However, understanding this behaviour change model of health cannot determine why Mr. A’s his current lifestyle and behaviour (Prochaska & Velicer, 1997). Fortunately, inclusion of maslow’s hierarchy of needs psychology theory (Donovan, Egger, Spark, 2005) used in conjunction with the transtheoretical model of health, can identify barriers that are stopping Mr A from actively using information from health education campaigns to change his behaviour (Harris, Nutbeam, Wise,
The Behavioral Model and behavioral theorists believe that our actions are determined by our experiences in life. The focus of this model is on the subject’s behaviors in response to their environment. These behaviors can either be external or internal. Learned behaviors can help some people cope and lead to productive activities in life. Learned behaviors can also be abnormal and lead to abnormal functioning (Comer, 2005-2011).
Hogg, M.A., Abrams, D., & Martin, G.N. (2010). Social Cognition and Attitudes. In Martin, G.N., Carlson, N.R., Buskist W., (Ed.), Psychology (pp 646-677). Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
The Health Belief Model (HBM) comes from the psychological and behavioral theorists. The premise is that there are two parts involved in health related behavior. “People are more inclined to engage in a health behavior when they think doing so can reduce a threat that is likely and would have severe consequences if it occurred.” (Brewer & Rimer, 2008, p. 152). The patient believes that a specific health action will prevent or cure the illness. How the individual responds depends on the perceived benefits and barriers of that health behavior.
Theory has been defined as, “an organized set of assumptions, beliefs, or ideas about particular phenomena in the world (Teater, 2015).” Theory is used to understand and explain possible and perceived instances, behaviors and outcomes (Teater, 2015). Social workers use theory in order to understand, as well as, introduce interventions and solutions to their client’s individual situation. It is important for students entering into the social work profession to have a base knowledge of theories, with basic understanding of their similarities and differences to appropriately apply theory in practice. The theories which will be focused on in this paper include Systems Theory and Cognitive Behavioral Theory.
Aim of this paper is to examine and present the application of social cognition models in the prediction and alternation of health behavior. Social cognition models are used in health practices in order to prevent illness or even improve the health state of the individuals in interest, and protect their possibly current healthy state. This essay is an evaluation of the social cognition models when used to health behaviors. Unfortunately it is impossible to discuss extensively all the models and for this reason we will analyze three of the most representative cognitive models to present an integrated idea of their application.
The key concept of the health belief model includes threat perception (perceived threat), behavioral evaluation, self-efficacy and other variables. The threat perception has very great relevance in health-related behaviors. This perception are measured by perceived susceptibility (the beliefs about the likelihood of contacting a disease) and perceived severity (the feeling about the seriousness of contacting an illness and leaving it untreated). The behavioral evaluation is assessed by the levels of perceived benefits (the positive effects to be expected), perceived barriers (potential negative aspects of a health behavior), and cues to action (the strategies to activated one’s readiness). The self-efficacy key concept was not originally included in of the health belief model, and it was just added in 1998 to look at a person’s belief in his/her ability to take action in order to make a health related change. The other variables that are also the key concepts of the model include diverse demography, sociopsychology, education, and structure. These factors are variable from one to another and indirectly influence an individual’s health-related behavior because the factors influence the perception...
This model was put in place to avoid health problems. Some people are more likely to take action towards their health if they feel threatened. An example can be an obese lady who might be at risk of suffering from a heart attack, she is likely to go to her GP and seek for help as having a heart attack can lead to death, and if she gets help, and her health will be less damaged. In order to help her the GP would refer her to a nutritionist which will help her maintain a healthier diet, even more the professionals from the GP would explain the side effects of what can happen if she doesn’t get healthier. The health care professional will also encourage the lady to start doing physical activities to avoid other diseases such as heart diseases or if she has a heart disease, it helps her avoid having a heart attack.
The main subset of Applied Behavior Analysis is “Stimulus, Operant conditioning, positive reinforcement and punishment and consequences” Stimulus is events and the relationship it has on the Individual Behavior. The relationship of stimulus can be revealed through a method behavior analyst call the ABCs analysis. The more formal term for this method is called “Antecedent, Behavior, Consequence” analysis. The stimulus is represented by the antecedent (events prior to the occurred, behavior) and the Consequence. (Events that precedes a behavior). Behavior Analysis believes these are imperative to understanding behavior and the influence of events. Furthermore, the term operant conditioning behavior corresponds to the stimuli of the consequence. Moreover, the Consequence that precedes a behavior can be positive or negative. The significance of these stimuli is the ability to influence and affect the contingency of the individual target behavior.
Behaviorism includes two theories: classical conditioning, and operant conditioning (McLeod, Psychology Perspectives, 2007). Classical conditioning proposes that behavior, attitudes, and responses are developed by associations. For example, a dog can be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell if every time that the bell is rung, food appears. Operant conditioning, on the contrary, is the theory that suggests that behavior, attitudes,
...in order to show the participants that cooking at home is an easy task. This will increase their self-efficacy. During this program, participants will be trying to lose 2-10% of their body weight in 6-months’ time. By losing a little weight, they will see that they can achieve weight loss, and will continue to try and lose weight. The reinforcement construct refers to rewards or punishments someone gets for doing something. By going to every meeting, participants will be rewarded by small prizes. This will reward them for coming, and they will be more likely to return. Fact sheets, brochures, and a series of print materials will be used to teach the participants and motivate them to participate. By completing this program that has been based on the Social Cognitive Theory, participants will lose weight and learn about how to eat a healthy diet in their daily lives.
Lets make it quite clear that change doesn’t happen overnight nor is it ever a process easy. To make a proper and healthy life-style behavior change, you must be dedicated to put in the time and effort that’s necessary for accomplish any goal. When I first began to become engage in exercising and becoming more physically fit I found that the Health Belief Model and the Social Cognitive Theory demonstrated the progression that I have made throughout my change. To begin you do not need to try and follow through the steps provided in any given model or a theory, the reasoning behind that statement is that everyone is different so our stages of change will all differ from one another. For me, once I decided that I wanted to begin attending group-fitness classes I found that through the Health Belief Model I had to understand the perceived benefits of my change, I had to
According to the Social Cognitive Theory, changing a behavior is a function of individual characteristics: a person’s sense of self efficacy about the new behavior, their confidence and overcoming barriers. The person’s behavioral capability, expectations and expectancies, their level of self-control and emotional coping ability; environmental factors: the social and physical environment surrounding individuals. The behavior of others (“modeling”) and the consequences of that behavior, which result in vicarious learning. The situation in which the behavior takes place, and perceptions of the situation by individuals. Reinforcements (negative or positive) that are given to individuals in response to the behavior; the interactive process of reciprocal determinism where a person acts based on individual factors and social/environmental cues, receives a response from that environment, adjust behavior, acts again and so on (Edberg, 2015). Ensuring that patients receive social skills training, self-efficacy boost, an educational component and vicarious learning is in alignment with the social cognitive theory. Unfortunately, there are certain regions that suffer from health and socioeconomic disparities that lead to extraordinarily poor health outcomes that would benefit from the implementation of the social cognitive
This perspective suggests that much of human behavior is mediated by thought processes like memory and attention, belief systems, attitudes and language. Belief systems, value systems, thought processes, reason and intelligence have a significant impact on why we do the things we do and act the way we act. The cognitive perspective suggests that much of human behavior is significantly influenced by cognitive processes and is thus amenable to our thoughtful control (1). Cognitive Psychology revolves around the notion that if we want to know what makes people tick then the way to do it is to figure out what processes are actually going on in their minds
Attitudes help us define how we see situations, as well as define how we behave toward the situation or object. As illustrated in the tri- component model, attitudes include feelings, thoughts, and actions. Attitudes may simply be an enduring evaluation of a person or object, or other emotional reactions to objects and to people. Attitudes also provide us with internal cognitions or beliefs and thoughts about people and objects. Attitudes cause us to behave in a particular way toward an object or person. Although the feeling and belief components of attitudes are internal to a person, we can view a person’s attitude from his or her resulting behavior.