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Human Behavior & Models

The document explores the definitions and factors influencing human behavior, particularly in relation to health and disease prevention. It emphasizes the importance of understanding behaviors to design effective health interventions and highlights the roles of cognitive, affective, and psycho-motor domains in behavior. Additionally, it discusses the impact of predisposing, enabling, and reinforcing factors on health-related behaviors and the significance of knowledge, attitudes, and values in shaping these behaviors.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
6 views123 pages

Human Behavior & Models

The document explores the definitions and factors influencing human behavior, particularly in relation to health and disease prevention. It emphasizes the importance of understanding behaviors to design effective health interventions and highlights the roles of cognitive, affective, and psycho-motor domains in behavior. Additionally, it discusses the impact of predisposing, enabling, and reinforcing factors on health-related behaviors and the significance of knowledge, attitudes, and values in shaping these behaviors.

Uploaded by

dhugomsaaabdii
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 123

Understanding Health and human

behavior

Why do people do what they do?

1 Meron A. 4/10/2025
outline
 Behaviors-definitions
 Healthy behaviors
 Factors affecting human behaviors
 Predisposing factors
 Enabling factors
 Reinforcing factors
 The role of human behaviors in level of disease prevention

2 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Learning outcome
 At the end of this session you will be able to ;
 Define correctly what behavior mean?
 Describe factors that affect human behaviors
 Discuss the role of human behaviors in disease prevention

3 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Human behavior

 What is behavior?

4 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Human behavior….

 What is behavior?
Behavior-is any overt action that has specific frequency
duration, Intensity and purpose, whether conscious
or unconscious

• It is both the act and the way we act

5 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Behavior..
 Action-
E.g- Drinking/smoking
- Breast feeding
 Frequency-how many times the behavior occurs in a given time
period . how it is repeated, regularity
 Duration-the amount of time on each session .
is it for week/month?
 Intensity –how intensely or how hard the behavior is performed

 Purpose- doing consciously or not

6 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Why do we need to study human behaviour?

 Most health issues could not be addressed by treatment alone

 Health is determined by ordinary human actions and behaviours

 These behaviours are modifiable through public health efforts

 However, most health education programs failed because they

neglected to understand factors that influence actions

7 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Why do we need study health behaviour?

 To design interventions to improve health comprising


behaviours
 To gain more general understanding of the reason why
individuals perform a variety of behaviours
 Because human behaviors are the main cause as well as the
main solution!
 Human behavior is a key factor in determining health.

8 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Components of behavior

Basically human behavior has three domains


 Cognitive domain( knowledge ,perception)
 encodes , stores, retrieves ,processes information;
 Purpose is manipulation of information
 Affective domain- cognition +feeling
 Attitude, Beliefs
 Purpose is to create arousal or awakening
 psycho-motor domain

9 Meron A. 4/10/2025
healthy behavior Vs unhealthy behaviors
 Healthy behavior-
 is an overt behavioral patterns, actions, and habits that relate
to health maintenance, to health restoration, and to
health improvement

 All actions with potentially measurable frequency, intensity,


duration performed at individual ,interpersonal, organizational,
community, public policy level for primary, secondary and
tertiary prevention

10 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Causes of health problems ;Shift in cause of ill health

Bacteria Behavior

11 Meron A. 4/10/2025
 The behavior-health link becomes clear when examining the
10 leading risk factors for preventable death and disease
worldwide.

 According to WHO, 40% of deaths worldwide are


due to these 10 risk factors alone (behaviors).

 Global healthy life expectancy could be increased by


5-10 years if we reduce these risks.

12 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Top risk factors leading to disease, disability, or death

 Poorest countries Developed countries


1. Underweight 1.tobacoo
2. Unsafe sex 2. High blood pressure
3. Unsafe water ,sanitation & hygiene 3.Alcohol
4. Indoor smoke from solid fuel 4. High cholesterol
5. Zinc deficiency 5.High BMI
6. Iron deficiency 6. low fruit vegetable intake
7. Vitamin A deficiency 7.physical inactivity
8. High blood pressure 8.illicit drugs
9. Tobacco 9.unsafe sex
10. High cholesterol 10.Iron deficiency
Source:m.ezzti.et.al.selected major risk factors and global regional burdens of
disease. The lancet 360,no,9343(2002)

13 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Human behaviors important for health promotion

 Preventive behaviors
 Promotive behaviors
 Utilization behaviors
 Illness behaviors - recognition of symptoms and prompt
self-referral .
- It is what people do when they feel ill.
aimed to seek remedy
 Compliance (adherence) behavior– following course of
prescribed medicines
 Community action

14 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Factors affecting...
 Factors affecting human behavior
Lawrence Green identified three categories of factors
affecting individual or collective behavior. These are;

15 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Factors affecting human behaviors
Predisposing
factors

Enabling
Cultures/norms behavior factors

Reinforcing
factors

16 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Factors..
 Predisposing factors are antecedents or prior to behavior that
provide the rationale or motivation for the behavior to occur.

 Knowledge, attitude, perception, beliefs, values, self efficacy etc.

 The key consideration in understanding predisposing factors is the


extent to which behavior can be predicted

17 Meron A. 4/10/2025
 Enabling factors- are antecedents to behavior that facilitate a
motivation to be realized.

 Availability, affordability, accessibility, personal skills,


resources to accomplish the behaviors

 The key consideration for these factors and health behavior is


the extent to which their absence will prevent an action from
happening.

18 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Reinforcing factors are those factors subsequent to
a behavior that provide the continuing reward or
incentives for the behavior to be persistent and
repeated

 Reinforcing factors –peer pressures, influential others,


perceived social pressure, significant others
Encouragement/discouragement

19 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Predisposing ...
 knowledge or awareness
 Knowledge is, “A clear and certain mental perception,
understanding, the fact of being aware of something, experience of
acquaintance of familiarity with information , learning that which
is known, fact learned or study of.”

 Therefore, one`s knowledge of something include some


combination of
 simple awareness of facts and
 Understanding of how these facts relate to one another

20 Meron A. 4/10/2025
 Knowledge and skills are interrelated in that skills are the
practical application of essential knowledge

 knowledge can be viewed as an accurate impression of some


phenomenon.

 Perception +storage of information in the brain=knowledge

21 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Predisposing ...

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply.


Willing is not enough; we must do.”
—Goethe

22 Meron A. 4/10/2025
 Knowledge is necessary but not sufficient in behavior change.
 It is necessary, because, without adequate knowledge , people
may unaware of and concerned about health problem and
unable to manage their behavior

23 Meron A. 4/10/2025
knowledge about/awareness vs how to
k/ge or essential knowledge
 Knowledge about/awareness: Knowledge about a topic may
be important in developing interest in the topic and may even
motivate the behavior

 How-to/ essential knowledge: Intentional behavior change


depends on it
 It is practical/applicable

24 Meron A. 4/10/2025
 Therefore, one of the main task in health education is helping
the learner to become knowledgeable about some health
topic.

25 Meron A. 4/10/2025
 Skill is the capability of accomplishing something with
precision and certainty.

 Skills require practical knowledge and ability


 On many occasions inappropriate or ineffective health
behavior may result from the lack of mastery of specific skills

26 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Perception
Perception: a process by which
individuals organize and interpret
their sensory information in
order
to give meaning to their
environment.

Perception is means of acquiring


knowledge.

And it is highly subjective

27 Meron A. 4/10/2025
28 Meron A. 4/10/2025
4/10/20
25

29 Meron A.
perception

“ WE DON’T SEE THINGS

AS THEY ARE, WE SEE

THINGS AS WE ARE.”

30 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Belief

 Belief refers to the conviction that a phenomenon or


object is true or real

 It is different from knowledge in that it is perceived


whereas knowledge is accepted objective truth

31 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Types of beliefs
 Harmful belief
 Helpful beliefs
 Neutral beliefs

32 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Difficulty index of changing beliefs
 It is usually easier to influence those beliefs that:
Are held by individuals
 Have been acquired recently
 Come from not highly respected sources( religion ,traditional
medical system)

• And it is usually difficult to change those beliefs that


 Are held by the whole community
 Have been deep rooted in the culture
 Come from respected and trusted sources

33 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Measurement
 How do you know /measure the awareness/knowledge of an
individuals about certain health condition?

 Usually knowledge questions are administered in yes


or No format or in form of open ended questions.

Be sure that you have measured both awareness and


essential knowledge

34 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Attitude
 Social psychologists define an attitude as an enduring
evaluation, positive or negative, of people, objects, or ideas
 We are not neutral observers of the world we evaluate what we
encounter

 Attitudes are often a matter of good or bad; as soon as you know


what something is, you start to know whether you like it or
dislike it.

35 Meron A. 4/10/2025
 Mucchielli (1970) describes attitude as
 “a tendency of mind or a reltively constant feeling
towrds a certain category of objects,people,or situation”

 Characteristics of attitude
1. Predisposition- exposure related to an attitudinal object. No
exposure, no attitude
2. Has direction- polar ,+ve or –ve ,negative or positive
3. Evaluation-can be evaluated by intensity or judgment
e.g. Favorable or unfavorable

36 Meron A. 4/10/2025
4.changeability- can be changed ,not static
It is relatively constant
5.Stability or consistency
 stability=related to time
 Consistency= sameness of attitude

37 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Link between knowledge(K) and Attitude (A)

Feeling/sense of
Attitude
knowledge like or dislike

38 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Link between knowledge(K) and Attitude (A)

With the knowledge or information that we have on


things, the mind is able to develop a sense of like or
dislike, positiveness or negativeness /feeling.

It is thus, the feeling component is added to the


knowledge which keeps the individual react to a
stimulus positively or negatively.

39 Meron A. 4/10/2025
 Link among knowledge(k), Attitude(A) and practice(p)

practice
knowledge Attitude

40 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Link among knowledge(K) and Attitude (A) and
Practice (P)
 The general trend or normal way of thinking and acting
the proper sequence and linkage among KAP is that
knowledge (K) is followed by attitude (A) and is
followed by practice (P).

 But this rule is not universally applicable to every


behavior i.e. different possibilities and combinations can
come across with regard to KAP.

41 Meron A. 4/10/2025
 When P or A precedes K, it is due either to an imitation
(modeling) or compulsion

42 Meron A. 4/10/2025
 KAP gap curve

A
P

43 Meron A. 4/10/2025
KAP ….

 In health education, we try to close these gaps by helping


people to practice at least what they know.

 Apply cognitive consistency theory

44 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Cognitive consistency theory

 states people prefer to be consistent in their


knowledge, attitude and practice.

 New information creates dissonance between


knowledge, attitude and behavior and this
stimulates alternation in their behaviors consistent with
knowledge and attitude

45 Meron A. 4/10/2025
 Attitude measurement
 Self-reported attitudes- asked direct questions about
their feelings.

 The Likert Scale –is one the mostly commonly used scale
to measure attitude.
 In Likert scale, respondents are asked how strongly they
agree or disagree with carefully selected statements on
five point scale.

46 Meron A. 4/10/2025
 Attitude scale is usually stated in form of statement

E.g. Testing for HIV during my pregnancy makes me


frighten
1,Strongly disagree 2.disagree 3.neutrl/undecided
4.Agree 5. strongly Agree

47 Meron A. 4/10/2025
 Belief vs Attitude
Our beliefs about things affect our attitude
towards it.
Our beliefs, in turn, are influenced by our attitudes.
 The judgment as good or bad and worth
carrying out a behavior will depend on the beliefs
about the consequences of performing the behavior

48 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Value
 The relative worthy/preference/judgment
individual gives every thing around is known as value
-Are standards most important to us

 value is something is held to be important or worth; and


prized by an individuals or community.

49 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Value...
 Value exert strong and enduring influence on behaviors
 The values that have advantages for the self
and for the society are known as positive values.

 And the values that are harmful and disadvantageous are


known as negative values.

50 Meron A. 4/10/2025
value conflict and value clarification
 People value life, health. However, in opposite engaged in
unhealthy behavior, for instance, smoking. This reveals
conflict of values=inconsistencies between two or more
values.

 In health education one shouldn’t seek to change values


rather should help people recognize inconsistencies
between and among their values.

51 Meron A. 4/10/2025
 But we can sometimes bring about changes by
emphasizing values which don’t involve health.

 We, often trying to encourage people to think about


their values. This process is called value-clarification

52 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Relationship between attitude and value

 Values are more permanent and resistant to change than


attitudes and beliefs and they determine attitude.

53 Meron A. 4/10/2025
54 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Educational approach to behavior
change

Determinants of behavior Approaches to change

Direct communication with target


PREDISPOSING FACTORS
individuals-educational approach

Organizational change, Avail


ENABLING FACTORS
services,advocacy

Indirect communication with social


REINFORCING FACTORS
environment,Influential people

55 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Behavior change is complicated

56 Meron A. 4/10/2025
How to improve behavior change
interventions
1. Specify target behavior precisely

2. Use behavioral theory to develop interventions systematically

3. Describe mechanisms through which these work

4. Specify behavior change techniques, linking these to theory

5. Improve reporting, using standardized, shared terminology

6. Facilitate combining evidence in systematic reviews to inform practice

57 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Behavior Change Process
Identify Identify content
Understand the
intervention &implementation
behavior
option option

1. Define the
problem Identify:
Identify:
5.Intervention
2.Select target 7.Behavior change
function
bhr techniques
6. Policy category
8.Mode of delivery
3.Specify target bhr

4.Identify what needs


to change

58 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Step 1. DEFINING BEHAVIOUR
Examples:

1)Intending to eat 3 pieces of fruit a day

2)Washing your hands

3)Reducing cholesterol

59 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Step 2: Select the target behavior
 Multiple potentially relevant behaviors
 Consider:
 Impact

 likelihood that such a behavior will be implemented

 , spread out,/generalizability to other behaviors and people

 Ease of measurement

60 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Step 3: Specify the target behavior
 More precise the better
 Will help in developing and evaluating intervention

61 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Step 4: Identify what needs to change
 Target behavior identified and specified
 But why not currently being carried out?
 Need to understand behavior change in context
–Population
–Environment
•Need to understand predictors of the behavior

62 Meron A. 4/10/2025
The Capability Opportunity Motivation
–Behaviour (COM-B) Model

Changing any behavior


involves identifying what
needs to change in terms
of:
Capability
Motivation
Opportunity

63 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Step 5: Identify intervention Functions

 The Behavior Change Wheel: a procedure for intervention


development
 Allows the selection of selecting intervention functions and
policy options

64 Meron A. 4/10/2025
The Behaviour Change Wheel

65 Meron A. 4/10/2025
Behavior Change
Can be natural or planned changes.
 Natural change Our behavior changes all the
time.
 Some changes take place because of natural
events or processes such as age-sex related
behaviors. E.g. eating clay during pregnancy.
Planned change – We make plans to improve our
lives or to survive and we act accordingly.
 It can be faster or slower depending on the
response of the acceptor and adapter of the
behavior.
 Example: plan to stop smoking or drinking
4/10/20
25

66 Meron A.
Behavior Change approach
• Persuasion Approach: is the deliberate attempt to
influence the other person to do what we want
them to do.
– Used during serious threat like epidemics and
natural disasters
• The informed decision making approach: Giving people
information, problem-solving and decision-making
skills to make decision but leaving the actual choice
to the person.
– ‘open’ or ‘non judgmental’ approach.

4/10/20
25

67 Meron A.
Learning

Is relatively permanent change in behavior


as a result of knowledge, experience or
practice.
 Is acquiring new knowledge, behaviors, skills,
values, understanding, and may involve
synthesizing different types of information.
 The ability to learn is possessed by humans
and animals.

4/10/20
25

68 Meron A.
Learning…
 Learning may occur as a result of
habituation or classical conditioning,
So, learning is the modification of behavior
through practice, training, or experience.
Five important components of learning

4/10/20
25

69 Meron A.
Learning…
1. Learning involves change
 A change may be for good or bad.
2. Not all changes reflect learning
 To constitute learning, change should be
relatively permanent.
 Temporary changes may be only reflective
and fail to represent any learning.
 This rules out behavioral changes caused by
fatigue or drugs
4/10/20
25

70 Meron A.
Learning…
3.Learning is reflected in behavior
 A change in an individual’s thought process, not
accompanied by behavior, is not learning.
 This clarified that learning needs to result in
behavior change.
4. The change in behavior should occur as a result
of experience, practice or training:
 Behavior caused from maturity, disease, or
physical damages does not constitute learning.

4/10/20
25

71 Meron A.
Learning

5. The practice must be reinforced in order for
learning to occur: if reinforcement does not
accompany the practice or experience, the behavior
will eventually disappear.

4/10/20
25

72 Meron A.
Principles of learning
There are three principles of learning:
1. Learning by association - Connection
between events in time, place, etc.
 It is the most important part of learning.
 It is first formed in the physical environment.

Examples,
 If we see lightening we expect thunder
 When we see a needle, we think of injection
 When we see pregnancy we expect delivery

4/10/20
25

73 Meron A.
Principles…
2. Learning by Reinforcement & punishment
Reinforcement and punishment play a key
role in learning process.

Reinforcement is used to enhance desirable


behavior; punishment is employed to minimize
undesirable behavior.

4/10/20
25

74 Meron A.
Principles

 Reinforcement: is the attempt to develop or
strengthen desirable behavior. There are two types
 a. Positive reinforcement strengthens and enhances
behavior by the presentation of positive reinforcers.
 There are primary reinforcers and secondary
reinforcers.
 Primary reinforcers satisfy basic biological needs and
include food and water. However, primary
reinforcers do not always reinforce.
4/10/20
E.g. food may not be a reinforcer
25 to someone who has
just completed a five course meal.
Meron A.
75
Principles…
 Secondary reinforces: include benefits such as
money, status, grades, trophies and praise from
others.
 These become positive reinforcers because of their
associations with the primary reinforcers and
hence are often called conditioned reinforcers.
b. Negative reinforcement, an unpleasant event that
precedes a behavior is removed when the desired
behavior occurs.

4/10/20
25

76 Meron A.
Principles

Punishment
 Is the attempt to eliminate or weaken undesirable
behavior. It is used in two ways.
 First is to apply a negative consequence called
punishers – following an undesirable behavior.
E.g. A football player who is excessively offensive to
an official (undesirable behavior) may be ejected
from a game (punished).
 The other way to punish a person is to withhold a
positive consequence following an undesirable
behavior.
4/10/20
25

77 Meron A.
Principles

 Reinforcement increases the likelihood of the
occurrence of the situation.
 It increases the association between the
response and stimulus.

 Reinforcing tools (reinforcers): Asking ,


Praising, Encouragement, Advice, Checking,
and Listening.
4/10/20
25

78 Meron A.
Principles
3. Learning by Motivation

 The concept of motivation is basic because, without motivation learning


does not take place or, at least, is not noticeable.
 Motivation may be seen at different levels of complexity of a
situation.
 On a broader level, a college student must have the need and drive to
accomplish a task and reach a specific goal.

 A n individual who is not motivated will gain or learn nothing i.e. it can
affect the learning process

4/10/20
25

79 Meron A.
Disease prevention
Prevention can be divided into three levels for
comparison.
Primary prevention directed toward
preventing the initial occurrence of disorders
Secondary prevention seeks to retard
existing disease and its effects
Tertiary prevention seeks to reduce the
occurrence of relapses.

Meron 4/10/20 80
A. 25
Levels of Health Education in Health-illness
continuum
1. Primary health education
Directed at healthy people
The primary aim is to prevent occurrence of
ill-health.
It is a focus of health promotion programs
E.g. Health education programs on good
nutrition, immunization, and breastfeeding

Meron 4/10/20 81
A. 25
Levels

2. Secondary Health Education
 Educating patients about their condition and
what to do about it.
 The aim of this level is to stop the progress
of diseases to the severest form.
At this level complete recovery from the
diseases is possible, but if neglected
complications may occur.
e.g. Early treatment of Malaria, Tuberculosis
treatment
Meron 4/10/20 82
A. 25
Levels…
3. Tertiary health education
 Used in patients whose ill-health can not be completely
cured.
 It is concerned with educating the person or his or her
relatives about how to make the remaining potential for
healthy living and had to avoid unnecessary
hardships, restrictions and complications.

Meron 4/10/20 83
A. 25
THEORIES & MODELS IN HEALTH
EDUCATIONS

84 4/10/2025
OBJECTIVE

At the end of this lecture students will be able to:

 Discuss the role of the theories/models in HE

 Describe the most common theories used in HE

85 4/10/2025
What is theory

Theory is
“A set of interrelated concepts, definitions, and
proposition
 present a systematic view of phenomena
 by specifying relations among variables with the purpose of
explaining and predicting the phenomenon”

 Theories explain why, what, how and when a particular


behavior occurs.
86 4/10/2025
Why theories/models?
 Provides a road map for studying problems, developing

appropriate interventions, and evaluating their successes.

 Help to explain the dynamics of health behaviors.

 Help planners identify the most suitable target audiences,

methods for fostering change, and outcomes for evaluation.

 Guides the search for reasons why people do or do not

engage in certain health behaviors;

87 4/10/2025
Role...
 Helps pinpoint what planners need to know before they

develop public health programs;

 Suggests how to plan program strategies that reach target

audiences and have an impact.

 Theory also helps to identify which indicators should be

monitored and measured during program evaluation.

88 4/10/2025
Population

Interpersonal

Individual
/intrapersonal

89 4/10/2025
1. Individual Health Behavior Model

 Focus on individual characteristics that influence behavior, such


as knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and personality traits

• Health Belief Model


• Theory of Reasoned Action/Planned Behavior
• Trans-theoretical Model/Stages of Change .etc.

90 4/10/2025
2.Interpersonal health behavior
theories
Focus on interpersonal processes including relationship
with family, friends, and peers

 Social Cognitive Theory(SCT)

91 4/10/2025
3. Community level Models

 Community-level models are frameworks for understanding how


social systems function and change, and how communities and
organizations can be activated

 Diffusion of Innovation

92 4/10/2025
HEALTH BELIEF MODEL

93 4/10/2025
HBM
Focus:
 Individuals’ perceptions of the threat posed
by a health problem, the benefits of avoiding the threat, and
factors influencing the decision to act.

 Six main constructs influence people’s decisions about


whether to take action to prevent, screen for, and control
illness

94 4/10/2025
1. The health belief model (HBM)

 The HBM has been developed by a group of psychologists in the


1950s to explain why people would or would not use health
services

 The model is used in explaining and predicting preventive health


behavior, as well as sick-role and illness behavior.

 It emphasizes the intellectual dimension of health


behavior.
95 4/10/2025
constructs of the HBM

 Perceived Susceptibility-the belief that one is at risk of contracting


a health problem
 Perceived severity-the belief that a health problem is serious
 Perceived benefit-the belief that changing one's behavior will
reduce the threat
 Perceived barriers-a perception of the obstacles to changing
one's behavior eg. Cost, side effect, culture…
 Self efficacy-the belief that one has the ability to change one's
behavior
 Cues/reminder to Action - may be internal or external.
96 4/10/2025
HEALTH BELIEF MODEL
Individual perception Modifying Factors Likelihood of action

•Demographic variables (OUT COME EXPECTATION)


•Socio-psychological •Perceived benefits of preventive
variables (personality, peer action
pressure etc) Minus
•Structural variables (e.g. •Perceived barriers to preventive
knowledge about the action
disease.

•Perceived susceptibility
to Disease "X“ Perceived threat
Likelihood of taking
+ of Disease "X" recommended
•Perceived seriousness
(Severity) of Disease "X"
preventive health
action
Cues to action
•Mass media campaigns
•Advice from others
•Reminder postcard from health workers
•Illness of family member or friend

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Health belief model…
 Individual perceptions are factors that affect the perception of
illness or disease. It includes:
general health value, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity,
Self efficacy

Behavior not so affected by social norms


 The likelihood of action is the likelihood of taking the
recommended preventive health action.

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Perceived threat
 is made up of the perception that one is susceptible to illness (i.e.
Personal risk) & the perception that the illness is serious.

 The perception of personal health threat is influenced by at least


three factors:

 general health values


 specific beliefs about vulnerability &
 Beliefs about the consequences of the disorder.

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Out come expectation
 Is made up of the perceived benefits of the specified action minus
the perceived barriers to the action

 Overall, perceived barriers to the practice of the health behavior


is the most powerful dimension influencing whether or not people
actually practiced a particular health behavior.
NB
 Once an individual perceives a threat to his/her health and is
simultaneously cued to action, and his/her perceived benefits
outweighs his/her perceived barriers, then that individual is most
likely to undertake the recommended preventive health action.
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Drawbacks of the HBM

HBM is limited in that it is cognitively based model and


does not consider the emotional component

Factors other than health beliefs like SES also heavily


influence the practice of health behaviors.

The HBM appears to predict health behaviors best when


other demographic factors, such as SES and education,
have already been considered.

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Theory of Reasoned Action
(TRA)
&
Planned Behavior (TPB)

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Introduction
 TRA was introduced by Fishbein in 1967
 Modified & Refined over time (eg. Ajzen & Fishbein,
1980)
- concerned with the prediction and understanding
of human behavior

 It was designed to explain all human behavior that is


under volitional control

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Assumption:-
 The theory rests on the assumptions that
humans are:
- rational,
- have control over their behavior, and
- seek out, utilize, and process all available
information about pending decisions before they
take actions.

 therefore, Ajzen and Fishbein refer to their


approach as "a theory of reasoned action"

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Behavioral belief
&
Outcome
Attitude

BEHAVIOR
INTENTION
Evaluation

Normative beliefs
of referents Subjective
& norms
Motivation to
comply

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The theory of reasoned action.
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TRA…

 Intentions are most immediate influence or


determinant of behaviors

If one has intend to perform a behavior then it is


likely that he/she will do so, if not intend then it is
unlikely to be performed.

 Performing a behavior is a function of intention to perform the


behavior

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TRA…

 Intention :- function of two basic determinants:


 one personal and the other social

 Personal factor = attitude toward the behavior


 The social factor = subjective norm (SN)

SN is the person's perception of the social pressures put on


that person to perform or not perform the behavior in question.

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TRA…

In general, individuals will intend to perform a


behavior when they evaluate it positively and when
they believe that important others think they
should perform it.

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TRA…

Determinants of Attitude toward an Act

-Behavioral beliefs = The person’s beliefs that the behavior leads


to certain outcomes and
e.g physical exercise in reducing body weight

- Evaluation of outcome = his or her evaluations of those


outcomes

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TRA…
Determinants of Subjective Norms
1. Normative beliefs
2. Motivation to comply
1. Normative beliefs = belief about what a specific
referent person thinks one should or should not do
regarding the behavior

Referent = specific individual or group who may influence


one’s behavior

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TRA…

 For any given behavior at a given time, we will have a set of


salient referents

 For each referent, we have a normative belief, what we


think that referent would want us to do

2. For each referent, we have a specific level of motivation to


comply with their wishes for us

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TRA…

 A person’s subjective norm is a function of their


normative beliefs for salient referents, and motivation to
comply with these different referents

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Limitations
 Not appropriate for predicting or explaining behavior in
situations where people had little power over events
around, i.e if there is non volitional control

 It is almost entirely rational and does not provide explicitly


for emotional fear arousal elements such as perceived
susceptibility to illness

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Extensions (TPB)
 To improve the predictive power of TRA, Ajzen(1985) added a
third construct (Perceived behavioral control) to the original
theory to account for the performance of behaviors which are not
completely under the subject's control.

Theory of
Planned Behavior
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TPB…

Perceived behavior control:


 is a perceived ease or difficulty in performing a behavior

It Cover non volitional factors which interfere with ones


attempt to perform a behavior

Made up of control beliefs and perceived power of a


control

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TPB…

The TPB predicts two possible effects of perceived behavioral


control (PBC)on behavior:

(1) PBC reflects motivational factors that have an indirect effect on


behavior through intentions, also

(2) PBC reflects actual control and has a direct link to behavior not
mediated by intentions.

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Measurement of constructs
 Direct measures and
e.g. by asking respondents about their overall attitude
 indirect (belief-based) measures
indirectly e.g. by asking respondents about specific
behavioral beliefs and outcome evaluations
• Measuring the same construct the direct measure &
indirect measure scores are expected to be positively
correlated
• ELICITATION STUDY –For indirect measures

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Reliability

 Index of internal consistency for direct measures


 test-retest reliability for indirect measures by administering
the questionnaire twice to the same group of people

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Tr a n s - t h e o r e t i c a l
model
(stages of
change)

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 To be continued……

122 Meron A. 4/10/2025


Thank you

123 Meron A. 4/10/2025

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