Health Promotion Techniques

Good health and well-being largely depend on what people themselves do; if a person wants to refrain from eating sweets to maintain a healthy weight, they have to resist unhealthy eating behaviour. These behaviours are also dependent on their physical and social environment.

Health psychology is a discipline which offers various theories, concepts, and strategies to promote healthy behaviour. The desired healthy behaviour is encouraged through designing effective interventions based on theoretical and conceptual insights.

In this article, we will briefly discuss some core strategies used for health promotion.

Fear-appeals 

You may have heard this word in the context of advertising, or other domains. A fear appeal is defined as the persuasive message used to induce or arouse fear to promote a behaviour for better motivation and protection. For example, to promote the behaviour of using condoms to engage in sexual behaviour, one can create the fear appeal of informing about the possible STDs associated with engagement in such risky behaviours. If not used efficiently, fear appeals may prove to be ineffective in health behaviour promotion. Studies have found that it may have a positive effect on motivation to not engage in behaviour but would not translate into actions.

Self-affirmation 

Self-affirmation occurs when specific positive values, morals and your self-integrity are strengthened and confirmed by others. You may have often heard the phrase ‘you are what you think’; this is a simple example of how we integrate self-affirmation in our life to motivate oneself to engage in positive behaviours. Self-affirmation could be useful in reducing cigarette smoking behaviour. Usually, people who smoke tend to be defensive about their behaviour by saying things like; I am stressed, I only smoke with I am with friends etc. They ignore the labels indicating adverse effects of it on their health.

Mental contrasting

Psychologists say that there can be different strategies used to guide self towards a positive attitude. Mental contrasting is such a strategy, directing individuals to decipher their positive thinking, attitude, and self-worth into strong goal commitment. It is theorized that this is most effective when the goal to be attained is challenging. Mental contrasting is a solution-focused, realistic and an achievable strategy.

In a study, Adriaanse, De Ridder, and Voorneman (2013) investigated the effectiveness of mental contrasting to understand why diabetic patients fail to manage themselves with the illness, such as their diet and weight. The results showed that participants in the mental contrasting group showed improved self-management as compared to the group that indulged in positive thinking. They suggest that adding mental contrasting to the treatment and management may prove to be an effective alternative in cutting cost. 

Mindfulness

Mindfulness should not be confused with sitting and breathing or with meditation. The critical components of mindfulness are awareness and acceptance without judgment (Kabat-Zinn, 1994). Some other essential elements are observing one’s thoughts and carefully selecting the thinking that needs attention and non-reactivity to inner experiences. Research has found that mindfulness is effective in promoting mental health as well as physical health. Although there has not been a more comprehensive implementation of mindfulness intervention in some domains, it has proven to be effective in workplace and school to improve efficiency, performance, and reduce stress. Mindfulness is still a very debatable topic, and more research is required to determine its effectiveness. This strategy will have many benefits not only for the individuals but also be a good and beneficial strategy for the government to cut costs.

Implementation intentions 

Implementation intentions are self-regulatory processes which consist of ‘if-then’ plans and facilitate the attainment of behaviour and goals change (Gollwitzer, 1993). An example of an implementation intention is when a person intends to save money for a new TV, by trying to avoid buying new shoes. To achieve this goal, the person forms a plan: “If I am tempted to buy unnecessary shoes, then I will think about my TV” (Webb & Sheeran, 2008). The behavioural response is related to a situational prompt, which is specified in the if-part. Once this particular environmental prompt is activated, it is expected that a person consciously or unconsciously is reminded of the plan to perform the behaviour, and the goal-fulfilling response will follow. Thus, the behavioural response becomes automatically activated when the prompt is present in the environment.

Self-control training 

Current theories define self-control as the self-capacity or the mental capacity to override or change one’s inner responses. It involves refraining from acting on cues in the environment which make you perform a particular behaviour. Self-control is associated with various positive results in life, such as better academic and work performance, improved well-being, increased health and happiness, and stable personal relationships. For instance, people can train themselves to refrain from undesired behaviour like eating sweets by replacing that behaviour to something else, like eating fruit instead.     

CBM- cognitive bias modification 

Cognitive bias is the systematic way in which one automatically selects a mental process with little conscious effort. Modification of cognitive biases refers to procedures that need to change particular styles of cognitive processing (Koster, Fox, & MacLeod, 2009). Multiple cognitive biases in emotional states can be distinguished: attentional bias, memory bias, and approach bias (Leung et al., 2017).

Further, CBM has gained attention for its potential in health behaviour change. One such study examined health promotion or disease prevention behaviour for sun protection (Notebaert, Chrystal, Clarke, Holmes, & MacLeod, 2014). Although, it is essential to remember that there is still limited research in the health behaviour domain and further investigation is required.

Conclusion

Health is an essential aspect of life; there is nothing more important than good health. There are various strategies which can be included in our daily life that can help an individual to have better overall health. Individuals using these strategies should do it effectively and efficiently. Further, it also helps cut costs as these do not require external sources to be relied on. Instead, it requires one to take responsibility for self, inculcate these strategies, and practice them to get the desired results.

References

Gollwitzer, P. M. (1993). Goal achievement: The role of intentions. European Review of Social Psychology, 4, 141-185.

Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever you go there you are: Mindfulness meditation in everyday life. New York: Hyperion.

Koster, E. H.W., Fox, E., & MacLeod, C. (2009). Introduction to the special section on cognitive bias modification in emotional disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118, 1–4.

Leung, D., Staiger, P. K., Hayden, M., Lum, J. A., Hall, K., Manning, V., & Verdejo-Garcia, A. (2017). Meta-analysis of the relationship between impulsivity and substance-related cognitive biases. Drug and alcohol dependence, 172, 21-33.

Notebaert, L., Chrystal, J., Clarke, P. J., Holmes, E. A., & MacLeod, C. (2014). When we should worry more: Using cognitive bias modification to drive adaptive health behaviour. PloS one, 9(1), e85092.

Webb, T. L., & Sheeran, P. (2008). Mechanisms of implementation intention effects: The role of goal intentions, self‐efficacy, and accessibility of plan components. British Journal of Social Psychology, 47(3), 373-395.

Adriaanse, M. A., De Ridder, D. T., & Voorneman, I. (2013). Improving diabetes self-management by mental contrasting. Psychology & Health, 28(1), 1-12.