Summary of all the lectures. All important literature explained with the given information from the lectures. Guest lecture excluded because not mandatory for the exam.
Summary lectures topic health communication: from theory to practice
Lecture 1: Theories of planned behaviour
Health communication
- Increased number chronic diseases
- Health behaviour important predictor
- Health behaviour in need of change because people don’t exercise, smoke, drink and
eat unhealthy food
Theory
- Set of statements about relationship between tow or more concepts or constructs
- Concept/constructs are the building blocks of understanding
o Generalized abstraction
o Learned
o Functional
Explanation and prediction
- Prediction → predict that something is going to happen in the future on the basis of
pre-happenings → not necessarily understanding why things happen
- Explanation → more specific understanding
- Understanding in scientific sense→ identify, describe, predict and explain
Scientific approach→ conceptual constructs bring empirical reality together
- Conceptual realm → concepts and their relations
- Empirical realm → concept and relation assessed in guided approach
- Theoretical propositions subjected empirical test
Good theory
1. Utility
2. Acceptance by multiple scientists
3. Consistent with other theories
4. Range of theory
5. Creativity
- In need data for trying to confirm the propositions
Why is theory useful
- Why do or don’t people take action
- Explain behaviour and suggest how to change it
- Pinpoint what you need to know before developing programs
o How to shape effective programs
- What should be monitored and measured & compared in evaluation
1
,Causality
- Causality for indicating changes → x is cause of y if changes in x produce changes in
y
- Discussed because causality is hard to proof but useful for thinking about the world
- Identify systematic relationships between variables
- Causal thinking→ therapy for health-related problems
Types of relations between concepts
1. Direct causal relationship
o Given cause (x) direct causal effect on outcome variable (y)
o E.g. parental communication on smoking behaviour
2. Mediated (indirect) causal relationship
o Variable (x) influences another variable (y) indirect through intermediary
variable (z)
o Z is mediator → work through to influence the outcome
o How come x is related to y
o E.g. Tv exposure indirectly related to being overweight because tv exposure
directly related to eating snacks
3. Moderated causal relationship
o Causal relationship between two variables differs depending on value third
variable
o Outcome can explain for one specific value of third variable
o Under which circumstances does x influence y
o E.g. medication influences decrease of headache but only for women
4. Spurious causal relationship
o Relationship between variables because of sharing common cause not because
one influences the other
o E.g. shoe size and verbality →actually explained by age
o Use statistics for finding the spurious relations
Specifying conceptual definitions
- Literature and dictionaries
- TACT→ key properties construct
1. Target → who
2. Action → what
3. Context → where
4. Time → when
Theory of reasoned action (Fishbein)
- Understanding people’s decisions in health behaviour must consider:
o Attitude → expectancies advantages and disadvantages
o Subjective norm → normative pressure
2
, o These will tell us why people behave in a certain way
- Intention is the best predictor for behaviour
o Sometimes used for measuring behaviour
- Attitudes and subjective norm predict intention and therefore behaviour
o Attitude → what do you expect
Behavioural beliefs → what are disadvantages and advantages
Behavioural outcomes → importance of disadvantages and advantages
o Subjective norm→ is behaviour compliant or does it matter
Normative beliefs→ what others tell you what’s good or bad
Motivation to comply → what you feel you should do
- These single constructs make sets of constructs
- Mediated relationship
Theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen)
- Adding value to the theory of reasoned action → not only attitude but also perceived
control
o Attitude → what do you expect
Behavioural beliefs → what are disadvantages and advantages
Behavioural outcomes → importance of disadvantages and advantages
o Subjective norm→ is behaviour compliant or does it matter
Normative beliefs→ what others tell you what’s good or bad
Motivation to comply → what you feel you should do
o Perceived control → perceptions of ability to perform behaviour
Control beliefs→ belief of existence of factor that will influence the
behaviour
Perceived power → how capable am I to perform the behaviour
- Perceived control also moderates the relation between intention and behaviour
Measurement
- Translating theory into empirical data
- Behaviour → 1-9 scale with endpoints
- Attitude → semantic differential (adjective pairs)
- Intention → 1-7 scale with statements
- Subjective norm → 1-9 scale with endpoints
- Perceived behavioural control → opposites with 1-7 scale
- Behavioural strength → 1-7 scale with statements
- Normative beliefs → 1-7 scale with statements
- Motivation to comply → 1-7 scale with statements
- Control beliefs → 1-7 scale with statements
- Consider what you want to measure and make the right statements, pairs and questions
→ all sorts of scales are useful as long you can explain your choice of measurement
Many health-related studies
3
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller AmberdeGroot. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $4.27. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
