Psychology 2036A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Froot Loops, Peer Pressure, Safe Sex

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2036A/B
• Professor: Doug Hazelwood

Document Summary

Psychology 2036 lecture 2: strategies of primary intervention preventing illness before it develops. Prologue: approaches to primary intervention: eliminate unhealthy behaviours after they begin, but before they cause any damage. Example: get people to stop smoking: prevent unhealthy behaviours before they begin. Biological barriers: physical addictions (smoking, alcohol abuse, genetic contributions (alcoholism) Positive consequences are not immediately apparent: no immediate incentive for not engaging in unhealthy behaviours, negative consequences are not immediate. If unhealthy behaviours do no harm (in the short term), why change: false consensus bias, overestimate the number of other people who engage in unhealthy behaviours, false uniqueness bias: See themselves as less similar to the average person who becomes ill different from that person. See themselves as less likely to become ill other people have a genetic predisposition and will be more likely to become ill: unrealistic optimism bias: Positively oriented towards things that are going to happen to them in the future.