Psychology 2036A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Dental Caries, Optimism Bias, Health Belief Model
27 Feb 2015
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Prologue: approaches to primary intervention: eliminate unhealthy lifestyles after they begin (but before they cause damage, ex. Get people to stop smoking: prevent unhealthy lifestyles before they begin, ex. Biological barriers: physical addictions (smoking, alcohol abuse, genetic contributions (alcoholism) Good health is not valued by everyone (don"t care about health) Social barriers: family, peers, media (tempting commercials for unhealthy foods, economic forces (tobacco and alcohol industries, health-care system (physicians trained in treatment not prevention) Research on fear appeals: the dental hygiene study (1953, three messages: Same advice brush after every meal . Asked if they brushed teeth after every meal. Low fear most effective: moderate fear moderately effective, high fear least effective. Fear decreases persuasion: but: sometimes fear increases persuasion, curvilinear relation (^) At low to moderate more persuasion. Defensive avoidance avoid thinking about it. Inattention to massage (and advice) fear distracts from message: but: few studies have demonstrated this curvilinear relationship, something is missing!
