Health behaviours relate to health and illness. It can be described and analysed through four main theoretical perspectives: learning theory, social cognition theory and the use of planning, the stages of change model and the devolopment of motivational interviewing, emotion.
The learning theory comprehends three basic learning strategies:
Modelling – that states that people can change their behaviour by imitating those around them (e.g. family, friends, teachers etc.).
Reinforcement – that states that people will most likely to repeat a specific behaviour if it is rewarded (e.g. smile, praise).
Association – that states that the association of a new behaviour to healthy images or positive feelings will make people to natural abandon the unhealthy behaviour. (e.g. ‘doing exercises – more energy’).
…show more content…
30). Moreover, health psychologists often use another additional approach that is the relapse prevention, which involves using other strategies like relaxation, contract setting and skills training in order to encourage patients to not feel bad if it happens that they go back to a specific behaviour.
The social cognition theory and the use of planning puts in the center the ‘planning’ method. In fact, a person will likely change his behaviour if he follows a specific schedule, decided with the help of a health psychologist, that is called ‘implementation intentions’, which includes SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and