Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior to Sun Protection Behaviors in Individuals
Have you ever wondered how the mind and body interact? How can a physical disease such as cancer affect one’s mood and overall psychological state? These are just some of the questions that health psychologists ask themselves. As a growing field, health psychology is important in understanding how medical patients are affected more than in a physical sense. Health Psychologists aim to help individuals change their attitudes and behaviors in order to affect their health positively as well as helping people with physical ailments experience better emotional stability and health. Research in this field involves examining various theories which include biopsychosocial …show more content…
The Theory of Planned Behavior as explained by Sutton (2002), is composed of four key factors that predict behavior among individuals. These factors include attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control which in turn form an intention that predicts an individual from committing a particular health behavior (Sutton, 2002). Montanaro and Bryan (2014), explain that individual attitudes are determined by the beliefs of what a behavior will produce for instance the belief condoms will prevent pregnancy from occurring will make individuals more or less likely to use a condom (Montanaro and Bryan, 2014). In other words, the Theory of Planned Behavior implicates that our beliefs about a behavior directly influence our intentions to commit that behavior. To form this intention, one also needs to incorporate all of the factors of the model. Intentions are not only affected by our attitudes but also by our perceived behavior control and subjective norms. Perceived behavior control, which as noted by Montanaro and Bryan (2014) is the amount of control an individual feels he/she has over a certain behavior. In terms of condom use, this would include the how much control a person has over using condoms during
Have you ever wondered how the mind and body interact? How can a physical disease such as cancer affect one’s mood and overall psychological state? These are just some of the questions that health psychologists ask themselves. As a growing field, health psychology is important in understanding how medical patients are affected more than in a physical sense. Health Psychologists aim to help individuals change their attitudes and behaviors in order to affect their health positively as well as helping people with physical ailments experience better emotional stability and health. Research in this field involves examining various theories which include biopsychosocial …show more content…
The Theory of Planned Behavior as explained by Sutton (2002), is composed of four key factors that predict behavior among individuals. These factors include attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control which in turn form an intention that predicts an individual from committing a particular health behavior (Sutton, 2002). Montanaro and Bryan (2014), explain that individual attitudes are determined by the beliefs of what a behavior will produce for instance the belief condoms will prevent pregnancy from occurring will make individuals more or less likely to use a condom (Montanaro and Bryan, 2014). In other words, the Theory of Planned Behavior implicates that our beliefs about a behavior directly influence our intentions to commit that behavior. To form this intention, one also needs to incorporate all of the factors of the model. Intentions are not only affected by our attitudes but also by our perceived behavior control and subjective norms. Perceived behavior control, which as noted by Montanaro and Bryan (2014) is the amount of control an individual feels he/she has over a certain behavior. In terms of condom use, this would include the how much control a person has over using condoms during