Self Regulation In Health Behavior

This text offers a comprehensive overview of new approaches to health-related behaviour from a self-regulation perspective. The authors outline the assumptions on which self-regulation theories are based, discuss recent research and draw out the implications for practice with a particular focus on changing health behaviour. The book is arranged in two sections – Goal Setting and Goal Activation in Health Behaviour and Goal Striving and Goal Persistence. The epilogue compares self-regulation theories with the prevailing social-cognitive models.

Self-regulation theory focuses on the ways in which individuals direct and monitor their activities and emotions in order to attain their goals. It plays an increasingly important role in health psychology research. The Self-regulation of Health and Illness Behaviour presents an up-to-date account of the latest developments in the field. Individual contributions cover a wide range of issues including representational beliefs about chronic illness, cultural influences on illness representations, the role of anxiety and defensive denial in health-related experiences and behaviours, the contribution of personality, and the social dynamics underlying gender differences in adaptation to illness. Particular attention is given to the implications for designing effective health interventions and messages. Integrating theoretical and empirical developments, this text provides both researchers and professionals with a comprehensive review of self-regulation and health.

Focuses on a range of key social cognitive factors in interventions to change health behaviour, using examples from an impressove breadth of applied settings. The book features contributions from some of the best known researchers in the field.

In the last 20-30 years, research on affective determinants of health behavior has proliferated. Highlighting this burgeoning area of research, Affective determinants of health behavior brings together contributions from leading experts who focus, in their chapters, on a fascinating range of affective concepts, including hedonic response, incidental affect, perceived satisfaction, anticipated affect, affective attitudes, affective associations, and more. In the first part of the book, the authors explore the role of affective concepts in health behavior, including theories of action control, dual-processing, temporal self-regulation, self-determination, and planned behavior, along with a new theory of hedonic motivation. The second part of the book focuses on the role of affective concepts in specific health behavior domains, including physical activity, eating, smoking, substance use, sex, tanning, blood donation, the performance of health professionals, cancer screenings, and cancer control. Affective determinants of health behavior offers readers an important window into existing research and serves as a showcase for important insights on new directions and implications for intervention.

Social problems in many domains, including health, education, social relationships, and the workplace, have their origins in human behavior. The documented links between behavior and social problems have compelled governments and organizations to prioritize and mobilize efforts to develop effective, evidence-based means to promote adaptive behavior change. In recognition of this impetus, The Handbook of Behavior Change provides comprehensive coverage of contemporary theory, research, and practice on behavior change. It summarizes current evidence-based approaches to behavior change in chapters authored by leading theorists, researchers, and practitioners from multiple disciplines, including psychology, sociology, behavioral science, economics, philosophy, and implementation science. It is the go-to resource for researchers, students, practitioners, and policy makers looking for current knowledge on behavior change and guidance on how to develop effective interventions to change behavior.

This book presents a thorough overview of a model of human functioning based on the idea that behavior is goal-directed and regulated by feedback control processes. It describes feedback processes and their application to behavior, considers goals and the idea that goals are organized hierarchically, examines affect as deriving from a different kind of feedback process, and analyzes how success expectancies influence whether people keep trying to attain goals or disengage. Later sections consider a series of emerging themes, including dynamic systems as a model for shifting among goals, catastrophe theory as a model for persistence, and the question of whether behavior is controlled or instead 'emerges'. Three chapters consider the implications of these various ideas for understanding maladaptive behavior, and the closing chapter asks whether goals are a necessity of life. Throughout, theory is presented in the context of diverse issues that link the theory to other literatures.

Focuses on a range of key social cognitive factors in interventions to change health behaviour, using examples from an impressive breadth of applied settings. The book features contributions from some of the best known researchers in the field.

The ability to prioritise long-term goals above short-term gratifications is crucial to living a healthy and happy life. We are bombarded with temptations, whether from fast-food or faster technologies, but the psychological capacity to manage our lives within such a challenging environment has far-reaching implications for the well-being not only of the individual, but also society as a whole. The Routledge International Handbook of Self-Control in Health and Wellbeing is the first comprehensive handbook to map this burgeoning area of research by applying it to health outcomes and personal well-being. Including contributions from leading scholars worldwide, the book incorporates new research findings that suggest that simply inhibiting our immediate impulses isn’t the whole story; there may be more options to improve self-control than simply by suppressing the ego. Divided into six coherent sections, the book provides an overview of the research base before discussing a range of interventions to help improve self-control in different contexts, from smoking or drinking too much to developing self-control over aggression or spending money. The only definitive handbook on this far-reaching topic, this essential work will appeal to researchers and students across health and social psychology, as well as related health sciences.