Open AccessBEHAVIOURALLY‐BASED PRINCIPLES AS GUIDELINES FOR HEALTH PROMOTION
Author(s) -
Lee Christina,
Owen Neville
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
community health studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 0314-9021
DOI - 10.1111/j.1753-6405.1985.tb00474.x
Subject(s) - health promotion , promotion (chess) , set (abstract data type) , behaviour change , behavior change , psychology , work (physics) , theory of change , cognition , applied psychology , cognitive psychology , social psychology , medicine , sociology , public health , computer science , nursing , psychological intervention , political science , engineering , mechanical engineering , neuroscience , psychiatry , politics , anthropology , law , programming language
Programmes to promote health, which appear with increasing frequency, should be based on sound principles. This paper deals with an approach to health promotion based on behavioural theories to explain the change and maintenance of habitual patterns of activity. It derives from work to determine programme guidelines and policy recommendations in the promotion of exercising, and is presented so as to have more general application to health‐related behaviours. It describes some relevant theoretical approaches to behaviour change and maintenance, and outlines a set of principles which may be used as guidelines. This involves an account of stages of behaviour change, operant conditioning and associative learning theories, cognitive‐behavioural and self‐management theories, and social learning theory, and suggests judicious integration of these theories and the use of attitudinal theories. Eleven principles derived from these theories and from research on health behaviour change are described. These perspectives may be useful in work to influence the health‐related behaviours of individuals, and as suggestions for the modification of some environmental and social factors which constrain individuals' capacities to choose health promoting actions.