Impact of behavior on your health

							Impact of behavior on your health

- Subjective norms: What a person believes others think that the person should do
(normative beliefs) and the motivation to comply with those expectations of significant
others.

- Perceived behavioral control: an individual needs to feel that he or she is capable of
performing the contemplated action and that the action will have the intended effect.
Transtheoretical model of behavior change: Changing a bad health habit does not take
place all at once, it is a process. People go through stages while they are trying to
change their negative health behaviours. Prochaska (1994) have developed a model
that analyzes the stages and processes people go through in attempting to bring a
change in behaviour and suggested treatment goals for each stage.These stages are
as follows:

Pre-contemplation - During this stage, the person has no intention to change his or
her behaviour.
Contemplation: is a stage in which the person is aware that their current behaviour is
problematic but have not yet made a commitment to change. During this stage
individuals are still weighing the benefits and losses of changing their behaviour and
are currently enjoying the behaviour. This stage is marked by ambivalence. It is
important to note that individuals can remain in this stage for several years.

Preparation: During this stage individuals intend to change their behaviour but may
not yet have begun to do so. In some cases it is because they have been unsuccessful
in the past, or they may be delaying action until they get through a certain event or
stressful period of time.

Action: During this stage individuals modify their behaviour to overcome the problem.
Action includes stopping the behaviour and changing one's lifestyle and environment
so as to get rid of any cues leading to the behaviour.

Maintenance: During this stage individuals work hard to prevent relapse and to
consolidate the gains they have made. Typically, if a person managed to be free from
problematic behaviour for six months, he or she is assumed to be in the maintenance
stage.