Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Setting out: using this book
- 1 Locating the field: introducing health psychology
- 2 Thinking about health and the body
- 3 Choosing lifestyles
- 4 Controlling the body
- 5 Becoming ill
- 6 Comprehending bodily experience
- 7 Interacting with health professionals
- 8 Treating illness
- 9 Being ill
- 10 Dying
- 11 Relocating the field: critical health psychology
- Glossary
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
- References
3 - Choosing lifestyles
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Setting out: using this book
- 1 Locating the field: introducing health psychology
- 2 Thinking about health and the body
- 3 Choosing lifestyles
- 4 Controlling the body
- 5 Becoming ill
- 6 Comprehending bodily experience
- 7 Interacting with health professionals
- 8 Treating illness
- 9 Being ill
- 10 Dying
- 11 Relocating the field: critical health psychology
- Glossary
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
- References
Summary
Health is indivisible … the domain of personal health over which the individual has direct control is very small when compared to the influence of culture, economy and environment.
(Hafton Mahler, former Director General of the World Health Organisation, cited in Parish, 1995)Learning objectives
This chapter focuses on behaviours that are part of an individual's lifestyle, such as eating, smoking, drinking, taking drugs, using condoms and so on. It reviews different approaches to attempts to influence lifestyles (through health promotion efforts) and reviews research on the contextual nature of individual behaviour. By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
identify and describe social cognition approaches to the study of lifestyle behaviour;
compare and contrast individual and structural-collective perspectives on improving lifestyles and health;
outline and explain some of the limitations of traditional approaches to health promotion efforts;
describe the implications of strategies that have been employed to influence individual lifestyles;
explain the importance of social situation and cultural context in understanding behaviours that make up individual lifestyles.
What are lifestyles and how do they relate to health?
What kind of lifestyle do you have? Reasonably affluent, relaxed, busy, ‘on the edge’, chilled out, stressed, fun, sporty? Does your lifestyle affect your health? Will it affect your health one day in the future? Do you ever think about changing your lifestyle for health reasons? What does a ‘healthy’ lifestyle mean? Does it equate with doing nothing that is exciting or fun?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Health PsychologyA Critical Introduction, pp. 70 - 105Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006