Methods for Promoting health

Fear Arousal

Roberts and Russell (2002) noted that there are certain factors that affect whether a person will be scared enough to follow the advice and change their behaviour:

• The unpleasantness of the fear-arousing message
• The probability that the consequences of the behaviour will occur to the person if they don’t follow the advice.
• The perceived effectiveness of the message.

JANIS AND FESHBACH (1953) investigated the consequences of fear appeals on emotions and behaviour with 200 high school student. They found that the overall effectiveness of a message is likely to be reduce by the use of appeals that are too strong ; therefore, the level of fear needs to be tailored to the audience.

For more detailed information – Janis and Feshbach (1953)

LEVENTHAL ET AL (1967) wanted to see whether high-fear or low-fear communication had an effect, with the initial variable being whether the subjects were presented with a detailed presentation. The study was conducted in France with teenagers, who completed a questionnaire about their attitudes around smoking and desire to quit to be assigned to one of the two groups:

• Moderate fear 
• High fear – these reported of feelings more vulnerable to lung-cancer and a higher desire to quit.

It was concluded that a high-fear appeal is much more effective in changing people’s attitudes and intentions regarding smoking because they are pairing the fear with a solution (quitting).

Strengths:

• Useful – this research is useful to health campaigns because it suggests that people need to be given a powerful message in order for behaviours or attitudes to change.
• High control – the research was carried out in a laboratory, therefore the situtation was highly controlled, meaning that extraneous variables were less likely to have affected the results. This makes the experiment more reliable.
• Realism – actual smokers were used, therefore their attitudes towards smoking were real and genuine. This makes the study have higher internal validity.

Weaknesses:

•  Sample- teenagers were used for the study, meaning that the results cannot be generalised to other age groups. Also, between 13-19 people are more likely to be vulnerable to other people’s opinions and recommendations ; thus, that might be why they wanted to quit so ‘easily’.
• Cultural bias – the research was conducted in France, meaning that the findings cannot be generalised to other countries or cultures.
• Demand characteristics – It is impossible to establish and guarantee that the behaviour changed because no follow-up experiment was carried out. Therefore, there is the possibility that participants answered in a certain way to please the experimenters.

Yale Model of Communication 

Hovland (1953) conducted researched attitude change and persuasion during World War II. He came up with a model that explains how persuasive communication can take place:

1. Attention – the message must grab people’s attention. Sound and visual stimuli are thought to be the most effective, so using television might be better.
2. Comprehension – the message need to be concise and clear in order to to be successful and understood by the recipient.
3. Acceptance – the overall message needs to be accepted by the recipient for behaviour change to occur.

The factors that affect the stages above are:

• The communicator (source) – the person or organisation that delivers the message. Petty and Caccioppo (1986) found that a message is more persuasive if the source is attractive, similar to the recipient and likeable.
• The message (content) – It is best to cause mild fear and make the recipient believe that the intention is not to persuade. Also, McGuire (1964) found that it is best to present a a two-sided argument.
• The medium (channel) – where the message is delivered. There is no channel of communication that is better but this needs to be adapted to the message. For example, if a message is simple and straightforward, it would be best to use television.

Provide information 

Sarafino (2006) noted that one way in which people can engage in healthy behaviour is through information as it helps to make decisions about their lifestyle. Some channels are:

• Mass Media – using social medias, TV programmes to inform people about the health-related consequences achieved by bad behaviours such as smoking and drinking.
• The Internet – development of websites allowing people to track their health and progress. However, not all information is checked by health professionals so it may cause unpleasing results.
• Medical settings – Information displayed in a doctor’s surgery or office. This might be more reliable and respected by patients.