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Overview

We all have health behaviors that we would like change. Some like healthy behaviors such as eating better, having good quality sleep, meditating, and exercising we want to do more of, and some such as smoking, eating junk foods, or drinking too much, we want to do less of. Changing health behaviors is not always as easy or straightforward as it may appear, and that’s where health behavior theory can play a valuable role in helping people make healthy changes.

For this project you will select a health behavior that you may have been thinking about changing or have tried to change previously without success. Through the three guided healthy change modules, you will be given an opportunity to reflect on the factors that may help or hinder actually making this healthy change by completing a series of measures and tools often used in health behavior change research. You will also learn the value and limitations of current health behavior change theories that may be applied to understanding successful change.

The purpose of this project is threefold:

1) to learn how to observe, reflect, and analyze the factors and motivations that may be important for changing a health behavior.
2) to increase your understanding of what it is like to be the target of a health behavior change program and to complete psychological measures often used in health behavior research.
3) to increase your understanding of how to apply health behavior change theories/interventions to changing a specific health behavior.

PART 1: HEALTHY CHANGE OVERVIEW

In this first journal you will select a health behavior that you have been thinking about changing or have tried previously to change without success, describe this behavior, and some of the reasons for making this change. Your first journal entry will include the following components.

First state the specific health behavior you wish to change and describe in well-defined terms. For example do aerobic exercise for 30 minutes three days per week at 70% of maximal heart rate, or cut back the number of cigarettes smoked to 3 a day. This should be also be a health-related behavior you don’t mind writing about in a paper that I will read. All submissions will be confidential but please recognize that I will be reading these so choose accordingly. This can be either a health-compromising behavior you want to decrease (e.g., excessive eating, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, etc.) or a health-enhancing behavior you want to increase (e.g., exercise, stress reduction, healthy eating, etc.).

Please make sure you pick only one health behavior, not a set of behaviors, or several different ones to change all at once. The more focused and precise you are about the behavior the easier it will be to complete the necessary exercises and components of this journal.

Once you have chosen a health behavior to focus on you will need to take a baseline frequency rating of this behavior for a period of one week. For example, if the behavior you have been thinking of changing is eating more fruits and vegetables, chart how much you currently eat. You may or may not be able to put this in graphical form, if not then a table or description or list is OK too.

The remainder (and bulk) of your journal entry will involve a discussion of your history with this healthy change (that is how long have you been considering it, have you tried making this change previously, etc.), and a reflection on why you would like to make this healthy change. To help accomplish this you will need to complete the healthy change motivation questions and to choose and complete two of the four health behavior change exercises (see list below). Once you have completed these questions, discuss your answers and any personal observations and insights that you may have about your reasons for wanting to change this behavior in your journal entry.

For example you may want to answer questions such as what are the consequences of this behavior in your life? How will your life be improved when/if you change this behavior?

This first journal entry should also include:

• Baseline of health behavior summary
• Health change motivations questions Actions

One from:

• Possible selves Actions
• Superordinate goals Actions

And one from:

• Prefactual thoughts Actions
• Three wishes Actions

Please submit all of these components into ONE file. You can copy/paste the various forms together into one document along with the narrative. Please do not submit as spearate documents.

So, in summary, please submit the above files plus a journal entry that includes the following components as detailed above:

1. State the specific health behavior you wish to change and describe in well-defined terms.

2. Provide the baseline frequency rating of this behavior for a period of one week.

3. Your history with this healthy change (that is how long have you been considering it, have you tried making this change previously, etc.), and a reflection on why you would like to make this healthy change.

You should expect to submit no more than 1-2 pages for this reflective piece. You will be graded on thorough reflection and thoroughness of response and completion of all components required.

part 2

Making healthy changes often requires extensive changes in other areas of our lives to help ensure that we are successful in meeting our goals. In this second installment of your course project, your focus will be on the factors that may help or hinder you in making a healthy behavior change.

Your journal should include the following components and address the issues/questions for each.

1) First complete the following self-report measures and include them in your submission:

• Goal Ownership Actions– do you feel that this is your goal or someone else’s goal?
• Situational temptations Actions– what elements in the environment could interfere with you staying on track?Links to an external site.
• Decisional balance questionsActions – What are the pros & cons associated with making this healthy change?Links to an external site.
• And one from Three Wishes or Prefactual thoughts Actionsthat you did NOT previously complete for Part 1 of this assignment. So if you completed Three wishes for part 1 then complete Prefactuals for part 2, and vice versa.

2) Factors that hinder: In this section you will reflect on and discuss some of the anticipated problems that might be encountered when trying to make a healthy change. Some of the questions you should try to answer (if applicable) are:

• If you have tried to change this behavior before why do you believe you have had difficulty changing this behavior and why?
• If you have not tried to make this change before, what factors do you anticipate would give you difficulty and why?
• In other words, what are the difficulties and or obstacles that you perceive when trying to make this healthy change and why have they been a challenge for you? Are these factors that may be obstacles for anyone or just you? Explain.
• Are these obstacles that are easily removed or dealt with? why or why not?

Throughout this section of your reflection you should try to integrate your reactions/responses to the relevant sections of the self-report measures you completed. For example what sort of situational temptations do you expect and why?

3) Factors that help: In this section you will reflect on and discuss some of the factors that may help or support you as you make a healthy change. These factors can again be anything from situational influences, to social factors, to your own will power and motivation. Some of the questions you should consider as you write this section are:

• What types of changes in your life would make it easier for you to follow through and successfully make this healthy change?
• What types of resources would help you make this change? For example, social, financial, and/or time resources can sometimes help support changing health habits.
• Would your social network (friends or family) help support this change and why or why not?
• What sort of rewards or incentives might be useful to help you make this change and how would they help?

And again, throughout this section of your reflection you should try to integrate your reactions/responses to the relevant sections of the self-report measures you completed. For example what are the pros to making this change, that is what are the positive things that will result from making this change, both in the long and short term?

Please note that the forms do not count for page count. Please try to limit your journal entry (the narrative) to 1-2 pages single spaced.

part 3

Discussion Topic: Unit Two Discussion (Initial post by July 15,

Reflection:

This unit introduces us to health behavior models that focus on interventions that address intrapersonal (self) and interpersonal (small group) influences. Sometimes we rely on helping people individually achieve health-related goals by focusing on their needs, barriers, etc., while other times we rely on those closest to that person to help (by involving their family, friends, and local community). It depends on what the health intervention goal is as to whether one approach or the other is more appropriate. That’s the job of a health educator, to use theories such as the Health Belief Model, for example, to design an intervention. Basing your practice in theory and evidence ensures outcomes that are expected and measurable!

For this discussion, think about how you address change for yourself. It is based on perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, etc? How do outside components effect your perception and success with change? What is the correlation between attitude and voluntary behavior? Are they mutually exclusive?

Please write a 2+ paragraph (minimum 250 words per the grading rubric) discussion addressing the following (30 points): Due by July 15, 11:59pm. Per the Discussion Grading and Expectations Rubric in Getting Started, at least 1 APA-formatted reference is required for fullest points.

1. Detail a health behavior issue that you think an INTRApersonal Health Behavior Theory would address well. What components of the health belief theory in mind do you think makes it well suited for this behavior change?
2. Next, detail out a health behavior issue that you think an INTERpersonal Health behavior Theory would address well. What components of the health belief theory in mind do you think makes it well suited for this behavior change?
3. Which approach do you think would have the best outcome for you personally? Why? Which approach do you think would have the best outcome for those who you identified in the Unit One discussion as your culture group? Why?