Health promotion: schools and worksites

Psychology A2 · Health Psychology. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

Health promotion works well where people gather every day, such as schools and workplaces. Both studies here use rewards, so they are based on operant conditioning.

Tapper et al. (2003) describe the Food Dudes programme for healthy eating in primary schools. Children watch videos of slightly older heroes, the Food Dudes, who enjoy fruit and vegetables. The children receive small rewards for tasting and eating these foods, and they taste them again and again. Fruit and vegetable eating rose, at school and at home, and the change lasted.

Fox et al. (1987) used a token economy in two open-pit mines. Workers earned trading stamps for periods without injuries. Injuries and their costs fell and stayed low for years.

Rules to remember

Food Dudes uses three things: peer modelling (videos), rewards, and repeated tasting.
Modelling comes from social learning theory: children copy admired role models who are a little older than they are.
Rewards are positive reinforcement: behaviour followed by a reward is repeated.
Fox et al. (1987): stamps for no lost-time injuries, and extra stamps when the whole work group stayed injury-free, so an injury cost the group its award.
Token economy: tokens (secondary reinforcers) are earned for target behaviour and exchanged for goods.
Both studies are longitudinal field studies: high ecological validity but less control of variables.
Research with children needs consent from parents or guardians as well as the child's agreement.

Common mistake

Do not describe Food Dudes as rewards only. The videos of role models and the repeated tasting are just as important, and the aim is that children come to like the taste so the habit continues without rewards.

Worked example

A factory wants staff to wear ear protection. It gives each team a point for every week in which all members wear it, and points can be exchanged for vouchers. Which study is this based on, and what is one risk?

Points that are earned for a behaviour and exchanged for goods are tokens, so this is a token economy.
Fox et al. (1987) used the same idea, with trading stamps, to improve safety in mines.
Because the whole team is rewarded, workers may pressure each other or hide problems to keep the points.

Answer: Fox et al. (1987); a risk is that workers hide failures or stop when the rewards end.

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