Health promotion: strategies for promoting health

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 tries to get people to behave in healthier ways. This subtopic covers two strategies.

Fear arousal frightens people with the results of unhealthy behaviour. Janis and Feshbach (1953) gave school students a talk on dental hygiene with strong, moderate or minimal fear. Strong fear worried the students most, but the minimal fear talk changed their behaviour most. Too much fear makes people avoid or deny the message.

Providing information gives people clear facts and instructions. Lewin et al. (1992) gave heart attack patients a self-help rehabilitation manual to use at home. Compared with patients given standard information, they adjusted better psychologically and needed their doctor and the hospital less in the months that followed.

Rules to remember

Fear arousal: a threatening message intended to motivate change.
Janis and Feshbach (1953): three fear levels plus a control group; the minimal fear group followed the dental advice most, the strong fear group least.
Fear works best at a low to moderate level and when people are told exactly what to do and believe they can do it.
Providing information: clear, specific, practical advice works better than long technical detail.
Lewin et al. (1992): home-based manual for heart attack patients; less anxiety and depression, fewer visits to the family doctor and fewer returns to hospital.
Knowing the risk does not always change behaviour, so information is often combined with other strategies.
Ethics: frightening people conflicts with protection from psychological harm.

Common mistake

Students assume that more fear means more change. Janis and Feshbach found the opposite: strong fear produced the most worry but the least change in behaviour.

Worked example

A road safety team must choose between a very graphic crash film with no advice and a mildly worrying film that ends with three simple steps for safer driving. Which is more likely to change behaviour?

Janis and Feshbach found that strong fear led to less behaviour change than minimal fear.
Very frightened viewers with no way of coping tend to avoid or deny the message.
The second film keeps fear low and adds clear, specific instructions, which is the feature that makes information effective.

Answer: The mildly worrying film with the three steps.

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