Health psychology is a fast-growing sub-discipline of psychology that borders on what causes illness and how to such illness is treated. Noticeably, healthy psychology shifts the responsibility of disease prevention to individuals arguing that diseases such as HIV/AIDS are caused by certain personal behaviors (Murphy, 2010). In addition, health psychology disregards a simple linear model of health and examines the combination of factors involved in illness- social, biological (e.g. a virus) or psychological(e.g. beliefs and behaviors). Because the illness is caused through a combination of many factors, the individual is never seen as a passive victim of some external disease causative agents such as a virus. Noticing the role of behaviors such diet, alcohol and prostitution, for example, means that individuals can be held responsible for their health or illness.
Typically, disease prevention measures should focus on the treatment of the whole individual and not just the physical changes that occur because of ill health. As such, behavior change, compliance with medical recommendations and encouraging individuals to change their beliefs are the core elements treatment or prevention of illness. In addition, the mind and the body have a pertinent interaction, which needs to be understood in order to effect disease prevention and treatment. According to Murphy (2010), people behave based on the way they think. Thus, health beliefs are predictors of behavior.
While disease prevention interventions focus on individual behavior, the community health psychologist should understand that behavior does not occur in a vacuum. Obviously, a variety of influences- from social to generic- weighs in on behaviors. Admittedly, individuals cannot modify their genetics. However, an individual has a genetic predisposition to develop the disease can actively engage in behaviors that minimize the risk of contracting the disease. Similarly, adolescents have control on many influences in their lives. In some situations, they do not realize how far they can modify their behaviors. For example, if they are taught on how to abstain from sexual intercourse or taught on how to engage in protective intercourse, they may escape a likelihood of contracting HIV/AIDS.
In essence, interventions address self-confidence and self-efficacy issues. Moreover, interventions promote the development of social support systems and provide problem-solving skills. Notably, successful interventions must consider various influences on an individual’s behavior in order to enhance effective behavioral modification.
Often, the assumption that the behavior of an individual is distinct from the community is misleading. In fact, communities have an important role in shaping individual behaviors. For example, a community plays an important role towards the modification of an individual’s behavior through influences such as peer pressure. Besides, many adolescents are aware of the consequences of engaging in unhealthy behaviors.
Murphy (2010) found that, an individual’s decision to engage in unhealthy behavior or avoid them is subject to an individual’s perception of short-term and long-term health risks. Notably, behaviors with more immediate healthy risks are often less appealing as opposed to behaviors associated with long-term health risks. In fact, many adolescents believe that long-term health consequences are avoidable through adopting a vague plan to change the behavior “later.” These expectations may be unrealistic because changing behaviors is sometimes difficult.
In conclusion, the individual is not a passive victim to a disease causative agent but an active player as far as contracting HIV/AIDS and other diseases is concerned. Unhealthy behaviors result in consequences, for example, diseases such as HIV/AIDS. The interventions to address behavior-related illnesses are effective to the extent that they focus on the individual behavior and the role of the community in modification of such behavior. Therefore, successful, healthy interventions that focus on behavioral changes should take into account the complex combination of factors that cause disease.
References
Murphy, R. E. (2010). Health psychology. New York: Nova Science Publishers.
