The Theory Of Planned Behavior Case Study

Due to the high prevalence of stress and stressors many individuals flock to the aid of health risk behaviours in an attempt to reduce or counteract the effects of stress. The Theory of Planned Behaviour can be used to reduce the impact of stress on physical health. This essay will attempt to highlight the various causes of psychosocial stress and the adverse effects that it has on one’s health. Self-indulgence will be discussed in the context of coping with stress. The relationship between stress and physical health will be analysed as well as the link between stress and health risk behaviours. The Theory of Planned Behaviour can be used to illustrate the relationship between stress and health risk behaviours. The definition of stress will
Coping refers to ‘active efforts to master, reduce, or tolerate the demands created by stress” (Weiten, 2014, p.564). Health risk behaviours are often sought out as a maladaptive coping strategy utilized by individuals as a means to counteract the effect of stressors. This is known as ‘self-indulgence’ (Tice, Bratslavsky, & Baumeister, 2011). The Theory of Planned Behaviour can be used to illustrate why individuals smoke, knowing that there is no empirical evidence to suggest that smoking relieves stress or has any health benefits. It emphasises that smoking is determined by the perceptions of the individual. Studies have that an increase in stress causes an increase in smoking (McClernon & Gilbert, 2007). Initially smoking is utilized as a short-term coping strategy for dealing with stress but for many individuals, it becomes a habit and becomes integrated in their lifestyles. Smoking becomes second nature and even ritualistic to many individuals. When one associates smoking to another activity, Pavlovian reflexes are essentially created. An example of this is when students associate smoking with a ‘study break’. They are compelled to reach for their cigarettes whenever they need to ‘de-stress’ and view it is a recreational activity that forms an essential part of their daily routine. Smoking is an established carcinogen that causes serious damage to the lungs and inevitably lung
It can be applied to manage stress and its impact on health. It has been established that the behavioural intentions if an individual depends on the multiple subcomponents. If the intentions of an individual to elicit a behaviour determines the occurrence of said behaviour, then the behavioural intentions of the individual must be analysed in order to demonstrate the management of stress and its effect on health. The first component being the attitude of the individual towards the behaviour. An individual’s attitude with regards to smoking is predicated on the positive and negative aspects related to it. Therefore, the attitude of the individual must be altered in order minimise the elicitation of the health risk behaviour. By altering the attitude of an individual one can inadvertently alter the behavioural intentions of said individual thus reducing the elicitation of the health risk behaviour. One needs to reduce their dependency on behaviours such as smoking and aggression as coping mechanisms. Many smoking cessation programmes have been implemented to modify the attitudes of people who smoke. However, many smokers believe that there is an element of redundancy with regards to cessation as they view the damage as permanent and so continue to smoke with complete disregard to the consequences, this directly correlates with the attitude of the