Leventhal's Self-Regulatory Model Of Health Case Study

People not only have beliefs about their behaviour but also about illness (Ogden, 2017). Illness beliefs are patients own understanding about the illness and it can be studies with the help of various models. Self-Regulatory Model (SRM) of health behaviour deals with the problem solving in the case of illness. Health seeking behaviour is the process of deciding to go to the doctor. Let us discuss the help seeking behaviour of Magda based on this case study.
‘Magda has been feeling depressed lately. Some of her colleagues and friends have noticed a change in her mood and have mentioned this to her. Magda has also noticed her own interest in the things that used to bring her joy don’t anymore and she now experiences anxiety whenever she commits
Leventhal’s Self-Regulatory Model (SRM) has mainly 3 stages the illness beliefs and help seeking behaviour of Magda can be evaluated.
The first stage i.e. Interpretation consists of symptom perception and social messages.
In Magda’s case symptom perception is done since she has found out that ‘she is feeling depressed lately’. Social messages have come from her colleagues and friends that they have noticed the ‘change in her mood’ and have informed her. Also her emotional state is changed since she experience anxiety whenever she commits social activities.
‘The illness beliefs about ‘problem’ will give the problem meaning and will enable the individual to develop and consider suitable coping strategies’ (Ogden, 2017). She has developed the avoidance coping since mental health support is not available in her country. The third stage which is Appraisal has not changed her situation as she has not been thinking about the effectiveness of the coping strategy.
If we examine her illness beliefs through the 5 core beliefs-
Identity- Depression
The perceived cause of illness-
He decides and differentiates between a depression due physical origin and one due to psychological factor. The whole treatment is based on this phase of decision making by a doctor. Hence, when doctor fails to diagnose the disease correctly it becomes difficult cure. This is what happened in the case of Magda. If she approached a doctor, they are not able diagnose her behaviour based on the psychological factor because they are unaware of it. ‘A doctor has the power to turn a person into a patient by legitimising their symptoms’ (Ogden, 2017). This is called as sick role. But in Magda’s case there is no consultation with the doctor, hence resulting in the costs of sick role which can be feeling sick or other such complications.
‘Without addressing stigma and discrimination in its myriad of subtleties people with mental-health difficulties will continue to live less fulfilling lives’ (Lakeman, McGowan, MacGabhann, Parkinson, Redmond, Sibitz, Stevenson and J. Walsh, 2012).Hence there is a need to bring a positive change in the society and spread awareness abut this issue.
Finally, we can conclude that since there is a stigma for seeking mental health support due to the socio-cultural aspect, illness beliefs of the medical community affecting the health seeking behaviour and contributing to the negative aspect of ‘sick