Social Cognitive Theory Paper

Combating Adult Obesity: A Social Cognitive Approach to Reduce Local Obesity
Overview of the Program Focus The health crisis of obesity is becoming an epidemic in the United States. Currently in America, more than two thirds of all adults are either clinically overweight or obese (The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, 2012). Within the population of obese individuals nationally, adults within the age group of 40 to 59 have the highest prevalence rate of obesity (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015). The ethnic groups most affected by obesity are Hispanics and African Americans (CDC, 2015). At the state level, 66.1% of all adults in North Carolina are either overweight or obese (CDC,
This being said, Pitt County, North Carolina, has a higher prevalence of obesity than the state and national averages. To combat this alarming incidence of obesity among Hispanic and African American adults between the ages of 40 and 59 within the community of Pitt County, North Carolina, the social cognitive theory will be applied to aid in the acquisition of a healthier diet for these individuals. The setting of this intervention will be at the Pitt County Health Department because many of the minority populations already receive healthcare at this facility. At the Health Department, educational classes will be taught to a select group of participants on the importance of developing a healthier diet and ways to facilitate this. Modifying and improving long-term dietary patterns can significantly decrease body weight, leading to a decreased risk of the associated health issues accompanying obesity in this vulnerable population. Without
The first core construct is self-efficacy. This is an individual’s personal confidence in their ability to embark on and succeed in a task (National Cancer Institute, 2005). The second core construct is expectation. This can be defined as the predicted outcome of a certain behavior (National Cancer Institute, 2005). The third core construct is observational learning. This is the learning that is absorbed while watching others participate in a behavior (Hayden, 2014). The forth core construct is expectancies and this is the value an individual places on an outcome of a certain behavior (Hayden, 2014). The fifth construct of the Social Cognitive Theory is behavioral capability. This can be described as the personal availability of the required knowledge and skills needed to preform a given behavior (National Cancer Institute, 2005). The sixth construct of the Social Cognitive Theory is emotional arousal. This construct proposes that an individual’s emotion of fear arises in certain situations and when this fear arises the individual becomes defensive, thus reducing the likelihood of the engagement in the behavior associated with that situation (Hayden, 2014). The seventh construct of the Social Cognitive Theory is reinforcement. Reinforcements are a system of rewards or punishments in response to an individual’s behavior that will either decrease or