Understanding Health Behaviour

Full course description

In this module we will discuss important motivational determinants that influence the adoption of healthy and unhealthy behaviours. We will have a look at important individual determinants as well as socio-environmental and work-related determinants and discuss theories that integrate these determinants to better understand health behaviour. We will distinguish determinants for understanding pre-motivational, motivational and post- motivational health behavioural processes. Additionally, we will discuss the importance of physical and social environmental factors that influence health behaviour directly and indirectly via socio-cognitive factors. Within this context we will also pay attention to the role of these determinants in understanding health behaviour differences in people with a lower and higher socio-economic status. In a separate training we will focus on skills to apply these theories in practice. Students will learn how to develop questions to assess determinants of health behaviour, how to analyse qualitative data and to report these findings. The module will be assessed with an individual written exam and a group paper.