Health behavior and health promotion

In health psychology the research emphasis is on describing and explaining health-related behaviors and experiences. At the action level, aspects and measures of health promotion and the restoration of health stand in the foreground. Health-promoting measures are aimed both at individual persons/groups and social structures/life conditions.

Currently working in this research area:

Rainer Hornung; Urte Scholz; Roger Keller;
Theda Radtke; Daniel Hausmann-Thürig

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The Tobacco Monitoring Switzerland (TMS) is a representative, continuous survey of tobacco consumption among 14- to 65-year-olds in Switzerland. In the context of this project health-psychological research questions will be investigated (e.g. Validation of the Transtheoretical Model, smoking-specific Compensatory Health Beliefs).

For more information and research reports, please visit: www.tabakmonitoring.ch

Currently working in this research area:

Rainer Hornung; Roger Keller;Theda Radtke;

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Changing a health behavior (for example, increasing physical activity, eating a healthier diet, smoking less, using dental floss) can be seen as a process in which people go through qualitatively different and distinct stages. Most broadly, the process can be divided into two stages or phases, namely, motivation and volition. In the motivation phase, a health-related intention is formed; in the volition phase, the intention is put into action in behavior. The fact that good intentions are not always sufficient to effect lasting change is referred to in the research literature as the “intention-behavior gap.” Volitional factors serve to bridge this intention-behavior gap. Important volitional factors that facilitate behavior change are, for example, planning, action control, but also volitional self-efficacy expectations (pertaining to maintaining new behaviors or recovering from setbacks). In this research area we are conducting not only longitudinal correlational studies but also randomized controlled intervention studies on various health behaviors.

Currently working in this research area:

Urte Scholz