Hall:
Chair and Presenter:
Keech Jacob
Division: Division 8: Health Psychology
Changing health-related behaviour requires identification of behavioural determinants, and the development of interventions targeting these determinants and the mechanisms accompanying them. Decades of research has demonstrated the ability of various prototypical social cognition models such as the theory of planned behaviour, in explaining health behaviour. However, these models have inherent limitations, which may be overcome through consideration of other constructs. To realise the benefits of such complementary perspectives, researchers have more recently sort to combine constructs and mechanisms into integrated theoretical models to explain behaviour. Such models may include constructs such as attitudes, norms, self-efficacy, and self-determined motivation which may underpin motivated reasoned actions; volitional constructs such as planning and action control; and constructs such as behavioural automaticity, habits, and implicit social cognition which may underpin non-conscious processes. Such comprehensive integrated approaches are well-suited to understanding the determinants of behaviours which have been traditionally considered difficult to change, such as physical activity, swimming-related behaviours, and behaviours used in the context of coping with stress. This symposium will showcase synthesised research and empirical studies from Australia, Asia, Canada, and the USA which highlight the range of processes likely to impact behaviour through advances in the application of integrated models and theories.
