Social Influence

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  1. Name the 3 social influence approaches in public health programs.
    • Change norms
    • Provide role modeling
    • Provide supportive helpers
  2. Several theories incorporate social norms (SCT, TRA, etc.).

    Name the two types of social norms.
    • Descriptive
    • Injunctive
  3. What are descriptive norms?
    • What you think most people do
    • Usually perceived
  4. What are injunctive norms?
    • What other people want you to do
    • Perceived - what you think they want you to do
    • Expressed - What they say they want you to do
  5. Where do "perceived norms" come from?
    • Direct observation of others' behavior (vicarious learning, limited sample, behavior may be misinterpreted)
    • What other people say about typical behavior ("No one around here does that")
    • What media shows/says
    • Perceived norms can be correct or incorrect
  6. How do norms influence behavior?
    • Direct imitation - ofent unaway of our tendency to imitate
    • Tendency to conform
  7. What are some assumptions for the "social norms" approach to behavior change?
    • Norms about important behaviors are often incorrectly perceived - false consensus
    • Actions are based on those misperceived norms
    • Providing correct information will correct the misperceptions
    • When misperceptions are corrected, action will follow the new norm
    • Everyone drinks on weekends - if correct, then norms support behavior
    • Campaigns/posters - majoirty of action, descriptive norms (perceived numbers do/don't)
  8. List the 5 things that must be addressed to use social influence theory for health behavior change.
    • Need to establish that norms have been misperceived
    • Misperception needs to be in the direction of over-stating unhealthy behavior
    • Corrected perception needs to be substantial in the direction of the healthier behavior (won't work if the norm is only off a little)
    • Audience needs to believe the corrected information
    • Norm needs to apply to appropriate peer group (own social group)
  9. List 4 things that determine successful social norms campaigns.
    • Campaign applies to a well-defined social group (campuses, schools, local communities)
    • Formative research establishes actual norms
    • Organization providing the campaign is perceived as credible
    • Research should establish that the perceived norm has changed and the behavior has changed
  10. Describe an example of an approach to changing norms.
    • Certain behavior change programs have been shown to impact norms in addition to changing healthy behavior (e.g. smoke free public places)
    • Improve health of individuals by reducing smoking
    • Improve health of others by reducing exposure to second hand smoke
    • Indirectly affect smokign rates by changing perceived norms about the acceptability of smoking (especially kids) - can be subtle
  11. Describe role modeling.
    • Imitation / observational learning
    • One-on-one, rather than a general norm
    • Behavior change program which emphasize role modeling mainly directed toward "authority figures" (parents, teachers, health professionals; implication that authorities are particularly important role models)
  12. Describe programs based on role modeling.
    • Depend on role models to change behavior for sake of others
    • Parents, other relatives may be willing
    • More distant individuals hard to convince (policies in schools & other organizations may require certain behaviors for the sake of role modeling, establishment of norms)
    • Depends on person A changing behavior for person B
    • Better for parents, not so much for others (teachers, etc.)
  13. Describe "Support Person" interventions.
    • Increase quantity and/or quality of support
    • Mostly use "introduced" support person
    • Examples: weight loss/physical activity, lay health advisors, buddy system, breastfeeding peer support counselors, etc.
  14. List  issues with "support person" interventions.
    • What exactly is the support person doing or saying? Is it helpful? They can stray off message, not advise or deliver as prescribed.
    • Is the support person credible? Peers may be de-valued vs. doctor, nurse, professional.
    • Behavior change outcomes for the targe population can be difficult to assess. Research difficult to capture due to 1 step removed.
  15. Describe methods of educating "naturally occurring" support persons.
    • Members of target individual's own social network (friends, relatives, spouses, children)
    • Trained to be more supportive; Ways to be helpful, active support - child care, praise for accomplishments; Ways not to cause backlash; nagging, criticizing, social undermining efforts
    • Training often based on SCT
  16. Provide some examples of support person studies.
    • Confidante study - attempted to train female friends and relatives of pregnant smokers to help them quit; modestly successful but difficult to implement
    • Telephone counseling of individuals to help others quit smoking; success reported by self-report of the support person
    • Various studies have attempted to work with spouses of people trying to quit; not very successful overall; spousal communciation patterns may be entrenched
  17. List some issues with support persons studies.
    • Equally difficult to get support person to change as to get an individual to change
    • Must consider entire social network; other members of network may continue to be negative despite other positive change; networks tend to change during the intervention, which make it difficult to sustain
    • Difficult to assess success with the targeted individual
  18. Social influence as change strategies are ...
    one of the least explored.

Card Set Information

Author:
 sarahrei
ID:
 187799
Filename:
 Social Influence
Updated:
2012-12-07 19:32:23
Tags:
Social Influence
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Description:
Social Influence Approaches to Changing Behavior
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