Social Cognitive Theory And The Theories Of Health Behavior

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Theories of health behaviors that assume individuals exist within, and are influenced by social environment are called “interpersonal theories” (National Cancer Institute, U.S Department of Health and Human Services & National Institutes of Health, 2005). Interpersonal theories/models also focus on how individuals are influenced by the opinions, thoughts, behaviors, and support of the people he/she associates with and vice versa (how individual influences others). The social environment can affect a person’s behavior, as well as have an impact on one’s health (National Cancer Institute, U.S Department of Health and Human Services & National Institutes of Health, 2005).The names of the interpersonal theories/models, are the following: Social Cognitive Theory, Social Networks and Social Support Theory, Transactional Model of Stress and Coping, and …show more content…

This weight gain has occurred due to over-eating because of stress and not having the time to cook a healthy meal. Therefore, we find ourselves eating fast food as we are constantly on the go. We each have eventually realized this consistent pattern, and have strongly been thinking of losing weight together as a group (health-behavior change). The “Social Cognitive Theory” (SCT) is an interpersonal behavioral change theory which can be applied to the health-behavior change (losing weight) that my NMSU friends have and I have been thinking about for some time. According to the Boston University School of Public Health (2013), the SCT considers the way in how individuals can obtain and maintain a behavior, while also taking into account the social environment in which individuals perform the behavior. The SCT is built of 5 key concepts that include: Psychological Determinants, Observational learning, Environmental determinants of Behavior, Self-regulation, and Moral disengagement (Wiley & Cory,

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