Rethinking psychological approaches towards health promotion

Abstract

Abstract This paper argues that traditional psychological approaches to health promotion and education, relying predominantly on behaviourist and cognitivist models of behaviour, fail to address the complexity of health related behaviours. The emergence of more critical approaches within health psychology has initiated a greater appreciation of the way in which "healthy" and "risky" behaviours are tied, in a complex fashion, to issues of self, identity and morality. Drawing on such recent critical research, this paper documents the way in which health related behaviours can be understood in the context of "lay rationalities" in which values other than health (as defined by health professionals) take precedence. In particular, engagement in "healthy" and "risky" behaviours incorporates complex moral and value laden meanings. It is argued that such behaviours constitute important strategies of "survival" and ways of adapting to life in contemporary society. This issues forth critical questions relating to the ethics of attempting to change peoples' health related behaviours. Should the pursuit of health be "imposed" over other important human values? A consideration of the social and cultural structuring of individual perceptions of health leads the paper to the conclusion that non-intervention runs the risk of ignoring and perpetuating health inequalities. Nevertheless, if health promotion and education is to succeed, more complex understandings are required.