Risk perception, risk communication and health behavior change
Health psychology at the University of Konstanz
Abstract
Abstract. At a broad level, the Konstanz Health Psychology research group aims at understanding the judgment and decision making processes underlying health-relevant behaviors. Towards this goal, several more specific research agendas are addressed. A primary aim is to understand the transition from knowing about risks to personally feeling at risk. In particular, we study the reception of relevant personalised health feedback such as feedback on cholesterol levels or blood pressure. Contrary to the dominant models of biased reasoning, our results on feedback reception suggest that people respond adaptively to health risk feedback. Furthermore, we study changes in the perception of health risk across time and their associated effects on the onset, maintenance, and cessation of health-relevant behaviors. In current research, we try to utilize methods from affective neuroscience for assessing affective and intuitive processes relevant to personal feelings of risk. These efforts are motivated by the broader goal of developing theoretical frameworks that can be applied across a range of behavioral domains.
References
(2000). Social cognition models and health behaviour: A structured review. Psychology and Health, 15, 173–189.
(2001). Bad is stronger than good. Review of General Psychology, 5, 323–370.
(2004). Risk perceptions and their relation to risk behavior. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 27, 125–130.
(1997). Processing risk factor information: Defensive biases in health-related judgments and memory. In , Perceptions of health and illness (pp. 267–290). Amsterdam: Harwood.
(1998). Motivated sensitivity to preference-inconsistent information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 53–69.
(2006). Risk as a value: Combining Affect and analysis in risk judgements. Journal of Risk Research, 9, 141–164.
(1994). Health-related possible selves in young and middle adulthood. Psychology and Aging, 9, 126–133.
(1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. New York: Springer.
(2002). Genetic testing: Psychological aspects and implications. Health Psychology, 70, 784–797.
(2003). The common-sense model of self-regulation of health and illness. In , The self-regulation of health and illness behavior (pp. 42–65). Howard: Routledge.
(2001). Risk as feelings. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 267–286.
(
in press ). To be or not to be at risk: Spontaneous reactions toward risk feedback. Psychology & Health.(1994). Health psychology: A lifespan perspective. Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers.
(2001). Optimism and physical well-being. In , Optimism & pessimism: Implications for theory, research, and practice (pp. 127–145). Washington: American Psychological Association.
(2003). Hindsight bias after receiving self-relevant health risk information: A motivational perspective. Memory, 11, 455–472.
(2004). Biased reasoning: Adaptive responses to health risk feedback. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 384–396.
(2000). Age and body weight make a difference in optimistic health beliefs and nutrition behaviors. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 7, 143–159.
(2008). Social-cognitive predictors of eating a healthy diet in South Korean men and women. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 15, 4–13.
(2007). Risikokommunikation. In , Lehrbuch Kommunikationspsychologie (S. 251–270). Weinheim: Beltz.
(
in press ). Risikowahrnehmung und Risikokommunikation. In , Handbuch für Gesundheitspsychologie und Medizinische Psychologie. Göttingen: Hogrefe.(2005). Risikowahrnehmung und Gesundheitsverhalten. In , Gesundheitspsychologie. Enzyklopädie der Psychologie (S. 173–193). Göttingen: Hogrefe.
(2008). Preventive health behaviour and adaptive accuracy of risk perceptions. Risk Analysis, 28, 1–8.
(2003). Social-cognitive factors predicting health behavior change. In , Social psychological foundations of health and illness (pp. 169–196). Oxford: Blackwell.
(2007). Age and health behaviour change: Differences in predicting physical activity of South Korean adults. Psychology & Aging, 22, 482–493.
(
in press ). Gesundheitsverhalten alter Menschen. In . Handbuch Alter, Gesundheit und Krankheit. Bern: Huber.(2001). Optimism, pessimism, and psychological well-being. In , Optimism and pessimism: Implications for theory, research, and practice (pp. 189–216). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
(2008). Intuitive Judgments of HIV Risk: An Event-Related Potential Study. Poster presented at DGPA Spring School ”Biopsychology of Emotions”, Seeon, Germany, March 27–30 2008.
(2000). Social-cognitive predictors of health behavior: Action self-efficacy and coping self-efficacy. Health Psychology, 19, 487–495.
(1999). Health in midlife: Toward a life-span view. In , Life in the middle: Psychological and social development in middle age. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
(1999). Self, personality, and life management: Psychological resilience and vulnerability. In , The Berlin Aging Study: Aging from 70 to 100 (pp. 302–326). New York: Cambridge University Press.
(1991). Asymmetrical effects of positive and negative events: The mobilization minimization hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 67–85.
(2007). Optimism and social support: The providers’ perceptive. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 2, 205–215.
(2007). The spirited, the observant, and the disheartened: Social concepts of optimism, realism, and pessimism. Journal of Personality, 75, 169–197.
(2003). Exploring the links between risk perceptions and preventive health behavior. In , Social psychological foundations of health and illness (pp. 22–53). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
(1998). Use of correlational data to examine the effects of risk perceptions on precautionary behavior. Psychology & Health, 13, 479–501.
