Health threat control as psychological distance regulation
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2018
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Resumo
Esta tese adapta o Zürich Model of Social Motivation ao contexto do comportamento
relevante à saúde, e especificamente à pesquisa sobre fear appeals. Neste referencial teórico,
o comportamento relevante à saúde é visto como parte de um processo auto-regulador que
assegura que, enquanto os indivíduos se envolvem em comportamentos de risco, é mantido o
que é percepcionado como estando em «distância segura» em relação à fonte de perigo. A
novidade de uma informação sobre uma ameaça de saúde (HTI) é conceituada como parte
integral da representação mental da ameaça, e as emoções são consideradas ter um papel
instrumental em comunicar percepções de risco ao sistema de coping. Foi conduzido um
estudo para testar e explorar a validade deste modelo, no qual os participantes foram
confrontados com HTIs escritos, relativos a cancro, e questionados sobre as suas experiências.
Usando modelos de equação estrutural, foi determinado que o modelo apresenta um bom fit
relativamente aos dados empíricos. Foi confirmado o papel significativo da novidade das
HTIs na construção de representações mentais de ameaça, e revelou-se uma correlação
positiva entre o tamanho da ameaça e a tendência para respostas de coping instrumentais, ao
invés de paliativas. Não foi encontrado suporte significativo para o efeito mediador das
emoções.
This theses adapts the Zürich Model of Social Motivation to the context of healthrelevant behavior and, specifically, fear appeal research. Within this framework, healthrelevant behavior is viewed as part of a self-regulating process in which people opportunistically engage in risk taking behavior, while striving to maintain towards hazards what they experience as »safe distance«. The novelty of a health threat information (HTI) is conceptualized as an integral part of threat percept construal, and emotions are thought to play an instrumental role in communicating threat perceptions to the coping system. A study was conducted to test and explore the model’s validity, in which participants where confronted with written, cancer-related HTIs, and questioned about their experience. Using structural equation modeling, the model was determined to be of good fit for the empirical data, novelty was confirmed to play a significant role in threat percept construal, and threat size to be positively correlated with tendency towards instrumental, as opposed to palliative, coping responses. No significant support was found for the mediation effect of emotions.
This theses adapts the Zürich Model of Social Motivation to the context of healthrelevant behavior and, specifically, fear appeal research. Within this framework, healthrelevant behavior is viewed as part of a self-regulating process in which people opportunistically engage in risk taking behavior, while striving to maintain towards hazards what they experience as »safe distance«. The novelty of a health threat information (HTI) is conceptualized as an integral part of threat percept construal, and emotions are thought to play an instrumental role in communicating threat perceptions to the coping system. A study was conducted to test and explore the model’s validity, in which participants where confronted with written, cancer-related HTIs, and questioned about their experience. Using structural equation modeling, the model was determined to be of good fit for the empirical data, novelty was confirmed to play a significant role in threat percept construal, and threat size to be positively correlated with tendency towards instrumental, as opposed to palliative, coping responses. No significant support was found for the mediation effect of emotions.
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Orientação: Cristina Camilo
Palavras-chave
MESTRADO EM PSICOLOGIA CLÍNICA E DA SAÚDE, PSICOLOGIA, PSICOLOGIA DA SAÚDE, PERCEÇÃO DE RISCO, COPING, PSYCHOLOGY, HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY, RISK PERCEPTION, COPING