Blogs - Practical Health Psychology

2019-11-012025-11-04Assessment, Interventions

Jedno od n-tih istraživanja: Što možemo naučiti istraživanjem pojedinog slučaja?

Autori: Marie Johnston i Derek Johnston, Sveučilište u Aberdeenu, Škotska

Uvod

Stručnjaci iz prakse često žele dati odgovor na problem koji se odnosi na jednog pojedinca, tim zdravstvenih djelatnika, određenu bolnicu, regiju i slično. Na primjer, možda bi bila važna informacija koliko često pretila osoba jede grickalice, gdje i kada ih jede te pojačava li stres zapravo jedenje grickalica. S druge strane možda želite saznati koliko često članovi zdravstvenog tima zanemaruju higijenu ruku i ako se ona u većem stupnju zanemaruju kada ima premalo osoblja za obavljanje posla te ako oglasi na odjelima smanjuju zanemarivanje. Ili pak možete istraživati izvore grešaka u radu kliničara kako biste provjerili je li pojava grešaka učestalija na određenim odjelima ili kod određenih redova osoblja. Na političkoj razini također bi moglo biti od koristi istražiti ako nova regulacija, kao što je zabrana pušenja na javnim površinama, utječe na vjerojatnost pušenja.

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2019-10-072025-11-04Goal setting, Motivation, Self-regulation

Fizička aktivnost u starijoj dobi: koliko je dovoljno?

Autorica: Anne Tiedemann, Sveučilište u Sydney-u, Australija

“Nedostatak aktivnosti uništava dobru kondiciju svakog ljudskog bića, dok ju kretanje i metodičke fizičke vježbe čuvaju i održavaju”…Platon, 400. pr.Kr.

Oduvijek je bilo poznato kako je redovita fizička aktivnost važna za naše zdravlje i blagostanje. No, poruke koje promoviraju zdrav način života često su usmjerene na djecu i mlade, dok se nedostatan fokus stavlja na značaj fizičke aktivnosti za ljude starije od 65 godina. Međutim, u starijoj je dobi od presudne važnosti uključivanje tjelesne aktivnosti u svakodnevicu.

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2019-09-072025-12-01Communication

Raising weight in a consultation

By Jane Ogden, University of Surrey, UK

Weight is a tricky problem to talk about in a consultation. Some patients may be sick of hearing the words ‘You could lose some weight’ every time they visit the clinic: regardless of whether they have come in because of a sore throat, a cervical smear or a potential heart problem. They may have experienced a lifetime of feeling stigmatised by the medical profession and think that all anyone ever sees is their body size. While this is so for some individuals, others may have never considered their weight as an issue, and could be insulted or surprised if it is raised. Some people may simply not want to hear the message and block out whatever is said, thinking for example ‘what do you know – you’re thin / fat / too young / too old’ or ‘science is always wrong.’ Raising the issue of weight therefore requires careful management of ‘when,’ ‘how’ and ‘what’ is said to an overweight person.

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2019-07-162025-11-04Motivation, Self-regulation

Self-efficacy: The “can-do” belief that lets people change their lifestyles

By Ralf Schwarzer, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany and SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poland

Changing behavior may often be desirable but difficult to do. For example, quitting smoking, eating healthily and sticking to a physical exercise regimen all require motivation, effort, and persistence. While many psychological factors play a role in behavior change, self-efficacy is one of the most important.

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2019-01-142025-11-04Goal setting, Motivation, Self-regulation

Motivation and the first steps toward physical activity

By Keegan Knittle, University of Helsinki, Finland

Here’s a familiar story from primary care: an individual who would clearly benefit from more physical activity comes into the clinic. We discuss their physical (in)activity, and in the end, the person says they just aren’t motivated to change. What’s a clinician supposed to do? How can we motivate this person to at least consider changing their behavior for the better? Or better yet, how can we help them to form good intentions for being active?

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2019-01-142025-11-04Interventions

Positive psychology interventions at work

By Alexandra Michel, Federal Institute for Occupational Health and Safety, Germany and Annekatrin Hoppe^,Humboldt Universität, Germany

Employees spend a major part of their waking time at work. It is no surprise then that reducing demands and increasing resources (e.g., autonomy, social support, self-efficacy) at work are important in promoting employees’ work-life balance, well-being and health. Over the last years, research has examined not only ways to repair the negative consequences of work stress, but also ways to promote resources to improve employees’ well-being at work. Especially, introducing positive psychology interventions to the workplace is a new avenue in the occupational health psychology field. Positive psychology interventions focus on building resources and preventing resource loss, and include activities that aim to cultivate positive feelings, behaviors and cognitions. In this blog post, we highlight three approaches that can help employees to build their resources and foster well-being at work.

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2019-01-072025-11-04Communication

Patient talk: What the doctor clearly says, and the patient clearly does not understand

By Anne Marie Plass, University Medical Center of Göttingen, Germany

Sometime ago a dermatologist who works as a psoriasis (a chronic skin disorder) -specialist in a university hospital, complained to me about many patients who do not adhere to the therapy, even though a mutual goal has been set, and a shared decision has been made.

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2018-09-182025-11-04Medication adherence

What happens with medications when they go home?

By Kerry Chamberlain, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

What do people do with medications once they enter the home? Surprisingly, limited research has attempted to answer that question. Yet, it is important – most medications are consumed at home under the control of the consumer. Prescription medicines are regulated, but once prescribed and collected, they are presumed to be taken as directed. People also can access and use a wide range of over-the-counter medications (e.g., for pain relief), alternative medications (e.g., homeopathic preparations), and other health-related preparations that are less obviously medications (e.g., dietary supplements, probiotic drinks). However, we should note that access to all forms of medication can vary considerably between countries.

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2018-08-302025-11-04Goal setting, Planning

How to set goals that work?

By Tracy Epton, University of Manchester, United Kingdom

Goal setting is a popular technique

There are many different techniques that can be used to change behaviour (93 according to a recent list!). Goal setting is a well-known technique that most people have used at some point. Goal setting is used by charities (e.g., Alcohol Concern, a UK charity, asked people to set a goal to quit drinking for the month of January), as part of commercial weight loss programmes and even in fitness apps. One recent review looked at a 384 tests of the effectiveness of goal setting across a range of different fields to see if goal setting really works, which types of goals work best and if goal setting works for everyone.

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