Review

A stress on healthy behaviour

Social psychology and health
W & MS Stroebe
Open University Press, 1994, £12.99

The book is published as one of a series on major topics in social psychology. While primarily aimed at graduates, the series editor hopes the book will appeal to newcomers to the subject as well as researchers ä a tall order for any book.

The book concentrates on 2 major topic areas: health related behaviour and psychosocial stress and it’s relationship to health. The initial chapters discuss the different theories of health related behaviour and how it may be modified, and then go on to discuss specific health impairing behaviours such as smoking, and health protecting behaviours such as exercise.

There are paragraphs which summarise the medical consequences of the health related behaviours discussed, which will be useful for non medical readers. However medically trained readers may feel uncomfortable with the lack of critical discussion in the medical sections, which is, no doubt, a consequence of the need for conciseness in this aspect of the book.

The development of the theories of the psychology of health related behaviour is interesting. However, because of the range and detail of the theories discussed, the reader may be left at the end of each chapter feeling somewhat confused about what is relevant in the final analysis and what is not. Summary and conclusion paragraphs go some way towards dispelling this confusion, but new undergraduates at least are likely to find the material quite hard work to read and absorb.

Those working in public health and health promotion who are attempting to promote healthy behaviours will find the psychological analysis of health related behaviour useful and relevant to their work. The chapters on psychosocial stress discuss the effects of various stresses on physical markers of bodily function, and also the effect of stress on health related behaviour.

The final chapter gives a more personal view of the role of social psychology in promoting health. While the population risk of certain health related behaviour may guide policymakers, people need to be convinced of their vulnerability at a personal level, and then the intention to change needs to be facilitated in as many (effective) ways as possible.

The limitations of legal and non legal incentives and disincentives to do this are discussed, which also emphasises that through their everyday behaviour nearly everyone is intuitively prepared to trade years of life to gain some perceived improvement in quality.