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Business Administration: University of the People
PSYC 1111-01 Introduction to Health Psychology - AY2025-T3
Instructor: Gregory Hollenbeck
February 12, 2025
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Following positive health-related behaviors can be tricky for many people, as they are
influenced by several factors like psychological, social, and environmental ones. We can use the
Health Belief Model, also known as HBM, to help us develop positive health-related behaviors.
According to Alyafei, “The health belief model (HBM) is a foundational framework in health
behavior research. It was conceptualized in the 1950s to help understand preventative health
behavior by social psychologists working in the United States Public Health Service (USPHS),
specifically "the widespread failure of people to accept disease preventatives or screening tests
for the early detection of asymptomatic disease” (Alyafei, 2024, para. 1).
The Health Belief Model has three components in which I am going to mention and explain
them.
1. Perceived severity: We talk here about the possibility that a person can change their
health habits and behaviors.
2. Perceive susceptibility: In this component, it means that no matter how hard people try to
change their health behaviors, they will not unless there something dangerous.
3. Perceived benefits: There must be some benefits for people to change their health
behaviors, or else, there will not be any motive to do it.
4. Perceived barriers: Change is always hard not matter how small or bit it is. Moreover,
changing health behaviors requires effort, dedication, and commitment to do it.
5. Cues of action: Wanting to change is not enough to make changes for our health
behaviors. We need something to motivate us to change in order to be stimulated for it.
6. Self-efficacy: According to Boskey, “Self-efficacy wasn't added to the model until 1988.
Self-efficacy looks at a person's belief in their ability to make a health-related change. It
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may seem trivial, but faith in your ability to do something has an enormous impact on
your actual ability to do it” (Boskey, 2024, para. 20).
I will be demonstrating smoking in the Health Belief Model and explain its components. As we
know, smoking is a serious problem in the whole world. We see that a lot of people die because
of smoking, and the number of smokers is increasing daily in the world.
1. Perceived severity: A lot of smokers admit that smoking is very bad, but they keep saying
that they are not facing any consequences in the meantime. This affects how they see
smoking and prevents from quitting.
2. Perceived susceptibility: Smokers do not consider smoking as a serious matter.
Additionally, they say that doing sport while smoking can balance the risks and they will
have a good body in the end.
3. Perceived benefits: Quitting smoking requires smokers to believe in it first. Second, they
have to be encouraged to do it and see the good side of it.
4. Perceived barriers: Quitting smoking can make people get angry easily and lost their
temper fast. That is why they do not think about the ideas. They have to find solutions to
these barriers not to become a victim of them and stop thinking about quitting.
5. Cues to action: There should be some external factors that help smokers and remind them
of quitting stopping no matter how hard it is for them to quit.
6. Self-efficacy: Smokers have to believe in themselves and be motivated to quit smoking
and going back to it after a while.
As we can see after applying the Health Belief Model, people to bear in mind that applying it is
not easy at all, and it requires a lot of effort and energy. Once people know how to use it, they
will start changing their health-related behaviors easily.
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References
Alyafei, A. (2024). The Health Belief Model of Behavior Change. The Health Belief Model of
Behavior Change - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf
Boskey, E. (2024). How the Health Belief Model Influences Your Behaviors. How the Health Belief
Model Influences Your Behavior