Effects Physical Activity

Introduction

In this assignment the writer will discuss about what health behaviour is, and how psychological influences on health behaviour. The author will also compare different types of health behaviours about physical activities . The writer will also discuss about positive and negative effects of physical activities.

Health Behaviour

Health behaviour means decision taken by an individual to maintain or regain good health and to prevent from becoming ill. Health behaviours reflects an individual belief, some examples of health behaviours are doing regular exercise, eating healthy, and obtaining essential immunisation. (Mosby’s Medical Dictionary, 2009}

The differences between physical activity and exercise are Physical activity means body movement that uses energy, example of physical activities is walking, gardening, doing housework. Exercise means something that is planned, structure, constantly and deliberate movement destined to maintain physical fitness. Example of exercise is jogging,performing sport and attending the gym regularly. Regular exercises can also result in weight loss. According to the research, all physical activity absolutely provides overall health and well-being of individual.(D, Gummelt, 2015). Exercises can help to improve physical fitness, which contains five specific elements: cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength fitness, muscular endurance fitness, flexibility fitness and body composition.

Exercising is immunogen and it can also be the pathogen in health if it is overdone. Matarazzo (1984) has outlined that regular exercising can have positive impacts on physical and mental health. Moderate exercises can increase the amount of Oxygen which the brain of a person receives, resulting in improvement of memory and mental acuity. Exercise can also produce chemical in an individual brain called endorphins, the chemicals works to improve a person mood and give them a sense of general well-being. Referring to my own wellness plan, exercise helps me to cope with depression and relieving stress. According to the NHS statistics, adults should at least get 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise over a week. It has been medically proven that a person performing regular exercises,would have up to 35% lower risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. 50% lower risk of type 2 diabetes, 50% lower risk of colon cancer, 20% lower risk of breast cancer, 30% lower risk of early death, up to an 83% lower risk of osteoarthritis, 30% lower risk of dementia. In older adults doing moderated physical activity, they are at 30% lower risk of falls. (NHS, 2018) even though physical and psychological benefits relate with exercising , physical activity does involve risk of injuries sometimes. A person can be at risk of injuries while exercising by pulling muscles, sprains, strains, break, fracture and dislocations. While exercising is essential for the health of a person, it can also be more harmful than beneficial. Exercising excessively can burn out a person body, and more at risk of injuries. Another negative effect about exercise is when an individual become obsesses about their body image and weight, which can lead to low self-esteem and unhealthy attitude about physical activities.

Exercise behaviour is influenced by personal and self-efficacy, when an individual has higher self-efficacy they tend to take part in more exercise. [Theory of planned behaviour is exercising behaviour that is made up of intentions, subjective, norms, attitudes, and perspective of ability to control behaviour] Mummery and Wankel (1999). To build self-efficacy, as individuals, they must have positive exercising experiences; plan an exercise programme that they enjoy more. [Referring to own action plan, I enjoy listening to loud music while exercising it keeps me going and wanted to more.]

Various perceived symptoms could control the health behaviours in the human beings. One such instance could be conceptualised in the form of a smoker regulating his or her smoking habits concerning the perceived sensations within the throat. The health behaviours, such as Exercising, could be further influenced by the availability of proper access to the health services. Apart from these, various factors based on the personality traits of the individuals also influence the health behaviours. One such aspect could be understood to be the cognitive factors which could determine the measure to which the individuals could practice their determined health behaviours. The cognitive factors also lead to the explanations concerning the measure to which other factors could influence health behaviours, such as Exercising, at the individual levels. Thus, it could be understood that availability of knowledge regarding the links between the behavioural practices and the resultant health conditions could be important determinants regarding the process of making of informed choices concerning indulging in Exercising on part of the individuals. In this process, certain cognitive variables are associated. These could be understood to be the perceptions related to health risks, behavioural efficacious practices in mitigation or alleviation of such risks, the social or family based pressures to adhere to differential measures of health behaviours and finally, the exerted effort to control the impact of such health behaviours such as undertaking regular exercises. In this context, the relative significance of the entire range of different cognitive factors in the process of determination of such a specific behaviour related to health has led to the formulation of certain different models which are labelled as the Social Cognition Models (SCMs). These models primarily focus on the cognitive variables as the core constituents as well as the primary determinants of social behaviours pertaining to individual health considerations. Furthermore, the Social Cognitive Models also provide a firm academic and theoretical basis on which the constitution of the understanding regarding the various determinants of the health behaviours and behavioural changes could be undertaken. Each of such theoretical models firmly emphasise on the rationalisation factors associated with the human behaviour and furthermore, these SCMs are also indicative of the assumptions that any form of human behaviour, including that of the health behaviour, is directly related to the elaborate and subjective analysis of the costs and benefits of the probable outcomes concerning the courses of differing actions. This could be indicative of the assumptions that the fundamental considerations related to health behaviours, such as that of the previously mentioned Exercise based health behaviour, are maximisation of benefits and minimisation of costs.

According to Ajzen (2011),the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) could be applied in this context to outline the implicit psychological factors which could perpetuate the behavioural activities of human beings. This is aptly applicable to formulate the necessary understanding concerning the exercising related decisions which could be translated into particular health behavioural categories. The TPB could be utilised to also detail the process through which external influences compel any individual to determine the decision to follow particular exercising and health maintenance regimes. According to Armitage and Conner (2001), there are two specific elements which could be emphasised upon in this regard. The first one is related to the intentions of any individual which could lead to the decisions of engaging in exercise based behaviours. The second one could be outlined to be that of Perceived Behavioural Control (PBC). The intentions are representative of the motivations of any individual. This is related to attitudinal change through evaluation of the behaviour. The PBC is the expectancy of performance outcomes related to the exercise related health behaviour through perceptions of control utilisation. This is related to the subjective norms where the individual could come to believe in the significance of this particularity of health exercise as to be beneficial in terms of undertaking.

Furthermore, the Theory of Perceived Self-efficacy could be utilised as a tool of prediction for the change institution in health behaviours of any individual. This theoretical construct is reflective of the perceptions that human behaviour is mostly a function comprised of incentives and fulfilment of expectations (Bandura,1977). In case of the outlined health behaviour of exercising, three particular expectations could be outlined. These are the following:

Expectancies related to situations and outcomes This outlines the beliefs of individuals regarding the manner in which event are connected. Outcome expectancies This outlines the prevalent beliefs of the consequences of undertaking a particular behaviour. Self-efficacy related expectancies This outlines the beliefs of individuals regarding undertaking of regular and particular forms of exercises to perpetuate the health behaviour. Thus, it could be stated with certain measures of clarity that, it is always needed on part of any individual to value his or her health (incentive) so as to institute changes in the behavioural domain to perform specific actions such as healthy exercises. This could be further elaborated to be the necessity on part of the individual to sustain the belief that the current lifestyle does poses a threat to the health (situation–outcome expectancy) and should believe that adopting exercising(health behaviour) would reduce the existing threat (outcome expectancy). Finally, as per this theoretical construct, the individual has to believe in the capability of his/her to perform the undertaken behaviour (exercising) over a period of time.

Conclusion

The preceding study assignment has been formulated to evaluate the core topic of health behaviour and the psychological constituents which are directly associated with the same. In this context, the preceding study has undertaken a concise evaluation of the various strands of thoughts in the form of psychological theories which have been observed to have critical influence in the determination of any particular health behaviour on part of individuals. The study has initially emphasised upon the nature of health behaviour and has concentrated upon the selected health behaviour of regularised exercising. The study has progressed in the manner of an evidence based evaluation of the topic under consideration.

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Reference:

• Mosby’s Medical Dictionary, (2009) 9th edition, [online] [accessed 29th January 2019] available at:
• Dishman, R. K. (1982),[online] [accessed 31th January 2019] Compliance/adherence in health-related exercise,Health Psychology, 1(3), 237-267. Available at:
• Ajzen, I., (2011) [online] [accessed 31th January 2019] The theory of planned behaviour: reactions and reflections. Available at:
• Armitage, C.J. and Conner, M., (2001) [online] [accessed 31th January 2019] Efficacy of the theory of planned behaviour: A meta‐analytic review. British journal of
• social psychology, 40(4), pp.471-499. Available at:
• Bandura, A., (1977) [online] [accessed 31th January 2019] Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological review, 84(2), p.191. Available