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Kaitlyn Muller
H 571
October 16, 2014
FEAR
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• “Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts when faced with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause your heart to races, your breathing to escalate, and your muscles to energize.” (DSC, 2013)
• Fight-or-flight concept
• Fear expressed:
• Physiologically (arousal)
• Language Behavior (verbal self-reports)
• Overt Acts (Facial expressions)
FEAR
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RELATIVITY OF FEAR
• Variance in how “scary” situations are perceived.
• Examples of variance in situations:
• Crossing paths with a king cobra.
• Having a gun pointed at you.
• Standing in front of a classroom full of people and giving a presentation o.
• Statistics.
• Loud, unknown crash in the middle of the night.
• Physiological, or fight-or-flight, response helps us to survive dangerous situations.
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FEAR AND HEALTH-RISK BEHAVIORS
• Use of instinctual fear to change health-risk behaviors.
• Vulnerable vs. invulnerable.
• Two conditions must be met:
• Perceived threat.
• Perceived vulnerability.
• Perceived threat:
• Inspiration for fear appeals.
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• Scare tactics:
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FtNm9CgA6U
• http://www.methproject.org/ads/tv/ben.html
• Affect perceived threat and motivate people to change their negative behavior.
• Cognitive process necessary to decide not to engage in health-risk behaviors.
USE OF PERCEIVED THREAT
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DISCUSSION• Perceived threat is the main underlying construct for multiple theories:
• Health Belief Model (behavioral theory)
• Protection Motivation Theory (communication theory)
• Extended Parallel Process Model (communication theory)
• Scare tactics: did/do you find them effective?
• Do you think fear is an appropriate way to change risky health behaviors?
• Questions?
• DiClemente, R.J., Salazar, L.F., & Crosby, R.A. (2013). Health Behavior Theory for Public Health: Principles, Foundations and Applications. Jones and Bartlett, Boston, MA. ISBN: 9780763797539