Kaitlyn Muller

H 571

October 16, 2014

FEAR

• “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

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.

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.

• 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

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