Using Examples from Chapter 3, Describe Some Psychological Factors That Are Influences on the Health of the Individual

The list of personal choices we make about our health every single day is endless. There are many factors what are influences on these decisions. In the following I will analyse some of these factors.
Personal beliefs
The beliefs of an individual are the most important things when it comes to make a decision about his life. What is he going to eat? What is he going to drink? Is he going to sunbathe?
The first example in chapter 3 about the three girls demonstrates how complex this issue is. The three girls share several common factors. They are females, they are about the same age and they all have the common knowledge about the dangerous effect of the sun. But based on their beliefs they make very different choices.
Molly’s and Shalini’s beliefs are mainly influenced by their but because their culture is so different their beliefs are very different too and also is their opinion on sunbathing. In this case Kirsten doesn’t let herself to be influenced by others and she makes a more health conscious decision. Was she always so cautious? Did something happen in her life what made her to take extra precautions when it comes to sunbathing?
Our beliefs are ever changing as we grow older and wiser. We have new experiences and also the change of our community can result the transformation of our beliefs.

Habits
The habits are more important and more complex problems than we think. When we repeat something many times and the action becomes automatic a new habit has been born. Habits are part of our life and they can be helpful as they free up our brain so it can concentrate on other things¹. The problem is when we create bad habits as they are very hard to break. If we think about Rab and his habitual drinking problem or how Juliet managed to lose weight it’s easy to understand that a person needs adequate knowledge, lots of encouragement and support to break an unhealthy habit.

Motivation
Is it so easy then? With good health education and support we can change someone’s beliefs and habits so they will make better choices about their health? Unfortunately the answer is not always yes. In most of the cases the person is aware of the fact that his or her lifestyle is unhealthy. Juliet knows and hates the fact that she is overweight and she knows it’s not healthy but she does need motivation to make the change. Low self-esteem, depression and the lack of support system can make a person unmotivated to break the old habits.

Emotions
According to a study², positive emotions such as optimism, life satisfaction, and happiness are associated with reduced risk of CVD³. It is clear that emotions can affect our health but do they affect it only indirectly or do emotions have a more complex direct way to do so? A sad or depressed person is more likely to make unhealthy choices than a happy one. Margery started to drink because she was grieving her husband and as she says “It helped to dull the pain”. Rab lost the function of his arm and his job.
They both experienced loss and emotional stress and these lead to their drinking problems.
Unfortunately many times people turn to alcohol, drugs, cigarette or eating to resolve deeper issues or to deal with stress. These can only bring short-term solutions to the problems and after the quick soothing effect is gone the person will feel even worse than before because he broke his diet or promise not to drink/smoke again.
It is a vicious circle and one needs a very strong willpower to break out of it.

As we can see there are many factors that are influence on the health of on individual. They are connected and have an impact on each other; they are part of our personality.
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References:
ºThe Open University: Understanding health by Linda Finlay, Clive Pearson and Susan Ram, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes
¹http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/jan2012/feature1
²The Heart’s Content: The Association between Positive Psychological Well-Being and Cardiovascular Health,” Julia K. Boehm and Laura D. Kubzansky, Psychological Bulletin, online April 17, 2012
³http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2012-releases/positive-emotions-cardiovascular-health.html

References: ºThe Open University: Understanding health by Linda Finlay, Clive Pearson and Susan Ram, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes ¹http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/jan2012/feature1 ²The Heart’s Content: The Association between Positive Psychological Well-Being and Cardiovascular Health,” Julia K. Boehm and Laura D. Kubzansky, Psychological Bulletin, online April 17, 2012 ³http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2012-releases/positive-emotions-cardiovascular-health.html