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Implicit Theories Intervention for Multiple Health Behavior Change
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Description: Implicit theories are peoples’ beliefs about the changeability of human traits and characteristics (Dweck, 1999, 2012). People differ in the extent to which they perceive a given trait or characteristic as changeable and developable (i.e. incremental theory) or stable over time (i.e. entity theory). Implicit theories have been studied for different domains, like intelligence (Hong, Chui, & Dweck, 1995), morality (Chui, Dweck, Tong, & Fu, 1997) or mathematical skills (Good, Aronson, & Harder, 2008). A recent meta-analysis (Burnette, O’Boyle, VanEpps, Pollack, & Finkel, 2013) revealed that holding an incremental theory in a given domain (i.e. perceiving the given trait as changeable) is linked to successful self-regulation and goal striving in this domain. Engaging in health-promoting behavior and avoiding health damaging behavior often involves self-regulation. Research suggests that holding an incremental theory in health domains appears to be beneficial: An incremental theory of body weight can buffer against setback-related weight-gain (Burnette & Finkel, 2012); an incremental theory of fitness and body appearance is linked to more physical activity (Lyons, Kaufmann, & Rima, 2015; Orvidas, Burnette, & Russell, 2018); and an incremental theory of smoking leads to more optimism to quit smoking (Fitz, Kaufmann, & Moore, 2015). Holding an incremental theory appears to be not only beneficial in specific health domains. It has been shown that an incremental theory of health in general is associated with showing more health-promoting behavior (Schreiber, Job, & Dohle, 2019). Furthermore, experimental evidence revealed that adopting an incremental view of health leads to more beneficial health-related attitudes and intentions (Bunda & Busseri, in press; Schreiber et al., 2019). Based on these findings the primary goal of this study is to investigate whether promoting an incremental view of health in an intervention increases the frequency of multiple health-promoting behaviors. In this delayed-intervention study we will measure health behaviors over the course of 3 weeks on a daily basis using experience sampling. Depending on the assigned condition participants (N = 120) will be confronted with online materials fostering an incremental view of health (either after 1 week - early intervention group - or 2 weeks - late intervention group - of baseline measuring). The study will be realized online via Qualtrics and Survey Signal. In an entry and closing questionnaire, we will measure additional health-related constructs (self-efficacy, locus of control, outcome expectancy) to examine the interrelation between these constructs, implicit theories and health behavior.
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