This project explores the potential utility of a new intervention approach designed to target motivation for health behaviour change. The project is comprised of three experimental studies that explore cognitive processes associated with health values as well as predictors of health behaviours, to determine whether we can motivate health behaviour change by providing individuals with cognitive support for health values. The results of these studies are then used to inform the development of a longitudinal, internet-based health intervention that is evaluated over a six-month period.

Lifestyle has a major impact on health. For example, recent research estimates that the combined impact of not smoking, being physically active, drinking in moderation, and eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day can add the equivalent of 14 years to a person’s life (Khaw et al., 2008). Thus even relatively small changes in behaviour can have a large impact on the health of a population. For these reasons, there is increasing interest in ‘lifestyle change’ as a health prevention.

But how do we change lifestyles? Models of health behaviour change generally distinguish between a motivational (or preintentional) phase, in which an individual decides to change their behaviour, and a volitional (or postintentional) phase, during which they decide how to implement the change (Heckhausen, 1991). This proposal combines this framework with recent social cognitive work on values to explore and evaluate new intervention approaches.

The research asks whether a lack of cognitive support for values make them less predictive of behavior in situations where value-congruent action is difficult. For example, does it help to explain failures to resist unhealthy temptations (e.g., fatty foods, inactivity)? Do individual differences in prior lifestyle and health moderate the impact of new cognitive support?