Lifestyles and behaviour

Aim: To examine the phsiological basis of pre-mentrual symptoms and to questions the validity of women's self-report of these symptoms

Sample- 44 womin undergraduates od princton universoty aged 18-24- taking part in research looking at a technique for predicting the expected date of menstraction

Method- Carried out in a university infirmary, intervied (unknow to them) on the sixth or seventh daybefore their next peroid. Assigned to experimental groups or control. ECG machine and told which group them belonged. They were then given a questionaire to rate the extent to which they had expirenced ths ymptoms in the questionaire

Results: Symptoms rated worse who thought they were pre-menstraul was significatly higher then those who had benn told they were intermenstraul for the symptoms eatching habits, water retention and pain

Conclusion:Deamnd characteristics, associations can cause woment to overstate what they are expirencing or affect a womens actual perception of her own body.

Aim:To examine the application of the theory of planned behaviour specific dietary requirements. Locus of control and self-efficacy

Sample; 390 people who reponded for a newspaper adert on a research project about diet. 70% female age range 9-91. Paid 5 pounds for completing questionaire

Method: Half- low fat questionaire-144 responded

half- given five fruits a day questionaire -143 responded

Sent two questionaires a month apart- first one demographic questions-measure self-efficacy and locus of control - extent felt less need to eat less fat or fruit or veg. The second one actual diet and 64 item food frequency survey

Results- Locus of control and self-efficacy good predictors of intention. When it came to actual behaviour- selfefficacy was more significactly correltated then locus of control with eating more fruit and beg and les fat. Conclutions:health promotions should use self-efficacy as main point- can be applied to behaviours

Aim; To investigate the effect of distraction and parental reactions on scratching behaviour

Sample; 15 boys and 15 girls evluated for sever atopic dermatitis at duke universoty medical centre USA

Method:They videotaped the children with their parents in the hospital and observed that when parents tried to stop their children scratching (in order to prevent peeling and infection) this actually increased the scratching behaviour. 5 mins of structured play and 5 mins of unstructed play. Obsevers oberved straching behaviour and parents reaction. Two observers practiced scoring until the agreement exceeded 85%

Results:More straching during unstrutured task then structured task. When they asked parents to ignore their children when they scratched and give them positive attention when they did not scratch, the amount of scratching was significantly reduced.Conclusions:pay more attention to straching behaviour- reinforce this behaviour and make it worse. Parents should, not reinforce scratching by giving attention, pay more attention to non scratching behaviour, try to distract childd and not stop child for scratching.