Abstract
It was hypothesized that increasing levels of anxiety about health issues would make response times to disease detections longer than response times to health promotion behaviors and that this effect would reverse when anxiety about health issues was decreased. In a laboratory study 82 participants recruited from undergraduates and the general community were randomly assigned to read information designed either to increase or to decrease anxiety about health. Following the anxiety manipulation participants were required to indicate their attitude about both disease detection and health promotion behaviors and response times to both types of behavior were recorded. Finally, the participants' attitudes toward all the health behaviors were measured using 9-point scales. The results supported the hypothesis.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ajzen, I., and Timko, C. (1986). Correspondence between health attitudes and behavior.Basic Appl. Social Psychol. 7: 256–276.
Baranowski, T. (1990). Reciprocal determinism at the stages of behavior change: An integration of community, personal and behavioral perspectives.Int. Q. Commun. Health Educ. 10: 297–327.
Bargh, J. A. (1989). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change.Psychol. Rev. 84: 191–215.
Belloc, N. B. (1973). Relationship of health practices and mortality.Prev. Med. 2: 67–81.
Belloc, N. B., and Breslow, L. (1972). Relationship of physical health status and health practices.Prev. Med. 1: 409–421.
Blackburn, H. B., and Gillum, R. F. (1980). Heart disease. In Last, J. M. (ed.),Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Appelton-Century-Crofts, New York.
Bundek, N. K., Marks, G., and Richardson, J. L. (1993). Role of health locus of control beliefs in cancer screening of elderly Hispanic women.Health Psychol. 12: 193–199.
Croyle, R. T., and Sande, G. N. (1988). Denial and confirmatory search: Paradoxical consequences of medical diagnosis.J. Appl. Soc. Psychol. 18: 473–490.
Davidson, P., and Davidson, S. (1980).Behavioral Medicine: Changing Health Life Styles, Brunner/Mazel, New York.
Grady, K. E., (1984). Cue enhancement and the long-term practice of breast self-examination.J. Behav. Med. 7: 191–204.
Fazio, R. H. (1989). On the power and functionality of attitudes: The role of attitude accessibility. In Pratkanis, A. R., Breckler, S. J., and Greenwald, A. G. (eds.),Attitude Structure and Function, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 153–179.
Fazio, R. H. (1990). A practical guide to the use of response latency in social psychological research. In Hendrick, C., and Clark, M. S. (eds.)Review of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 11, Sage, Newbury Park, CA, pp. 74–97.
Fazio, R. H., Sanbonmatsu, D. M., Powell, M. C., and Kardes, F. R. (1986). On the automatic activation of attitudes.J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 50: 229–238.
Grady, K. E. (1984). Cue enhancement and the long-term practice of breast self-examination.J. Behav. Med. 7: 191–204.
Janis, I. L. (1984). Improving adherence to medical recommendations: Prescriptive hypotheses derived for recent research in social psychology. In Baum, A., Taylor, S. E., and Singer, J. E. (eds.),Handbook of Psychology and Health, Vol. 4, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp. 113–148.
Janz, N. K., and Becker, M. H. (1984). The health belief model: A decade later.Health Educ. Q. 11: 1–42.
Kirk, R. E. (1986).Experimental Design: Procedures for the Behavioral Sciences, Brooks/Cole, Belmont, CA.
Lazarus, R. S., (1991). Cognition and motivation in emotion.Am. Psychol. 46: 352–367.
Leventhal, H. (1970). Findings and theory in the study of fear communications. In Berkowitz, L. (ed.),Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 5, Academic Press, New York, pp. 119–186.
Leventhal, H., and Cameron, L. (1987). Behavioral theories and the problem of compliance.Patient Educ. Counsel. 10: 117–138.
Leventhal, H., and Diefenbach, M. (1991). The active side of illness cognition In Skelton, A., and Croyle, R. T. (eds.),Mental Representation in Health and Illness, Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 247–272.
Leventhal, H., Safer, M. A., and Panagis, D. M. (1983). The impact of communications on the self-regulation of health beliefs, decisions, and behavior.Health Educ. Q. 10: 3–29.
Luce, R. D. (1986).Response Times: Their Role in Inferring Elementary Mental Organization, Oxford University Press, New York.
Millar, M. G., and Millar, K. U. (1993). Affective and cognitive responses to disease detection and health promotion behaviors.J. Behav. Med. 16: 1–23.
Millar, M. G., and Millar, K. U. (1995). Negative affective consequences of thinking about disease detection behaviors.Health Psychol. 14: 1–6.
Rippetoe, P., and Rogers, R. (1987). Effects of components of protection-motivation theory on adaptive and maladaptive coping with a health threat.J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 52: 596–604.
Rogers, R. W. (1983). Cognitive and physiological processes in fear appeals and attitude change: A revised theory of protection motivation. In Cacioppo, J. T., and Petty, R. E. (eds.),Social Psychophysiology: A Source Book, Guilford Press, New York.
Rosenstock, I. (1966). Why people use health services.Milbank Mem. Fund Q. 44: 94–124.
Rosenstock, I. (1974). The health belief model and preventive health behavior.Health Educ. Monogr. 2: 354–386.
Roskos-Ewoldsen, D. R., and Fazio, R. H. (1992). On the orienting value of attitudes: Attitude accessibility as a determinant of an object's attraction of visual attention.J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 63: 198–211.
Smith, E. R., and Lerner, M. (1986). Development of automatism of social judgments.J. Person. Soc. Psychol. 50: 246–259.
Sutton, S. R. (1982). Fear-arousing communications: A critical examination of theory and research. In Sutton, S. R. (ed.),Social Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, Wiley, London, pp. 303–337.
Wiley, J. A., and Camacho, T. C. (1980). Lifestyle and future health: Evidence from the Alamda County study.Prev. Med. 9: 1–21.
Witte, K. (1992). Putting the fear back into fear appeals: The extended parallel process model.Commun. Monogr. 59: 329–349.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Millar, M.G., Millar, K. The effects of anxiety on response times to disease detection and health promotion behaviors. J Behav Med 19, 401–413 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01904765
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01904765