Question

Discuss personal and environmental factors (social cognitive theory) that may increase handwashing?

Answer 1

Social cognitive theory explains about how the influence of individual experience and the action of the others and environment factors will affect the individual health behaviour.

Human is a social animal and have lot of influence from the environment,others like peers etc.. .Human learn most of the things by observation and personal experience, we learn lot many things by observing into others and also by the environmental influence that is clearly explained by the Social cognitive theory.

Personal and environmental factors that increase handwashing includes

Personal factors

-Knowledge:- knowledge regarding the importance of hand washing and maintenance of health will help the person improve the cleanliness .

for example:- taking the current pandemic of COVID-19 as an example now the whole population is aware that the proper use of hand sanitizer and hand washing can prevent the virus getting into our body.The knowledge and the awareness given by the government provided knowledge for the population which inturn increased the handwashing technique.

-Expectations :- expectation is nothing but the mind set and the imagination of people which they learned by their experience or observations. People expect certain things to be correct and they follow it.

for example:- Hand sanitizer can kill the pathogens in the hand but still some people may expect to wash hands with soap for 10 minutes and then use the sanitizer for a double protection and while some will even wash the vegetables in soap water to prevent the pathogens.These all are certain expectations.

-Attitude:-Attitude can be both positive and negative like confidence and over confidence where the confidence is good and overconfidence end up in mess.

certain people understand the importance of hand washing and the follow it properly while some who are with a different attitude will feel self that nothing will happend to them and they ingnore things.

Environmental factors

-Influence on others :-These includes the force of peer groups, family members, colleagues and also not only force people will observe others doing things and they will follow them.

for example:- small kids of age 5,6 are aslo now following all the precautions even though they are not into a depth knowledge about the current pandemic but they follow things by observing siblings or parents.

-Life style and culture :- the cultural factors plays a major role in human behaviour as we all follow the thing what we have learned from our childhood .

for example:- Washing hands thoroughly before and after having food.

-Social media :- social media creates a major role in providing awareness to the people and making them allert to improve their handwashing.As the knowledge increases the people further maintain good health by understanding the fact.

-Social norms :- these are set of rules put forward by the higher authorities and government which must be followed by the people.