ABSTRACT
The individual has been the unit of analysis for a considerable number of studies and treatises on communication effects and concomitant processes of social change. This orientation has been important, as all change efforts necessarily involve individuals at some point, especially as discrete “targets” of educational and persuasive messages. In the specific arena of health communication, researchers have developed or adapted (from cognitive and social psychology) several theoretical models of individual-level change. These models, in turn, have been applied in numerous communication campaigns designed to achieve such effects as: a reduction in the intake of fats and cholesterol, a diminution in the use of tobacco and illicit drugs, the curtailment of drunk driving, and, in general, the adoption of health lifestyles (see Rice & Atkin, 1989; Rogers & Storey, 1987; Salmon, 1989). Without question, the dual paradigms of “individualism” and “communication effects” have dominated empirical research in communication since the inception of programmatic research on communication and persuasion earlier this century (Delia, 1987; Gitlin, 1978).
