ABSTRACT
One of the oldest and most prominent application areas of social psychological theory is health. In this essay, we focus on health promotion programs, such as HIV prevention, smoking cessation, and self-management of chronic diseases. Modern health promotion is evidence based, using empirical data and theory. For health promotion, social psychology is one of the most important contributing disciplines. Although a broad range of social and behavioral science theories is available, the actual application of these theories into practice remains a challenge, although recently developed protocols are of great help.
