ABSTRACT
Cognitive approaches to understanding health behaviour tend to focus on the specific beliefs held by a person. For example, the Health Belief Model (cf. Rosenstock, 1990; Janz & Becker, 1984), Protection Motivation Theory (cf. Rippetoe & Rogers, 1987; Prentice-Dunn & Rogers, 1986), and the Transtheoretical Model of Change (cf. Prochaska, DiClemente, & Norcross, 1992) all hold that the beliefs held by a person are critical in determining whether or not that individual will enact specific health behaviours. While each of these cognitive models places different degrees of emphasis on specific types of beliefs (e.g., perceived threat or self-efficacy), beliefs are central to all of these theoretical approaches.
