Health Behavior and Health Education

What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of the Transtheoretical Model?

TMM has both criticisms and strengths. One of the major strength of TMM is that this model addresses the phases or stages that are experienced by an individuals before they may execute actions to change their health behaviors. These stages include precontemplation, contemplation and preparation. These stages are useful in better understanding why individuals are willing to change in connection to a specific health behavior. A good example here is when the youths practice unprotected sexual intercourse and they do not care listening or seeking information on how to protect themselves by using contraceptives like condoms. These youths are in precontemplation stage as they do not pay any attention to information on having protected sex. TMM does not only address the aspect of change but it also allows a spiral effect. In this case, many individuals are seen typically making many trials in changing their behaviors and imitating actions before they actually engage in them.

On the other hand, some of the weaknesses of TMM include the fact that it is not clear to many people where the social liberation component fits in. Other models or processes have essentially indicated with empirical support that social liberation does not have a home in the stages of change. This shows that TMM may be considered as not articulated. The other weakness of this model is that there is a termination stage. In actuality, termination stage is not applicable to many behaviors and it is not realistic. This is because many people who adopt a new behavior cannot indicate that they have never thought of that behavior. For instance, patients who have encouraged to stop eating sugary foods may consume them in a birthday party.

 

Describe ways that the PAPM and TTM are similar and ways that they differ.

PAPM is different from TTM in that it recognizes a stage whereby people may not be aware of a risk or precaution. Additionally, it includes a stage whereby people specifically decide not to act but this is not included in the measurement of TTM. The early stages of precaution adoption in PAPM center more on increasing understanding of risk than it is the case in TTM. The applicability of PAPM is not comparable to that of TTM in that there is increasingly understanding of risks. This can also be explained by the stage included in PAPM for the people who specifically decide not to act. On the other hand, similarities between PAPM and TTM include that they both have different stages that have identical names. These two models are used in measuring health behaviors