Health and life

The HBM predicts that behaviour is a result of a set of core beliefs, which have been redefined over the years. The original core beliefs are the individual’s perception of:
■ susceptibility to illness (e.g. ‘my chances of getting lung cancer are high’)
■ the severity of the illness (e.g. ‘lung cancer is a serious illness’)
■ the costs involved in carrying out the behaviour (e.g. ‘stopping smoking will make me irritable’)
■ the benefits involved in carrying out the behaviour (e.g. ‘stopping smoking will save me money’)
■ cues to action, which may be internal (e.g. the symptom of breathlessness), or external (e.g. information in the form of health education leaflets).
The HBM suggests that these core beliefs should be used to predict the likelihood that a behaviour will occur. In response to criticisms the HBM has been revised originally to add the construct ‘health motivation’ to reflect an individual’s readiness to be concerned about health matters (e.g. ‘I am concerned that smoking might damage my health’). More recently, Becker and Rosenstock (1987) have also suggested that perceived control (e.g. ‘I am confident that I can stop smoking’) should be added to the model.