Self-regulatory Processes in the Adoption and Maintenance of Health Behaviors.
Specific psychological constructs and comprehensive models or theories have been                 designed to account for individual differences in the way people abstain from risk                 behaviors, adopt health behaviors, and succeed or fail in self-regulatory attempts.                 The present article traces the development of recent health behavior theories and                 relates them to research in the fields of motivation and self-regulation. Special                 emphasis is placed on optimism, both as a state and as a trait construct within                 self-regulatory processes. It is argued that optimistic self-beliefs may be                 phase-specific. For example, some individuals may have high confidence in their                 ability to set ambitious goals, whereas others may have high confidence in their                 ability to recover from setbacks. Moreover, a distinction is made between goal                 attainment processes and threat appraisal processes. Thus, emotions and behavior may                 differ when striving for superior health goals as opposed to coping with health                 threats. The present considerations are put forward to further elaborate the                 author's Health Action Process Approach (HAPA).
Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.
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Schwarzer