Critical Reflection

     For the entire semester I have been working on increasing my water intake from 1L a day to a minimum of 2L (approx. 8 glasses) every day. I have been extremely successful with changing my behaviour, and now have the confidence to maintain the behaviour for the rest of my life. The Canadian Food Guide on Healthy Living recommends drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day, and since beginning my behaviour change goal I have increased it to approximately 10 glasses a day. This success was result of several cognitive-behavioural strategies that I have implemented during my health behaviour change program. My main strategy to change my behaviour was geared around the Theory of Planned Behaviour. According to Ajzen (1991), the intentions to perform behaviour are done with high accuracy from the behavioural attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. I used these cognitive-behavioural strategies in order to apply the Theory of Planned Behaviour to drink more water. However, Ajzen (1991) also states that these intentions and perceptions of behavioural control relate to significant variance in the actual behaviour. With my strong will and motivation to develop positive intentions and perceptions of behavioural control in order to reach the actual behaviour, I decided to go ahead and attempt the Theory of Planned Behaviour. In using this theory to base my cognitive-behaviour strategies, I learnt that all those strategies overlap each other. Each strategy that was used to drink more water kept building from the previous strategies that were implemented.  

     My first strategy involved using behavioural beliefs as a method to develop positive intentions towards drinking water, and eventually leading to performing the activity. I believe this strategy was successful, because I had developed a positive attitude and high degree of favourability towards drinking water. I focused on the benefits of drinking water, such that it will increase my metabolism, detoxify my body and cease my unnecessary hunger. Since I tend to overeat, I developed a behavioural belief that drinking water will fill me up and I will no longer feel hungry. Sutton (2002) stated that individuals will have strong intentions to perform a given action if they evaluate it positively. My positive behaviour belief that drinking water will be beneficial on my health had formed the intention to drink more water, which ultimately lead me to perform the act.

     My second strategy involved undertaking a multiple behavioural approach to drinking water and exercise. I found this strategy to be more challenging than the previous one, because I did not know whether to implement the multiple behaviours simultaneously or sequentially. I had the confidence that I could do both behaviours sequentially, so I attempted to do them simultaneously and it was a success. However, as I reflect back to what has happened, I do believe this action was performed because of my high level of self-efficacy. This field of study requires further evidence to prove if this method can be successful when someone does not have a high level of self-efficacy. Although this method was not a failure, I do believe it was not as successful as implementing positive behavioural beliefs into my daily routine.

     My third strategy was based on the concept of perceived behavioural control from the theory of planned behaviour. I hurt myself recently and ended up on crutches for a week which hindered my behavioural change goal and created an obstacle. I attempted to use the previous strategy, multiple behaviours, but was unsuccessful since I could not exercise because of my injury. I then tried to implement the behavioural belief, this strategy was proven successful; however I was limited in my capabilities to actually perform the action. By holding intentions constant, someone with a high perceived behavioural control is likely to try harder and to continue for longer period of time than someone who has a low perceived behaviour control. Thus, I had to think of an alternative way to maintain my good intentions of drinking water and overcome my barrier (crutches). The alternative way was centered around accessibility. The more accessible something is the more someone will be inclined to do it. Since I had high self-efficacy, high motivation and positive behavioural beliefs already I decided to invest the money in a larger than usual water bottle and place it within arm’s reach because I had to remain stationary. This strategy was successful because I did not have to refill my bottle as often as I would have had to. The levels of perceived behavioural control had no effect on behavioural intentions, but it is a significant predictor of actual behaviour (Terry and O’Leary, 1995).

     My fourth strategy incorporated subjective norm behaviours into my daily routine. This strategy was not as effective as the first and third, because as I motivated myself I felt I developed better intentions towards the behaviour rather than if someone else expected me to do it. The subjective norm construct is found to be a weak predictor of behaviour intention (Armitage and Conner, 2001). However, since I had already developed positive behavioural beliefs and intentions, I did not have to rely on subjective norms. I did, however, have to rely on subjective norms to actually perform the behaviour; and this was proven successful because the social pressure forced me to do it. I believe this strategy was not as effective, because I would rather have confidence in myself to perform the behaviour, rather than someone reminding me to do it—ie: as my housemate drank water, I would drink with her to develop automaticity. I feel this strategy would have worked better if I didn’t rely so much on my housemate to develop automaticity, and I relied on my own self-efficacy.

     I believe the most successful cognitive-behavioural strategy during my health behavioural change program was the implementation of strong and positive behavioural beliefs. This strategy allowed me to develop self-efficacy and confidence to perform the activity. It was the most successful strategy, because I relied on myself to perform it and was able to implement it during the other cognitive-behavioural strategies—overlapping each other. I did not enjoy the fact of relying on exercise to drink water in the multiple behaviour strategy, or having to find alternative methods to rely on because of the perceived behaviour control strategy, or relying on others to remind me when to drink water in the subjective norm strategy. I did not fail at any of the strategies; however, I was least successful with the subjective norm strategy. Mainly because I enjoy doing things that are my idea, and do not like to do things when people expect me to do it. Thus, if I believe I should drink more water I will do it, but if someone is there to remind me of doing it, I will most likely perform the action but will not enjoy it.

     What I could have done differently would be to implement cognitive-strategies that were mostly geared around behavioural beliefs of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Since I had developed positive attitudes/intentions to change my behaviour early in the program, I feel the program would have been more effective if I utilized these intentions more so in each strategy that was used. I could have used more efficacy expectancies to influence the actual behaviours, rather than focusing on already developed behavioural intentions. Future research is necessary to determine if cognitive-multiple behavioural strategies on health behaviour changes are efficient, and whether a combination of specific strategies seems to produce good outcomes. To prevent relapse of my old behaviours, I should focus on goal-setting as the method to achieve complete success after follow-up period. This goal-setting will allow me to say how much water I will drink by the end of the week, and check off each week that I have succeeded at doing it. I would reward myself for my success. Also, I hope to develop a better sense of automaticity when drinking water. I have already attempted make my behaviour automatic, however, I relied heavily on the subjective norm strategy. In order for automaticity to be correctly applied, I will rely on behaviour beliefs and positive attitudes towards drinking water; since, they have proven to be the most effective strategy during my health behaviour program.   

     To conclude, I have been successful in meeting the objective of my health behaviour in drinking more water every day. I chose this health behaviour because I was convinced that I could complete it, and I had the right level of motivation necessary to do it. Throughout the program, I have relied on many benefits of drinking water which leads to protection of joints and bones, cease hunger, detoxify bodies, gives energy, increase metabolism and so on.  

Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behaviour.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WP2-4CYG336-DJ&_user=10&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F1991&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1558815797&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=00c8eff16607e102529b59bff9f98b40&searchtype=a

Armitage, C. Conner, M. (2001).

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpsoc/bjsp/2001/00000040/00000004/art00001

Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Living

http://www.heartandstroke.com/site/c.ikIQLcMWJtE/b.3484315/k.D9C8/Healthy_living__Eating_Well_with_Canadas_Food_Guide.htm?gclid=CJ2m2PaSxKUCFUVqKgodPWMyYA

Sutton, S. (2002). Health Behaviour: Psychosocial Theories. University of Cambridge UK

http://freelygiven.org/Adherence/HealthBehavior_PsychosocialTheories.pdf

Terry, DJ. O’Leary, JE. (1995). The Theory of planned behaviour: the effects of perceived behavioural control and self-efficacy.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7620846