Publisher's Synopsis
There are several ways in which behavior is conceptualized and defined. The largest number of studies (primarily from within psychology) focus squarely on the individual as the locus of behavior. Understanding and predicting human behaviour has been of particular interest to researchers for many years. Moreover, the assumption that knowledge of attitudes will help in the task of predicting human behaviour has formed the basis for much consumer and social research. Human behavior theory posit a greater or lesser impact by external factors such as society, but each hold behavior to be an outcome of competing influences balanced and decided upon by the individual - thus placing significant emphasis on individual agency. Within this, individual behavior is conceptualized either as somewhere on a continuum, or at a particular discrete stage, of adopting a behavior. This volume covers innovative research studies, which examines how health-care professionals can use theory to shape the behavior by increasing his or her understanding of and potential for enhancing human well-being. This volume presents a review of literature relating to theories and models of behaviour and behaviour change, describes the most prevalent of these, and summarizes some of their central elements and cross-cutting themes. There was general agreement that everybody's behavior is influenced to varying degrees by both genetic and environmental factors but deterministic accounts of causation, except in exceptional circumstances, were rejected. Exploring the cultural dimensions of environmental victimization, this volume, further, suggest that predictive modeling, a method for predicting individual differences in behavior from brain features, can complement descriptive approaches and provide new ways to account for this variability. This work will serve as valuable reference on human action and reaction, and the thoughts, feelings, and physiological functions behind those actions.