Abstract

Behavioural change programme has the back up of some theories which include the change theories and models that attempts to explain the reasons behind alterations in individuals’ behavioural patterns. These theories and models cited environmental, personal, and behavioural characteristics as the major factors in behavioural determination. There have been increased interest in the application of these theories and models in the areas of health, education, and criminology with the hope that understanding the principle of behavioural change will improve services offered in these areas to both the therapist and the client. Behavioural change theories or models focus on different factors in attempting to explain behavioural change. In recent time, various theories and model have been in used (either singly or combined) to change people’s behaviour in order to reduce their HIV risk taking behaviour. The Health Belief Model, social learning theory (recently relabelled social cognitive theory), have been applied with varying success to problems of explaining, predicting, and influencing behavior. Yet, there is conceptual confusion among researchers and practitioners about application of these theories to human sexual behaviour. This article attempts to show how these explanatory factors may be related, and in so doing, posits a revised explanatory model which incorporates self-efficacy into the Health Belief Model. Specifically, self-efficacy is proposed as a separate independent variable along with the traditional health belief variables of perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, and barriers. Incentive to behave (health motivation) is also a component of the model. It is predicted that the new formulation will more fully account for health-related behavior than did earlier formulations, and will suggest more effective behavioral interventions than have hitherto been available to practitioners of medicine and health education.