Reconceptualizing health behavior change - comment on Hohberg et al.

Abstract

This brief commentary addresses three points. First, social-cognitive theories are often misunderstood as being purely cognitive, ignoring affective factors in the health behavior change process. It is argued that, at the phenomenal level, the involved psychological constructs are rather holistic, and that the separation of their cognitive and emotional components are artificial and emerge only as a result of the verbal assessment procedure. Second, health behavior change can be better understood by explicitly considering it as a process that may be subdivided into two or more phases such as motivation vs. volition or the adoption phase vs. the maintenance phase. Third, with such phases in mind, digital interventions may improve tailoring of treatment options to individual differences as they fluctuate during the health behavior change process, monitoring affective as well as cognitive responses and providing just-in-time feedback.