Abstract

FIGUEIRAS, Maria João; ALVES, Nuno Correia  and  BARRACHO, Carlos. Diferenças do valor preditivo da Teoria da Acção Planeada na intenção de adoptar comportamentos preventivos para o cancro de pele: O papel do optimismo e da percepção da doença em indivíduos saudáveis. Aná. Psicológica [online]. 2004, vol.22, n.3, pp.571-583. ISSN 0870-8231.

The present study assessed the predictive value of the Theory of Planned Behaviour on the intention to adopt preventive measures for skin cancer in healthy individuals. The identification of the predictors of behavioural intention for skin cancer was done after taking into consideration the emotional representation of the disease and the level of dispositional optimism. The results indicated that there are significant differences on the components of the Theory of Planned Behaviour between individuals with positive vs. negative emotional representation of skin cancer, as well as the level of dispositional optimism. Perceived control over the behaviour was found to be the most significant predictor of intention to adopt preventive measures for skin cancer. Dispositional optimism has an important influence on the explained variance on intention, being the perception of perceived behaviour control the most significant predictor. Furthermore, the results also indicate that the emotional representation of skin cancer and dispositional optimism may have an important role for the adoption of preventive measures and should be considered for designing health promotion intervention in healthy individuals.

Keywords : Theory of Planned Behaviour; skin cancer; illness perceptions; emotional representation; dispositional optimism; health beliefs.

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