On Thursday 21 November, Prof. Dr. Urte Scholz, Head, Applied Social and Health Psychology, University of Zurich, will give a presentation as part of the SWE colloquium series.

Benefits and pitfalls of social relationships for health-relevant behaviors

Health-related behaviors such as eating or smoking usually happen in a social context. Most of the standard theories of health-behavior change, however, strongly focus on individual self-regulation and neglect the health behavior’s social side. Recent theories highlight the importance of going beyond the individual and of focusing on social and dyadic influences on behavior. In this talk, I will emphasize the need for concise theories and systematic research of the role on social processes for health behavior change. I will present research from randomized controlled trials, and intensive-longitudinal studies highlighting the role of social support, social control and companionship for different health-behaviours and related outcomes. Moreover, I will address the benefits, but also the challenges and the complexity of social processes for health behavior change.