82094 - Community-Based Health Promotion

Course contents

The Course is delivered in the I semester (starting from 1 october 2019), on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon (h. 14-17). It is addressed to II year students of the Master programme in School and Community Psychology. Classes will be in Cesena, School of Psychology and Education, Piazza Aldo Moro, 90, Cesena (FC), aula F.

Objectives. The course aims to introduce students to some intervention strategies and methods that are part of the professional competences of psychologists who work in the field of prevention and health promotion in a variety of contexts (school, health services, local communities, media).

The Course includes two modules.

Module 1 (15 lectures) (Prof.ssa Elvira Cicognani)

Health promotion from the theoretical approach of social psychology and community health psychology: historical developments, specificities, new challenges. Analysis of the "determinants" of health and illness and of health behaviors, at macrosocial, contextual, psychosocial and individual psychological level. Assessement of health needs. Participatory planning of preventive and health promotion interventions in the school and other community contexts. Assessment of intervention programmes.

Module 2 (5 lectures) (Prof. Luca Pietrantoni)

•Risk perception and communication: modello psicometrico, cultural theory, social amplification

•Technological innovations and health promotion

•Behaviour change technique, behavior change technologies, “Nudging approach”

•Community and organizational interventions for road safety and sustainable mobility

•Examples of European projects

Readings/Bibliography

Modulo 1 (Cicognani)

Bibliografia di approfondimento sulla prospettiva della psicologia sociale della salute (scaricabili su IOL) (gli approfondimenti saranno indicati a lezione)

Stroebe (2011). Social psychology and health (3rd ed). Open University Press

Davis et al. (2015). Theories of behaviour and behaviour change across the social and behavioural sciences: a scoping review. Health Psychology Review, 9:3, 323-344.

Bibliografia di approfondimento sulla prospettiva della psicologia della salute di comunità (due fra la lista sotto, di cui 1 inglese e 1 italiano; alcuni articoli scaricabili su IOL)

Marks (2002). Freedom, Responsibility and Power: Contrasting Approaches to Health Psychology. Journal of Health Psychology, 7(1) 5–19.

Murray & Nelson (2007). Community health psychology: Developing a training program. The Community Psychologist, 40, 44-49.

Murray (2007). Promuovere la salute della comunità: sfide e prospettive per la psicologia della salute. Psicologia di comunità, 2, 29-36.

Zani (2007). La salute come “bene comune relazionale”: significati e strumenti per una psicologia della salute di comunità. Psicologia di comunità, 2, 13-28.

Cicognani (2013) Interventi di comunità per la promozione della salute in Ricci Bitti & Gremigni (a cura di), Psicologia della salute. Roma, Carocci.

Bibliografia sull’analisi dei bisogni, la progettazione e la valutazione di interventi

https:// [https://ctb.ku.edu/en]ctb.ku.edu/en [https://ctb.ku.edu/en] (community toolbox)

Porter (2015). Revisiting Precede-Proceed: A leading model for ecological and ethical health promotion. Health Education Journal, 1-12.

Zani & Cicognani (2009). Evaluating the Participatory Process in a Community-Based Health Promotion Project. Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the community, 38:1, 55-69.

Modulo 2 (Pietrantoni)

Mirsch, T., Lehrer, C., & Jung, R. (2017). Digital nudging: Altering user behavior in digital environments. Proceedings der 13. Internationalen Tagung Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI 2017), 634-648.

Forberger, S., Reisch, L., Kampfmann, T., & Zeeb, H. (2019). Nudging to move: a scoping review of the use of choice architecture interventions to promote physical activity in the general population. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 16(1), 1-14.

Slide presentate a lezione

Teaching methods

The following instruments will be used:

• lectures
• group discussions
• case study analysis 
• critical analysis of papers and projects
• seminars with experts

Assessment methods

The final exam aims to assess students' knowledge of the psychosocial and community psychology approaches to health promotion; of the "determinants" of health and health behaviors; of basics of project planning and evaluation.  

The exam includes three parts; each part will count as 1/3 of the final grade.

a)production of an essay of max 4000 words, in which the students will develop a topic among those dealt with during the course;

b)written exam (2 hrs), where students will develop a health promotion project, based on a "case" provided by teachers;

c)oral exam on the contents of the lessons and the reference list.

The paper a) will be delivered the same day of the written exam b). The oral exam will be in a subsequent day, approximately after one week.

The final grade will be based on the following criteria: a)completeness of responses; b)capacity of critical analysis on the contents; c) capacity to establish connections among the theoretical concepts and to apply them to the analysis of concrete cases; d) formal characteristics of the outputs; e)the degree of involvement and active participation during classes. Honours will be allowed when all the previous criteria are satisfactorily met. 

Teaching tools

slides (available on IOL online Platform), scientific papers, online bibliographic sources.

Office hours

See the website of Elvira Cicognani

See the website of Luca Pietrantoni