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Perceived Benefits

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Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine

Synonyms

Benefit finding; Flourishing; Positive by-products; Positive changes; Positive meaning; Posttraumatic growth; Stress-related growth; Thriving

Definition

Perceived benefit refers to the perception of the positive consequences that are caused by a specific action. In behavioral medicine, the term perceived benefit is frequently used to explain an individual’s motives of performing a behavior and adopting an intervention or treatment. Researchers and theorists attempt to measure positive perceptions because they believe that a behavior is driven by an individual’s cognition in terms of acceptability, motives, and attitudes toward such behavior, especially if positive.

In psychology, five models may explain the performance of health behavior related to the construct of perceived benefit. First, the Health Belief Model (Becker, 1974) describes that the perceived benefit is one of the four major predictors of health-related behavior. Second, the Transtheoretical Model (Prochaska &...

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References and Readings

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  • Prochaska, J. O., & DiClemente, C. C. (1986). Toward a comprehensive model of change. In W. R. Miller & N. Heather (Eds.), Treating addictive behaviors: Processes of change (pp. 3–27). New York: Plenum Press.

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Correspondence to Yvonne Leung .

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© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media, New York

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Leung, Y. (2013). Perceived Benefits. In: Gellman, M.D., Turner, J.R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_1165

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_1165

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-1004-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-1005-9

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