Spiritual_Wellness_Holistic_Health_and_the_Practic

204 Philosophical Foundations of Health Education
6. Health skills must be teamed. One is not free to choose to brush and floss one ’s
teeth, for example, unless one has learned the skills.
7. Internal locus of control is the belief that events can be influenced fey oneself.
External locus of control is the belief that events are beyond one ’ s control. Those
who don ’ t believe a “ healthy ” behavior can influence their health cannot be
expected to adopt that behavior. Health educators should help people realize they
can influence their own health by developing an internal health locus of control
within their clients.
Some other enslaving factors are lack of problem solving skills; lack of decision -
making skills; lack of assertiveness; lack of communication skills; and fear of physicians,
death, dying, and pain.
I propose that the objectives of health education not be decreasing the incidence
of smoking, drug abuse, or any other health - related behavior. Rather, the objectives
should be to improve self - esteem, decrease alienation, help students realize the effects
of peer group pressure, learn health knowledge and skills and so on. In other words,
free people to make their own decisions a bout health - related behaviors. It ’ s more democratic,
makes more sense in terms of ever - changing facts, and interestingly enough,
can probably be expected to result in clients adopting “ healthy ” behavior to a greater
extent than they do now.
EVALUATION OF RESEARCH
The implications of this new health education for evaluation of health education programs
are profound. Presently we pre and posttest program participants in terms of
their health related behaviors (such as questionnaires regarding use of drugs) with the
hope that less unhealthy and more healthy behavior will occur at the program ’ s end
than beginning. There should be less venereal disease (or earlier detection), less alcohol
abuse, less cigarette smoking, better nutritional value, more exercising, etc. Under
the new health education, health - related behaviors would not be measured. Instead,
self - esteem scales, alienation scales, locus of control scales health knowledge and
skills tests, etc. would be administered before and after. Improvement on these enslaving
factors would indicate the effectiveness of the health education program.
Improvement would also indicate that program participants were freer to decide on a
personal set of health behaviors. As an additional outcome, though not a specific
objective of the program, the health educator might look at the decisions these freer
people made about their health. Further research could include the following:
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The development of more valid and reliable measures of enslaving factors.
The relationship between the degree of the enslaving factors and health - related
behavior; for instance, do freer people behave in ways traditionally described as
healthy (social, mental, and spiritual, as well as physical) to a greater extent than
those less free?