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Theory in Health Promotion Research and Practice: Thinking Outside the Box

Author(s): Patricia Goodson, PhD, Professor, Department of Health & Kinesiology, Texas A&M University
Details:
  • ISBN-13: 9780763757939
  • Paperback    245 pages      © 2010
Price: International Sales $99.95 US List
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Overview

Instructor Resources: Instructor's Manual, PowerPoints, TestBank, Discussion Questions

Understanding health behavior is a critical foundation for successful health promotion and health education programs. Yet many texts on health behavior theory tend to be encyclopedic in nature, making learning dry and tedious for students. 

Theory in Health Promotion Research and Practice: Thinking Outside the Box is a different kind of health promotion theory book. It offers a more critical perspective of existing health promotion theories and challenges the student to create new theoretical frameworks for understanding human health and wellbeing. This unique text guides the reader to reflect on the process of thinking theoretically and provides practical strategies for applying theory to research and practice. The author employs a narrative perspective and writes in an informal, first-person style, making this an engaging text that students will enjoy reading.

Key Features:

  • Guides students to take a critical look at current theories and builds critical thinking skills.
  • Numerous examples of concepts, strategies, and procedures are woven throughout along with charts, diagrams, and graphs to help visualize abstract concepts and relationships.
  • Offers step-by-step strategies on how to apply theory to quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research as well as to program planning and evaluation.
  • Includes segments containing the author’s personal reflections on the complexities inherent in the practice of theory, which serve to bring the material to life in an engaging way.
  • Additional resources for the instructor, including PowerPoint slides and a discussion guide, are available online.

ShowTable of Contents

Chapter  1  Theory as Practice: Thinking Theoretically About Health Promotion
Chapter  2  Why Think Theoretically about Health Promotion?
Chapter  3  Who is Thinking Theoretically? Current Use of Theory in Health Promotion Research and Practice
Chapter  4  Which theories? An overview of the theoretical landscape in health promotion
Chapter  5  Pattern # 1 — Exaggerated Focus on Individual-Level Factors: Too Much of a Good Thing?
Chapter  6  Pattern # 2 — Undue Emphasis on Rationality: What’s love got to do with it?
Chapter  7  Pattern # 3 — Deliberate Privileging of Linearity: The whole or the sum of the parts?
Chapter  8  Applying Theory to Health Promotion Research
Chapter  9  Applying Theory to Program Planning and Evaluation
Chapter  10  Bridging the Gap: Recommendations to Enhance the Use of Theory in Health Promotion Research and Practice
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ShowAbout the Author(s)

Patricia Goodson, PhD-Professor, Department of Health & Kinesiology, Texas A&M University

Patricia (Pat) Goodson, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Health & Kinesiology, at Texas A&M University, where she has taught many of the graduate-level health behavior theories courses, during the last 10 years. She obtained her Ph.D. in Health Education from The University of Texas at Austin. She holds one Master’s degree in General Theological Studies, awarded by Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, and another one in Philosophy of Education, from the Universidade Catolica de Campinas in Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Dr. Goodson’s bachelor’s degree in Linguistics, her bi-lingual (Portuguese-English) and bi-cultural upbringing, and her interest in all things language-related, have converged in the narrative approach to writing. In addition to this text, Dr. Goodson has authored several publications related to her research interests in reproductive health, human sexuality, sexuality education and public health genomics. 

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ShowReviews

  • "Dr. Patricia Goodson's Theory in Health Promotion Research and Practice: Thinking Outside the Box has the potential to be an excellent resource for students, educators and researchers in any discipline.  Dr. Goodson's use of thought-provoking, accessible examples brings clarity and concreteness to a number of complex and abstract topics making her thoughts broadly applicable for scholars and practitioners in any health-related field.  In addition to introducing a collection of practical strategies for integrating theory in all stages of the research and intervention processes, her text is the ONLY resource I have come across to date that provides a concise, yet accurate overview of how quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods can each be used effectively without privileging one methodology over another."

    —Catherine Quatman, PhD

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