| Course | HLTH 6038 Health Behavior Theory |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 1 |
| Paper type | Theory scan |
| Length | About 1,040 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | MS in Health Education and Promotion |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HLTH 6038 Week 1
Four Theories Held Against One Behavior Until Three Fail: Safety Glasses Before Every String-Trimmer Task on a City Grounds Crew, Scanned Through Four Named Behavior Theories
Student Name
Walden University
HLTH 6038: Health Behavior Theory
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Four Theories Held Against One Behavior Until Three Fail: Safety Glasses Before Every String-Trimmer Task on a City Grounds Crew, Scanned Through Four Named Behavior Theories
The Behavior
The behavior is specified in one sentence: members of a composite city parks department grounds crew put on safety glasses before starting each string-trimmer task during their shift. The sentence names who acts, what they do, where and how often, because no theory can be tested against a vague target such as "eye safety." The specification follows the reasoned action rule that a behavior should be defined by its action, target, context and time (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010).
The crew is required to wear eye protection. Federal rules oblige employers to ensure that employees use appropriate eye or face protection when exposed to hazards such as flying particles (29 C.F.R. § 1910.133), and string trimmers throw stones, wire fragments and debris. Glasses are issued, kept in each truck's door pocket and replaced on request. Yet the crew lead reports that glasses go on for long trimming runs and often stay off for the quick jobs: a minute around a bench, a fence post, a sign base. That pattern, glasses worn for long tasks and skipped for short ones, is what any useful theory must explain.
The Scan
Health Belief Model
This model expects action when four beliefs line up: that one is susceptible to a condition, that the condition would be serious, that acting would help and that barriers are few. Cues to action belonged to it early, and self-efficacy joined in a later revision (Janz & Becker, 1984; Rosenstock et al., 1988). To explain the pattern, the model would need perceived susceptibility to fall for short tasks: a worker who believes a stone is unlikely to fly in a 60-second job. It would need perceived barriers to rise for short tasks, such as fogging, scratched lenses or walking back to the truck. The model can describe this, but it treats the decision as a fresh weighing of risk each time. It has no construct for the norm on the crew, and it has trouble explaining why the same worker who fears eye injury enough to wear glasses at 9 a.m. skips them at 9:15.
Theory of Planned Behavior
The theory makes intention the immediate cause of acting (Ajzen, 1991). Intention in turn rests on how the person evaluates doing the act, the pressure felt from people who matter and how much control the person believes they have, and that last belief may also predict acting without passing through intention. Each construct maps onto the pattern. Attitude toward wearing glasses for a quick task may be negative ("pointless for one minute") even when attitude toward eye safety in general is positive, which the theory's emphasis on the specific behavior can capture. Subjective norm is visible: the crew lead wears glasses for long runs but not short ones, and newer workers copy what they see. Perceived behavioral control varies with where the glasses are: in the truck door, they require a walk back; on a lanyard, they do not. The theory explains the split between long and short tasks through constructs that differ between them, not through a general change of mind.
Social Cognitive Theory
Bandura's account treats a person, what the person does and the surrounding setting as shaping one another in a loop, with expected outcomes and confidence in one's ability as the leading personal influences and watching others as a main way new habits are learned (Bandura, 2004). It fits much of the pattern: workers learn from watching the crew lead, outcome expectations for a quick task are low, and the environment, glasses in the truck, shapes behavior. But self-efficacy, the theory's central construct (Bandura, 1977), has little purchase here. Every worker is fully capable of putting on glasses; the issue is not confidence. The theory can explain the pattern, but its strongest lever is idle.
Transtheoretical Model
The Transtheoretical Model places people in stages of readiness, from precontemplation through action and maintenance, and proposes processes of change matched to each stage (Prochaska & Velicer, 1997). The model fails this behavior. A worker wears glasses for one task and not for the next within the same hour, so stage membership has no stable place to sit. Assigning the worker to action because glasses were on at 9 a.m., and to precontemplation at 9:15, empties the stages of meaning. The model was built for behaviors that people adopt and maintain over months, such as quitting smoking, not for a task-by-task choice that varies within a shift.
Ruling
The Theory of Planned Behavior is the model this analysis carries forward. Of the four, it alone has central constructs that all vary between long and short tasks: attitude toward the specific behavior, the norm set by the crew lead and control that depends on where the glasses are kept. It also offers a measurement path, since each construct can be asked about for the specific behavior defined in the first sentence.
The ruling has a cost. Because intention sits at the core of this model, a habit of skipping glasses for quick jobs, which may run below the level of intention, could escape it. The analysis treats that as a question for a later week rather than a reason to choose a different model now.
Table 1
What Each Theory Must Explain and How Well It Does
| Theory | What it would have to explain | Verdict | |
|---|---|---|
| Health Belief Model | Risk perception falling and barriers rising for short tasks | Partial; no construct for crew norms | |
| Theory of Planned Behavior | Task-specific attitude, the crew lead's norm, control tied to where glasses are kept | Fits all three features of the pattern | |
| Social Cognitive Theory | Modeling, low outcome expectations, environment | Fits, but its central construct, self-efficacy, is idle | |
| Transtheoretical Model | Stage membership for a choice made task by task | Fails | |
Verdicts refer to the pattern of glasses worn for long tasks and skipped for short ones.
Limits
The crew and its pattern are composite. A scan of four theories is not exhaustive; an ecological model would place more weight on equipment and policy, and a habit-based account might fit the quick-task pattern better than any of the four.
References
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179-211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T
Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191-215. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.84.2.191
Bandura, A. (2004). Health promotion by social cognitive means. Health Education & Behavior, 31(2), 143-164. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198104263660
Eye and face protection, 29 C.F.R. § 1910.133 (2026).
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (2010). Predicting and changing behavior: The reasoned action approach. Psychology Press.
Janz, N. K., & Becker, M. H. (1984). The Health Belief Model: A decade later. Health Education Quarterly, 11(1), 1-47. https://doi.org/10.1177/109019818401100101
Prochaska, J. O., & Velicer, W. F. (1997). The transtheoretical model of health behavior change. American Journal of Health Promotion, 12(1), 38-48. https://doi.org/10.4278/0890-1171-12.1.38
Rosenstock, I. M., Strecher, V. J., & Becker, M. H. (1988). Social learning theory and the Health Belief Model. Health Education Quarterly, 15(2), 175-183. https://doi.org/10.1177/109019818801500203
The Walden HLTH 6038 Week 1 instructions
The first assignment usually asks students to scan several named theories against a single behavior and choose one, rather than describe a favorite model. The prompt expects the behavior specified precisely: who acts, what they do, where and how often, since no theory can be tested against a vague target. Each theory then receives a short treatment stating what it would have to explain about the behavior's observed pattern. Instructors look for a ruling that follows from the scan, with reasons, and for honesty about what the chosen theory still cannot explain. A table summarizing each theory's verdict is common. Sources should be the theories' primary or foundational papers. The scan does not require new data; a well-described situation is enough. A paper that gives each theory a page of description and then picks one without testing it against the behavior misses the point of the exercise.
Inside the HLTH 6038 Week 1 example
The paper opens by stating the behavior in one sentence and grounding the safety requirement in the federal eye and face protection rule. It describes the crew's pattern, glasses on for long runs and off for quick jobs, as the thing any theory must explain. Four subsections scan the theories: the Health Belief Model through susceptibility, barriers and cues; the Theory of Planned Behavior through task-specific attitude, the crew lead's subjective norm and perceived control tied to the glasses' location; Social Cognitive Theory through modeling, outcome expectations and environment, with self-efficacy found idle; and the Transtheoretical Model, whose stages collapse when the choice changes within an hour. A four-row table gives each verdict. The ruling carries the Theory of Planned Behavior forward and names its cost, the possibility that habit runs below intention.
Reading the HLTH 6038 Week 1 rubric
Theory scans are generally graded on behavior specification, the fairness of each theory's test, the strength of the ruling and the use of primary sources. Specification earns credit when the behavior has an actor, an action, a context and a frequency. Each theory should be tested against the same pattern, so graders compare whether the treatments are parallel. The ruling is often the heaviest criterion: it must follow from the scan, name the deciding features and acknowledge what the winning theory leaves unexplained. Primary sources for each theory show that the student read beyond a textbook summary. A summary table helps graders see the verdicts at a glance. Writing should stay analytical rather than descriptive. Mechanics include APA entries for a federal regulation, a book and several journal articles from the 1970s to the 2000s.
HLTH 6038 Week 1 help: mistakes that cost marks
Theory scans most often go wrong by describing each model at length and choosing one at the end with no real test. Another frequent weakness is a vague behavior, such as "workplace safety," that every theory can claim to explain. Students also declare a winner without saying what it still cannot handle. Before submitting, write your behavior as one sentence with actor, action, context and frequency. Describe the pattern that needs explaining. For each theory, write what it would have to show about that pattern. Rule on one theory and give the features that decided it. Add a sentence on the winner's weakness. Cite each theory's original sources. A custom scan can test the same four theories, or others such as Self-Determination Theory, against a different behavior, such as hand hygiene before patient contact.
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HLTH 6038 Week 1 questions, answered
Where can I find a free HLTH 6038 Week 1 sample paper?
The complete Week 1 theory scan testing four models against safety glasses use on a grounds crew, with a verdict table and eight references, is published on this page.
Which theory wins in the HLTH 6038 Week 1 example?
The Theory of Planned Behavior, because its task-specific attitude, the crew lead's subjective norm and control tied to where glasses are kept all differ between long and short tasks.
Why does the Transtheoretical Model fail this behavior?
Workers wear glasses for one task and skip them for the next within the same hour, so assigning a stage of change to each person empties the stages of meaning.
Why must the behavior be specified so precisely?
Reasoned action research holds that behaviors should be defined by action, target, context and time, and that measures must match that definition to test any theory.
What does the chosen theory leave unexplained?
A habit of skipping glasses for quick jobs may operate below intention, which the Theory of Planned Behavior addresses only indirectly through perceived control.