The Risky Self: Understanding the relationships between self-concept, (genetic) risk information, risk perception and health related behaviour
Background
With the increasing understanding of the role of genetic factors in the expression of common chronoc diseases and the rapid advances in genetic screening technology people are increasingly confronted with genetic information about their susceptibility to a range of common chronic diseases (e.g. cardiovascular diseases, diabetes type 2 and cancer).
Genetic information can be based on a known genetic susceptibility established by DNA-testing but also on family history information (reflecting genetic susceptibility, shared environment and common behaviour). Whether or not people benefit by being informed of a genetic susceptablity to a disease and will adapt their behaviour to reduce heath risk, depends on how people experience these risks.
When identified as being at risk for a disease people will try to make sense of their health status by integrating the risk information into the mental model of health and illness that already exist their minds. In this model new information is integrated with prior beliefs about current health status, possible causes and risk factors, age of onset and course of the disease, potential consequences and magnitude of the risk and ways to reduce the risk.
How people respond to health risk information may be influenced by the way people see and describe themselves. Generally there are two ways of looking at the self: a static view or a more dynamic view. In a static view, personal qualities are seen as fixed over time and situations. In a dynamic mental view, people analyse and understand themselves in more flexible terms.
