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Asked by chloe89 to Helen, Mark, Martin, Stu on 23 Jun 2011.
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Helen O'Connor answered on 22 Jun 2011:
As a psychologist, one of the groups of people I work with are people who are obese and need to eat healthier and do more exercise or they will have serious health problems. These people fall into two categories:
1. Those who say that they WANT to be more active and lose weight, but they find it hard to actually DO it. My job is to help these people make small changes to the way they think and feel, and encourage them to set goals, so that they gradually change their habits and become healthier. It is easier to work with these people because although they have a lot of changing to do, at least they want to make those changes.
2. Those who know they SHOULD do more exercise and lose weight, but DON’T WANT to. These people are pretty difficult to work with, and I could never make them do something they don’t want to do. All I can do is to help them understand the health risks, and hope that perhaps one day they will decide to change.
Sometimes people are addicted to something like alcohol, drugs, and they don’t want to do this any more, but they can’t stop. This is because they are addicted to the chemicals and it is a physical problem as well as a psychological one.
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Mark Burnley answered on 22 Jun 2011:
I’m not good at getting others to do stuff they don’t want to, so I have no idea!!
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Stuart Mourton answered on 23 Jun 2011:
I have certain persuasive skills, but it’s pretty hard sometimes. Helen has given you a great answer though!
Another interesting question is what makes people do some of the crazy things they do, like take part in high risk activities like free climbing (no ropes AT ALL!), off piste skiing etc. There are a number of scientists in my department that are looking into this and trying to see if all extreme sport enthusiasts have certain behavioural traits in common (other than just being a bit nuts!!)
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