The Contribution of Psychological Theory to the Understanding of Health Behaviour Change and Maintenance. Applications to Exercise

Human behaviour is still mysterious. Why do we do what we do? Why do we sometimes not do what we want to do? Why is it so difficult to change habits? The purpose of this paper is to examine how general psychological theory of health behaviour change and maintenance contribute to the understanding of initiating and maintaining exercise behaviour. Some popular models to identify what psychological factors influence our health behaviour and some models that try to describe the processes of health behaviour Correspondence: Marit Sørensen. The Norwegian University of Sport and Physical Education. Box 4014, Ullevaal hageby, 0806 Oslo, Norway. Fax. + 47 22185718. REVISTA DE PSICOLOGÍA DEL DEPORTE