Generality and Specificity in Health Behavior: Application to Warning-Label and Social Influence Expectancies

The authors outlined a meta-theoretical and an analytic framework for construing the predictive effects of health-behavior expectancies, or beliefs, in terms of both general and specific processes. This framework was applied empirically to the investigation of the predictive effects of outcome expectancies related to the recently mandated alcohol-warning label as well as to expectancies reflecting social influence processes. Results showed that general and specific predictive effects of expectancies on alcohol-use behaviors operated simultaneously, demonstrating the potential value of the framework. The authors summarized implications for continued theoretical development as well as for applications in prevention of alcohol abuse through warning-label and social influence interventions.