What would you do? A new approach to health competence based on situational judgment

Objective An advantage of the trait approach to health is that it implicates common elements to multiple different health behaviors. An advantage of the social-cognitive approach, in contrast, is that it models the situational factors that are likely to elicit particular behavioral reactions. The present research sought to combine the advantages of these two approaches. Method A situational judgment method was developed to quantify general variations in health competence (HC) in terms of more specific responses to simulated health-challenging events. Results After developing the method, Study 1 showed that individual differences in HC were systematically related to approach-related coping tendencies and behaviors known to be health promoting. Study 2 then showed that variations in HC predicted both health behaviors and quality of life among older individuals. Conclusions The results highlight a new form of HC that is not dependent on self-reports of ability.