Interplay between Self and Community: A Role for Health Psychology in Eastern Europe’s Public Health

Abstract

It is a well-known phenomenon that since the 1970s, there has been a growing difference in health status between populations in Eastern Europe and those in western countries. This phenomenon has been found to relate to unhealthy lifestyles. Individuals’ health behavior, as a part of their lifestyle, stems from an interplay between self and community; between individual traits and states, and community orientations. Theories of health psychology should play an important role in Eastern Europe’s public health. One of the biggest challenges in this process is the lack of people’s motivation rooted in the harmful psychological effects of the past socialist dictatorship in this region. There is a need for converting learned helplessness, often found in people because of the nature and collapse of the old regime, into learned optimism.