The common sense of counseling psychology: introducing the Common-Sense Model of self-regulation

Abstract

The goal of therapy is typically to improve clients’ self-management of their problems, not only during the course of therapy but also after therapy ends. Although it seems obvious that therapists are interested in improving client’s self-management, the psychotherapy literature has little to say on the topic. This article introduces Leventhal’s Common-Sense Model of Self-Regulation, a theoretical model of the self-management of health, and applies the model to the therapeutic process. The Common-Sense Model proposes that people develop illness representations of health threats and these illness representations guide self-management. The model has primarily been used to understand how people self-manage physical health problems, we propose it may also be useful to understand self-management of mental health problems. The Common-Sense Model’s strengths-based perspective is a natural fit for the work of counseling psychologists. In particular, the model has important practical implications for addressing how clients understand mental health problems over the course of treatment and self-manage these problems during and after treatment.

Are Common Sense Model constructs and self-efficacy simultaneously correlated with self-management behaviors and health outcomes: A systematic review

“…Therefore, we do not report effect sizes as they would be difficult to compare across models with different covariates and outcomes. Consistent with other work, effect sizes were generally small to moderate (Hagger et al, 2017;McAndrew et al, 2018). We used the Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies (National Institutes of Health, 2014) to assess study quality as "good," "fair," or "poor."…”

“…There is strong evidence, from cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses, that illness representations are correlated with a variety of physical and mental health outcomes, including physical functioning, emotional well-being, and adherence to selfmanagement behaviors (Baines and Wittkowski, 2013;Broadbent et al, 2011;Hagger et al, 2017;Hagger and Orbell, 2003;Kaptein et al, 2008). At the same time, effect sizes for these associations tend to be small to moderate (Hagger et al, 2017;McAndrew et al, 2018). One reason for the small effect sizes may be that while the Common Sense Model can explain the choice of a self-management behavior, the choice does not always result in actual behavior (Webb and Sheeran, 2006).…”

“I keep hearing reports on the news that it's a real problem at the moment”: Public health nurses’ understandings of sexting practices among young people

“…Some may see this as an unacceptable deviation from the model's origins. That said, CSM has been used extensively by Leventhal himself in a number of contexts and along with others, he continues to work with the model (McAndrew et al., ) describing it recently as a “dynamic framework” (Leventhal, Phillips, & Burns, ). With this in mind, adhering to a purist application of CSM is unlikely to be necessary.…”

“We’re on a Merry-Go-Round”: Reflections of Patients and Carers after Completing Treatment for Sarcoma

“…Leventhal's Common Sense Model (CSM) of self-regulation informed this study [20]. The CSM suggests that when individuals experience an emotional, physical, or social risk, the way they represent this risk informs how they choose to manage it [21]. An illness representation is the way a health threat is labelled, and beliefs about the cause, consequence, duration, and level of control over the threat.…”