Belief and affect: on the mental pre-cursors of health-related cognition and behaviour

This paper will discuss the importance of concepts such as belief and affect to the theory and practice of health psychology, and the potential contribution of the revised conceptualisation of belief proposed in the target article will be considered. In the first half of the paper a number of important differences between the new approach and established empirical approaches to the study of beliefs will be highlighted. The second half of the paper will focus on the important relationship between affect and beliefs, one of the key issues addressed in the target paper. A number of recent theories linking affect and belief will be reviewed, and recent empirical research demonstrating the psychological mechanisms linking affect and belief will be discussed. In light of the considerable achievements of this line of inquiry, it is concluded that the proposed new approach and definition of belief does not as yet offer a preferable alternative to understanding the role of belief in health-related cognition and behaviour.