Social norms & values

Theatrical framework Social norms and values can greatly impact on people’s health related behaviors and choices. In modern era there is increasing trends to know about the existing norms of the people to change the behavior and improve people’s health and well-being (Mollen et al., 2010). There are three main schools of thought related to social norms that may impact on health related behaviors. Individual behavioral patterns, individuals’ beliefs about others’ behaviors and attitudes, and collective attitudes (Morris et al., 2015; Young, 2015).

Contemporary scholars in this tradition argue that social norms are one’s beliefs about what others do and of what others approve and disapprove (Gibbs, 1965; Cialdini et al., 1991; Cialdini and Trost, 1998; Lapinski and Rimal, 2005; Bicchieri, 2006; Mackie et al., 2015). Some other social scientists distinguished social norms into two categories that beliefs about what others do (descriptive norms) and beliefs about what others approve and disapprove (injunctive norms) (Cialdini et al., 1990; Cialdini and Trost, 1998; Cialdini et al., 2006). Social norms are the (usually implicit) rules that exist within a social group for what are considered acceptable behaviors, values and beliefs of the group members (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2005).

Social norms have powerful impact on behaviour because norms are associated with social judgments. Eating norms are followed because it provides guidance about safe foods during different situation. Eating norms are perceived standards for what constitutes appropriate consumption, whether that be amounts of foods or specific food choices, for members of a social group (Higgs, 2015). All societies have traditional beliefs regarding harmful and beneficial foods during pregnancy. There is also believe of regarding the optimal amount of food to be taken during pregnancy (Nag, 1994). Different studies presented different theoretical perspectives on how social norms influence health related behaviors (Brennan et al., 2013; Elsenbroich and Gilbert, 2014; Mackie et al., 2015; Young, 2015).

The present study adopted the theory of planned behavior/reasoned action. Ajzen and Fishbein formulated the theory of reasoned action (TRA) in 1980. Ajzen and Fishbein formulated the TRA after trying to estimate the discrepancy between attitude and behavior. Women after pregnancy become more conscious about their food and diet due to different perceived adverse outcomes. In this situation, pregnant women and their siblings act as perceived behavior control predictor. Theory of Reasoned Action suggests that human action is determined by his/her intention to perform the behavior according to his/her behavioral belief, subjective norm and control belief (Ajzen, 1991).

To foresee someone’s preferences, knowing about beliefs can be as important as knowing the person’s attitudes. Perceived perception, and control indicates to people’s insights of their ability to perform a certain attitude for liking and disliking. It is generally agreed that, the subjective norms and favorable attitude towards social approved norms and taboos, and personnel intentions play an important role to perform the certain behavior (Montano, & Kasprzyk, 2015). Due to the undesirable outcomes (miscarriages, and pregnancy complications) during pregnancy, women have strong believe to follow the subjective norms to avoid different foods due to fear, social pressure and approved social behavior of majority of the people in a society. Pregnant women avoid different food stuff due to their reasoned action to avoid undesirable circumstances due to hot and cold food, larger baby, pregnancy sickness and food craving for their and their babies best interest.