Behaviour Change Theories

Behaviour Change Techniques

  • Michie et al. (2014) identified 93 behavior change techniques, clustered into 16 groups.
  • Focus on Goals and Planning, and Feedback and Monitoring.

Goals and Planning

  • Goal-setting involves defining goals related to behavior or positive outcomes.
  • SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-based.
  • Action planning: Plan out specifics on how to achieve behavior, frequency, duration, and context.
  • Coping planning: Identify potential barriers and create a Plan B.

Feedback and Monitoring

  • Self-monitoring: Track goal achievement in a journal, app, or spreadsheet.
  • Feedback: Positive feedback reinforces behavior; monitor weight changes weekly.

COM-B Model

  • Three components to behavior (B): Capability (C), Opportunity (O), and Motivation (M).
    • Capability: Physical and psychological ability.
    • Opportunity: Social and physical factors.
    • Motivation: Wanting or needing to carry out behavior.

Capability

  • Psychological Capability: Knowledge/psychological strength, skills, or stamina
  • Physical Capability: Physical strength, skill, or stamina

Opportunity

  • Physical Opportunity: time, location, and resources in environment
  • Social Opportunity: cultural norms and social cues

Motivation

  • Reflective Motivation: making plans and evaluating things that have already happened
  • Automatic Motivation: desires, impulses and inhibitions

Health Belief Model (HBM)

  • Explains health behavior based on perceptions of health.
  • Likelihood of action: interaction of beliefs.
    • Perceived Susceptibility.
    • Perceived Severity.
    • Perceived Benefits.
    • Perceived Barriers.
  • Modifying factors and cues to action influence behavior.
  • Self-efficacy influences taking action.

Social Cognitive Theory (SCT)

  • Built around a triad of interactions.
    • Cognitive Factors
    • Behavioral Factors
    • Environmental Factors
  • Reciprocal determinism influence each other.

Factors that intervene in the process of behavior change:

  • Self-efficacy: belief in ability to perform a behaviour.
  • Outcome Expectations: judgement of the likely consequence or rewards a behaviour may produce.
  • Self-Control: The ability of an individual to control their behaviour.
  • Reinforcements: a factor that may increase or decrease of continuation of a behaviour.
  • Observational Learning: acquisition of behaviours by observing actions and outcomes of other’s behaviour

Social Norms Theory

  • Individuals incorrectly perceive attitudes/behavior of peers.
  • Overestimation leads to matching behaviour to perceived group norms.
  • False consensus: believing others are similar when they are not.
  • Interventions: correct misperceptions by revealing actual norms.

Theory of Planned Behaviour

  • People are rational and make predictable decisions.
  • Attitude: evaluation of behavioral outcomes.
  • Subjective Norm: influenced by judgment of people we respect.
  • Perceived Behaviour Control: self-efficacy.

Theory of Planned Behaviour breakdown:

  • Behavioural beliefs- the likelihood that an action might promote or negate a given outcome.
  • Normative beliefs- belief about one’s own behaviour in relation to how we wish to comply with expectations of people we respect i.e. social pressure.
  • Subjective norm- an individual’s perception about the behaviour and is influenced by the judgement of people we respect and is directly linked to normative beliefs.
  • Control beliefs- salient to the individual's perceptions of factors that may inhibit or facilitate an action
  • Perceived Behaviour Control- defined as the product of the control beliefs and the power to change one’s behaviour a.k.a self- efficacy

Transtheoretical Model (Stages of Change)

  • Stages: Precontemplation, Contemplation, Determination/Preparation, Action, Maintenance, Relapse, Termination.

Ten processes of change:

  1. Consciousness Raising (increasing awareness)
  2. Dramatic relief (Emotional arousal)
  3. Environmental re-evaluation (social reappraisal)
  4. Social liberation (environment opportunities)
  5. Self re-evaluation (self reappraisal)
  6. Self liberation (committing)
  7. Stimulus control (re-engineering)
  8. Helping relationship (supporting)
  9. Counter conditioning (substituting)
  10. Reinforcement management (rewarding)