Behavior change method

Behavior change methods, or behavior change techniques, are theory-based methods for changing one or several determinants of behavior such as a person's attitude or self-efficacy. Such behavior change methods are used in behavior change interventions. Although of course attempts to influence people's attitude and other psychological determinants were much older, especially the definition developed in the late nineties yielded useful insights, in particular four important benefits: # It developed a generic, abstract vocabulary that facilitated discussion of the active ingredients of an intervention # It emphasized the distinction between behavior change methods and practical applications of these methods # It included the concept of 'parameters for effectiveness', important conditions for effectiveness often neglected # It drew attention to the fact that behavior change methods influence specific determinants (when developing an intervention, one first has to identify the relevant determinant, and then, identify matching behavior change methods, see also the steps in intervention mapping). Traditionally, reports of evaluations of behavior change interventions barely described the actual intervention, making it very difficult to identify the most effective methods.…

Behavior change methods, or behavior change techniques, are theory-based methods for changing one or several determinants of behavior such as a person's attitude or self-efficacy. Such behavior change methods are used in behavior change interventions. Although of course attempts to influence people's attitude and other psychological determinants were much older, especially the definition developed in the late nineties yielded useful insights, in particular four important benefits: It developed a generic, abstract vocabulary that facilitated discussion of the active ingredients of an intervention It emphasized the distinction between behavior change methods and practical applications of these methods It included the concept of 'parameters for effectiveness', important conditions for effectiveness often neglected It drew attention to the fact that behavior change methods influence specific determinants (when developing an intervention, one first has to identify the relevant determinant, and then, identify matching behavior change methods, see also the steps in intervention mapping). Traditionally, reports of evaluations of behavior change interventions barely described the actual intervention, making it very difficult to identify the most effective methods. This was increasingly recognized in the late nineties and early twenty-first century, where behavior change methods gained increasing popularity, and another taxonomy was developed and subsequently gained popularity that enabled the coding of previously published interventions. == Parameters for effectiveness== Each behavior change method has a set of parameters for effectiveness. For example, the popular method of fear appeals, that aims to appeal to a person's fear as a drive for behavior change, will not work when it does not manage to induce, in the targeted individuals: High perceived severity of the threat at hand; High perceived susceptibility to the threat; High perceived self-efficacy, that is, one's ability to perform a behavior to negate the threat; and High perceived response efficacy, the effectiveness of the behavior in negating the threat The relevant theory of change, the extended parallel process model, explains that when one of these four variables is low, no behavior change will occur, and in fact, it is even possible that a person will engage in health-defeating behavior. Thus, when a program planner that wants to develop an intervention, and that planner established that risk perception is indeed an important determinant (which is in fact rarely the case ), that planner could use an appropriate method to target that determinant (fear appeals), but when this method's parameters for effectiveness are not respected, the intervention will still be ineffective (e.g. when the intervention does not manage to successfully enhance self-efficacy). While such an intervention could potentially cause desirable behavior change in individuals that were already high in self-efficacy, the same intervention could backfire (i.e. cause undesirable behavior change) in individuals with low self-efficacy. Similarly, when a program planner identifies self-efficacy as an important determinant, and that planner uses an appropriate method (modeling), respecting the parameters for effectiveness of modeling (target group individuals must be able to identify with the model; the model should be a 'coping model', struggling with the relevant behavior but eventually managing, and not a 'mastery model' who effortlessly accomplishes the desired behavior; the model should be reinforced for the behavior; and the target group member has to possess the relevant skills), the intervention has a high probability for success.

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