MSc MME Management, Economics And Consumer Studies
Psychology of Behaviour Change CHL52306 (CHL52306)
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Notes CHL52306
o Explain human eating behaviour with the help of a psychological model;
o Explain how psychological processes contribute to food choice and eating behaviour;
o Explain challenges in changing behaviour and how these may be addressed by targeting (e.g., automatic)
psychological processes;
o Evaluate the applied value of psychological behaviour change insights and interventions;
o Describe differences between the nudging and boosting approaches to behaviour change, including the
costs and benefits of each approach;
o Critically reflect on the applied and ethical implications of different approaches to behaviour change for
eating behaviour.
Lecture 1 Introduction
→ Education and knowledge sharing is not the best way to
change behavior
How to increase the number or organ donors? → Not with
knowledge
- NL: Change the default setting
- UK: Use advertisements to see what kind of
advertisement worked best → Reciprocity: ‘If you needed an
organ transplant, would you have one? If so, please help
others.’ → After a picture is added, the % dropped
(explanation later in this lecture)
Loaning money: give them the option ‘loaning maximum’ and
‘less, namely…’ more people loan maximum compared to only presenting the option ‘I want to loan…’
If you see the gas usage of neighbors, you want to reduce your usage if its higher than them.
Reading this week: Megastudies… How can we get people to go to the gym, what intervention works best?
→ Different interventions have different impacts, it is difficult what intervention will lead to a specific effect
People are smart + people don’t want someone to tell them to change their behavior (Cialdini)
→ How do we get bankers to donate money to charity
Reciprocity: give someone a small gift, you get a bigger reward back (sweets)
→ The second time you do this trick, it loses its strength because people feel manipulated
- Things work the first time, when you do it again and again, it works less and less = difficult in behavior
change
BCT’s are not pills
- If you have a headache = take a pill, it works every time
- The same BCT for the same problem, doesn’t work every time
- BCT uses a certain mechanism to change behavior but the messages won’t work always
Why focus on theory and mechanisms?
- Go beyond trial and error
o Predict effectiveness
- Go beyond mere application
o Prevent resistance
o Repeated use
1
,Pay attention to the following questions
- What are the mechanisms? Think!
- (How) can I apply this knowledge to change behaviour?
- What are useful contexts to apply this theory?
- What are the moderators?
- How has this theory been tested (e.g., target group)?
- Strong effects?
- Sustainable effects?
- How to apply in different ways?
EXAM: Practical cases, BCT mechanisms that are applied here
Why Psychology?
- Previous examples were about reaching many people
- What about helping individuals with changing their behaviour?
- Interesting note: the same BCT’s are used
Changing behavior of individuals
→ The tricks is not important, but the mechanisms are important! (Why…….!)
Self-nudging to eat mor healthily
- Out of sight (lecture 6)
- Subscription to a vegetable box (lecture 5)
- Take a time out / delay your choice (lecture 6)
- Push notifications and sticky notes (lecture 6)
- Reappraisal (e.g., think about positive outcomes; lecture 3)
- Action planning (lecture 1)
- Shout it from the rooftops (Lecture 3)
- To what degree do these recommendations make sense to change the behavior of a) large groups of people, or
b) individuals?
→ This may or may not work, depending on the mechanism behind it
The science of changing you own behavior
→ Task: Select some techniques and see if they work for yourself to change your behavior
Teach you when and how psychology can help to change behavior
- Large groups
- People individuals
Go beyond merely applying psychology, but towards deep understanding (but I will ask you to apply psychology)
ASSIGNMENT
BCT’s
4 examples → Select two BCT from the appendix in guide
1. Public commitment: Make a commitment to performing the target behaviour and inform others about it
2. Associative learning: Repeatedly pair a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that already elicits the behaviour, until the
neutral stimulus elicits that behaviour.
3. Action planning: Plan performance of behaviour in detail, including context, frequency, duration and/or intensity
4. Support others: Provide support to others in relation to the target behaviour
2
,Traditional approach to behavior change
Emphasis on knowledge and intentions
Reflective processes
Time to retire Theory of Planned Behavior (Image)
- Very limited causal support from experiments
o Not suitable as a model for behaviour change
- Does not take into account self-regulation, habits,
architecture, in the moment processes
→ For questionnaires etc. this theory is correct → correlation,
but causal has small evidence
- Intentions do not predict behaviour very well when
o Execution of behaviour is difficult (objectively or subjectively)
o Under cognitive load
o When temptations are present
o When the behavior is habitual
2 solutions to deal with intention behavior gap
- Focus on unconscious, habitual, automatic processes (will be addressed later during this course)
- Make sure intentions steer behaviour
→ Distinction between motivation and volition (rest of this lecture)
Distinction between goal setting and goal striving (Kurt Lewin, 1890-1947)
- Goal setting: expectancy X value → motivation
- Goal striving: tension systems (German tradition of “will Psychologie”) → volition = how to put that motivation
into action (TpB mostly motivational, not on the volitional part)
→ Goal intentions (I want to achieve X), implementation intentions (if y then z)
Sheeran et al., 1996
“How many hours do you intend to spend doing independent study during the next week?”
“Decide now where (e.g., library) and at what times (e.g., 2-3 p.m. and 4-5 p.m.) you will do your independent study
in the next week” — fill-out where when for each day of the week
Stronger simulation = better
→ Implementation intentions in the domain of eating habits
Write down most critical obstacle
- e.g., forget to buy fruits/vegetables in the canteen
- e.g., no fruits and vegetables at work
“If I have my lunch at noon, then I will buy an apple.”
“If I want a snack in the afternoon, then I will eat my apple.”
“When I pass the greengrocer on my way to work, then I will buy an apple”
→ The better you plan your behavior (simulate), the higher the chance your behavior changes.
3
, Why do II they work so well?
- Specify how to act on vague goals
- Identify obstacles: Why is something not possible?
- Prioritize goals
- Create a link between the situation and the behavior → Behavior is automatically elicited by the situation
o Create a cue which indicates a specific goal
Other types of volitional interventions
- Prompts (sticky notes etc)
- Just-in-time (adaptive) interventions → App that tracks your route which gives you a message when walking to
the cafeteria that you must not go in there since you put in your goal to not go there
- Reminders → Weird creature on a coupon which reminds you to give the coupon
o Psychological mechanism: the longer you see it, the less you notice it so you have to change the
reminder cues
o It is a volitional intervention: it doesn’t change your motivation, they remind you of your goal
Motivation + Volition: Prompts
Study: young people playing soccer, coaches sometimes very emotional, shouting inappropriate stuff
- The coaches don’t want to be rude = intrinsic motivation
- Left: commitment and consistency = motivation
- Right: wristband with shocks which reminded the coaches to stay calm and positive = volition
→ The soccer club only thought of motivation, volitional interventions are often neglected
→ More examples in slides
Motivation versus Volition
Out of sight
Subscription to a vegetable box
Take a time out / delay your choice
Push notifications and sticky notes → Volition
Reappraisal (e.g., think about positive outcomes) → Motivational
Action planning → Volition
Shout it from the rooftops → Motivational (public commitment)
4
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