Week 1, Behaviour Change Interventions: Introductory Principles and Practice

A new job means I have new things to learn about! My new role involves creating bite-sized training and in-the-moment nudges to reduce behaviours that could pose a cybersecurity risk. One of my goals is to improve further the way that behavioural psychology is applied to our content to improve outcomes.

I started learning about behavioural psychology last year with Changing for Good: A Revolutionary Six-Stage Program for Overcoming Bad Habits and Moving Your Life Positively Forward (1994) by James Prochaska, John Norcross and Carlo DiClemente, which I wrote about in (1) Behaviour change | LinkedIn).

I've also recently read Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness (2nd edn., 2021) by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, which I've begun to summarise in (1) Nudge, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein | LinkedIn and in (1) Nudge - Chapters 4 and 5 | LinkedIn.

This week, I've started the UCL course Behaviour Change Interventions: Introductory Principles and Practice on FutureLearn, with Danielle D'Lima , Susan Michie , Paul Chadwick , Lou Atkins and Dr Kristina Curtis .

Week 1 begins by defining behaviour and then discusses how to identify, choose and specify targets for behaviour change.

Here are my notes from week 1, which can also be seen in the graphic below.

1. What behaviour are you trying to change?

Goals can be achieved by modifying behaviour.

• A behaviour is “anything a person does in response to internal or external events. Actions may be overt (motor or verbal) and directly measurable or, covert (activities not viewable but involving voluntary muscles) and indirectly measurable; behaviours are physical events that occur in the body and are controlled by the brain.” [Rachel Davis, Rona Campbell, Zoe Hildon, Lorna Hobbs, Susan Michie. (2014). Theories of behaviour and behaviour change across the social and behavioural sciences: a scoping review. Health Psychology Review, vol. 9 (3), 323-344.]

Differentiate the behaviour from its influences and outcomes.

• Behaviour: physical events that occur in the body and are controlled by the brain.
• Influence: something that impacts on whether or not a behaviour is performed.
• Outcome: the broader goal that one wants to achieve through behaviour change.

There will likely be multiple behaviours that contribute to a given outcome. Draw up a list of possible behaviours to target.

Evaluate the impact, likelihood and spillover of each behaviour that could be relevant to achieving your goal.

• If I were to change this behaviour, how likely would it be to have an impact on my goal?
• How easy will the behaviour be to change? i.e. what is the likelihood of change?
• If I change this behaviour, will it have ‘spillover’ effects on other behaviours, that is make other behaviours more or less likely to change in a positive direction?

Start with behaviours that are easiest to change and likely to lead to your goal.

Specify the target behaviour in detail.

• Who needs to perform the behaviour?
• What does the person need to do differently to achieve the desired change?
• When will they do it?
• Where will they do it?
• How often will they do it?
• With whom will they do it?
• An alternative framework for specifying a behaviour is AACTT: Action, Actor, Context, Target, Time [Presseau, J., McCleary, N., Lorencatto, F. et al. Action, actor, context, target, time (AACTT): a framework for specifying behaviour. Implementation Sci 14, 102 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-019-0951-x]

The course gives helpful examples of how these steps can be applied to desired outcomes such as reducing carbon emissions or reducing hospital-acquired infections.

Further resources

• Behaviour Works Australia have published a useful blog post titled Five steps to select the right behaviour/s to target, which outlines how to understand the big picture, identify the target audience(s), understand the evidence, identify the relevant behaviour(s) and choose behaviours(s) to focus on. They suggest strategies and models such as system mapping, systematic reviews, behavioural-intentions and impact-likelihood matrix.

Application

Applying this to my job, I've found it useful to think about how to break down and be more specific about the behaviour that I am trying to change. It will help me to think about targeting one small, easy behaviour when writing content. For example, if the desired outcome is to reduce the risk of confidential information being exposed, an easy behaviour to start with might be locking the screen when walking away from the computer.

In my personal life, it has made me think about identifying multiple behaviours that I could change to contribute to my desired goal and then starting with one that is easy and impactful, rather than feeling that I need to start with a strategy that is more challenging. For example, to reach my desired outcome of becoming fitter, I could start with going for short, brisk walks, rather than beginning with a complex running regime.