Week 8- Interventions wrap up, Psychological Influences on Covid 19 Susceptibility Flashcards
Types of intervention to change health behaviours?
-Education models to inform
-Social-cognitive models to change beliefs & attitudes
-Stages of change model (Transtheoretical model)
-Rothman et al. (2015) principles
-Behaviour Change Wheel (capability, motivation, opportunity;
Mitchie et al., 2014; in-class video)
What is a HIP?
A Health Improvement Practicioner (HIP) is an integrated role
within primary care settings; HIPs provide brief interventions
(30 minutes each session) to a large number of people (“a
little for a lot of people”) drawing on principles and models of
health behaviour change.
Where do HIPS work?
Work in teams, within larger organisations, GP practises
What type of work fo HIPs do? What type of problems do HIPs help people with?
-Brief 30 min behavioural change interventions
-One and one
-Focused on improving both mental/ physical health
What are the advantages of a HIP to patients? To the health sector?
Increases availability, more affordable, prevention, more connected with other health professionals, Strength based -> what are things they can draw on to improve outcomes?
How do you become a HIP?
-Registration under a professional health body
-Then specific 6 month training to become a HIP
Decision science approaches to instigate behavioural change?
-Example : nudging
-Derive from behavioural economics
Main idea of Chapman (2019)
Chapman (2019) draws on principles of decision theory, arguing that it is important to understand decision processes underlying health choices
to encourage successful health behaviour change. A decision-science approach does not assume people are rational actors. Instead of engaging a person’s rational thought system to change their beliefs and attitudes, a decision-science approach bypasses this system and tries to change behaviour directly by managing
how information is presented and incentivised.
Chapman (2019) three principles to instigate behavioural change
-Inform - the way information is presented not just the content matters (Framing, order of information, comparison)
-Incentivise - the way behaviour is rewarded matters. people are motivated by the loss of money and other people’s behaviour (behaviour incentives, social norms, social comparisons, prosocial motives)
-Guide - Behaviour can be guided by subtle environmental changes, which bypass trying to change beliefs and actions (cues and prompts, defaults, recommendations, self-control devices).
Nudging definition
– A way to structure the environment to promote positive behavior with
minimal resistance from people.
Nudging origins
Grounded in behavioral economics with input from psychological scientists
like Daniel Kahneman.
Nuding Examples
–Better choice as default (organ donation); water refill stations; textreminders to attend doctors’ appointment; heathier food first in a cafeteria line; larger
portion sizes for healthy food and smaller portion sizes for unhealthy food.
Nudging strengths
Nudges can be simple, low cost, and implemented at large scale;
Nudging weaknesses
– Limited and fragile effect sizes, possible publication bias (only
publishing positive results), nudges may only work on people already positively
predisposed, concerning ethics (use of algorithms in social media, lack of consent to be nudged), may backfire (e.g., removing bottled water to reduce waste increased sugary drinks consumption)
Nudging video shown in class. What is it? What assumption does nudging rely on? What are some of the challenges with this technique?
Nudging = Deliberate and predictive methods of changing behaviours
Based on the assumption that many behaviours are due to automatic/ environmental cues not rational thoughts. Nudges therefore rearrange the environment/ cues to ‘nudge’ the individual to more healthy behaviours
Ethical aspects?
- The role of transparency = subtle rearrangements of choice architecture. Manipulate people in a direction they are not aware of.
○ Awareness of nudges may be okay though and not result in in-effectiveness ? - skeptical of this
- The consequences of nudging = portrayed as on-short localised interventions -> within a specific situation. Need to research spillover effects to different situations, times. Are there long term effects that persist even once intervention is removed -> help form healthier habits rather than 1 off healthy choice? If not then nudges are fairly limited in their application.
