Here is an outline of the presentation last night and three web sites relevant to John Malouff’s talk. To save paper, John decided not to distribute the materials in person.
Difficulties in changing human behaviour
- Humans are habitual
- Behaviours compete
- Behaviour causes are complex, including: values, motivations, thoughts, emotions, siuations
Best bets for change
- Your own behaviours
- Behaviour of your children or students
- Individuals you know
- Community
Behaviour Modification methods
- Triage
- Assessment — example: decreasing wood smoke in community
- Setting measurable goals
- Making explicit how the change suits the values and motives of the person
- Modelling – the target behaviour and changing a behaviour
- Types: Live, recorded, anecdotes
- Helpful characteristics of model: liked, prestigious, similar, rewarded
- Prompts/encouragement
- Instruction
- Enhancement of self-efficacy in the person about making the change
- Recall past related performance of the person
- Modelling of target behaviour
- Persuasion that person can do the behaviour
- Incentives
- Reinforcement
- Praise
- Feedback on consequences of changed behaviour
- $$$
Access points for changing community behaviour
- Schools
- After-school care
- Social media – online weather give pollution level
- Mass media – news give pollution level
- Groups: this group, service groups, student groups
- Government – regulations, recommendations, ads
Further reading:
- Empowering Sustainability: The Psychology of Sustainable Behavior
- Promoting sustainable behaviour, motivating behaviour change
- Wikipedia: Conservation psychology
