KC 1.1: Planning for successful social change
How to decide on a change approach?
Imagine you work in the ministry of health. You need to come up with a strategy to reduce vaping among
youngsters. What do you propose?
- common approaches: ‘just say no’ or arousing fear or concerns about the risks of a behaviour
- most approaches are not scientifically grounded, just ‘seemed like a good idea at the time’
Taking a systemic approach to social change
1. What is the issue to address? → what, who, where, when
2. What causes it? → behavior + environment
3. What can be done about it? → change approaches
4. How can approaches be promoted? → implementation in practice
5. How do we know if it works? → process and effect evaluation
Vaping example
1. What is the issue to address? → health risks of vaping
2. What causes it? → uninformed choices, peer pressure, social norms
3. What can be done about it? → communication campaign
4. How can approaches be promoted? → social media ads
5. How do we know if it works? → assess behavior changes
Developing a theory of change
- Defining long-term goals and identifying preconditions to achieve those goals
- Guiding the change process by describing causal linkages
- helps understand what causes the problem, how to solve it and guides solution approaches
Example of a theory of change
Series of boxes and connection arrows = logic model (show causal linkages in theory of change):
KC 1.2: Intervention mapping approach
Successful change approaches are the result of careful planning
How to undertake planning of social change approaches? → Easy answers: make use of a planning tool!
- introducing Intervention Mapping
What is Intervention Mapping?
, - Approach for developing effective behavior change interventions
- Mostly applied to health promotion
- Relevant for interventions on any issue requiring behaviour change
Intervention and policy: what do we mean?
- Intervention = any action to change a situation
- Program = series of planned activities
- Service = dedicated organization
- Campaign = broad communication
- Training = building capacity
- Policy = rules or guidelines for actions
- specific type of intervention
- often general or abstract
Policies provide direction, likely require concrete actions to achieve goal
Key characteristics of intervention mapping
1. Ecological approach
- looks not only at individual factors, but also at how social and physical environments affect
people's actions
2. Participation of all stakeholders
- not only program developers etc., but also people affected by it and other experts
3. Use of theories and evidence
Intervention mapping is a stepwise process
- 6 steps, each encompassing specific tasks
- Blueprint for design, implementation and evaluation
- Theoretical, empirical and practical information
Step 1: assessment of needs and opportunities
- logic model that identifies behavioral and environmental factors that need to be addressed + the
determinants of the behavior of the affected people + environmental agents that need to be changed
Step 2: Specify desired outcomes and what needs to change to achieve those
Step 3: Match change approaches to determinants of behavior; understanding of mechanisms & conditions
, Simplified intervention logic model (theory of change)
Step 4: Acceptable, feasible and usable resources
Step 5: Apply intervention mapping to develop interventions related to intervention adoption, implementation &
maintenance
Step 6: Assess change in health or social issue, behavior and environment and behavioral determinants
Concluding
- Specifying what behaviours of what actors need to change
- Identify and prioritize determinants of behavior
- Select change methods to address determinants
KC 2.3: Theories of determinants of behavior
Changing behavior is critical to address social issues
1. Whose behavior?
2. What factors shape behavior?
Changing behaviors of affected people and groups + behavior of environmental agents
- changing environmental conditions is done by changing behavior of environmental agents (= behavior
of people who can change environmental conditions)
- environmental agents behavior can both shape environmental conditions that direct impact on social
issue + influence behavior of people affected by social issues
- (see simplified intervention logic model)
Factors shaping behavior
- Characteristics of individual and environment
- Individual, social and structural factors
- In health promotion planning, distinction is made:
1. Predisposing factors (motivation)
- individual factors related to motivation to change (eg. knowledge, beliefs, attitudes)
2. Reinforcing factors (social influence)
- social factors that capture how others influence us (eg. peer norms, social support)
3. Enabling factors (facilitation)
- structural factors related to barriers and opportunities (ie.resources) in environment, but
own skills and abilities also count
Social Cognition Approach
- Individuals thoughts about a situation guides their actions
- Behavior is a function of subjective perceptions; meaning
- Specifying which perceptions shape behavior in what way
How to decide on a change approach?
Imagine you work in the ministry of health. You need to come up with a strategy to reduce vaping among
youngsters. What do you propose?
- common approaches: ‘just say no’ or arousing fear or concerns about the risks of a behaviour
- most approaches are not scientifically grounded, just ‘seemed like a good idea at the time’
Taking a systemic approach to social change
1. What is the issue to address? → what, who, where, when
2. What causes it? → behavior + environment
3. What can be done about it? → change approaches
4. How can approaches be promoted? → implementation in practice
5. How do we know if it works? → process and effect evaluation
Vaping example
1. What is the issue to address? → health risks of vaping
2. What causes it? → uninformed choices, peer pressure, social norms
3. What can be done about it? → communication campaign
4. How can approaches be promoted? → social media ads
5. How do we know if it works? → assess behavior changes
Developing a theory of change
- Defining long-term goals and identifying preconditions to achieve those goals
- Guiding the change process by describing causal linkages
- helps understand what causes the problem, how to solve it and guides solution approaches
Example of a theory of change
Series of boxes and connection arrows = logic model (show causal linkages in theory of change):
KC 1.2: Intervention mapping approach
Successful change approaches are the result of careful planning
How to undertake planning of social change approaches? → Easy answers: make use of a planning tool!
- introducing Intervention Mapping
What is Intervention Mapping?
, - Approach for developing effective behavior change interventions
- Mostly applied to health promotion
- Relevant for interventions on any issue requiring behaviour change
Intervention and policy: what do we mean?
- Intervention = any action to change a situation
- Program = series of planned activities
- Service = dedicated organization
- Campaign = broad communication
- Training = building capacity
- Policy = rules or guidelines for actions
- specific type of intervention
- often general or abstract
Policies provide direction, likely require concrete actions to achieve goal
Key characteristics of intervention mapping
1. Ecological approach
- looks not only at individual factors, but also at how social and physical environments affect
people's actions
2. Participation of all stakeholders
- not only program developers etc., but also people affected by it and other experts
3. Use of theories and evidence
Intervention mapping is a stepwise process
- 6 steps, each encompassing specific tasks
- Blueprint for design, implementation and evaluation
- Theoretical, empirical and practical information
Step 1: assessment of needs and opportunities
- logic model that identifies behavioral and environmental factors that need to be addressed + the
determinants of the behavior of the affected people + environmental agents that need to be changed
Step 2: Specify desired outcomes and what needs to change to achieve those
Step 3: Match change approaches to determinants of behavior; understanding of mechanisms & conditions
, Simplified intervention logic model (theory of change)
Step 4: Acceptable, feasible and usable resources
Step 5: Apply intervention mapping to develop interventions related to intervention adoption, implementation &
maintenance
Step 6: Assess change in health or social issue, behavior and environment and behavioral determinants
Concluding
- Specifying what behaviours of what actors need to change
- Identify and prioritize determinants of behavior
- Select change methods to address determinants
KC 2.3: Theories of determinants of behavior
Changing behavior is critical to address social issues
1. Whose behavior?
2. What factors shape behavior?
Changing behaviors of affected people and groups + behavior of environmental agents
- changing environmental conditions is done by changing behavior of environmental agents (= behavior
of people who can change environmental conditions)
- environmental agents behavior can both shape environmental conditions that direct impact on social
issue + influence behavior of people affected by social issues
- (see simplified intervention logic model)
Factors shaping behavior
- Characteristics of individual and environment
- Individual, social and structural factors
- In health promotion planning, distinction is made:
1. Predisposing factors (motivation)
- individual factors related to motivation to change (eg. knowledge, beliefs, attitudes)
2. Reinforcing factors (social influence)
- social factors that capture how others influence us (eg. peer norms, social support)
3. Enabling factors (facilitation)
- structural factors related to barriers and opportunities (ie.resources) in environment, but
own skills and abilities also count
Social Cognition Approach
- Individuals thoughts about a situation guides their actions
- Behavior is a function of subjective perceptions; meaning
- Specifying which perceptions shape behavior in what way
