Achieving Your Goals – Planning A Change of Behaviour?

Posted on May 14, 2015 by Jenny Cromack

How Can We Influence Behaviour Change?

Following on from a previous blog regarding the cycle and stages we go through when it comes to changing or adopting a new behaviour, this article will look at the reasoning behind why and how we decide to change our behaviour. If you are open to changing your behaviour and habits this will assist in achieving your goals, whether in the gym or in other aspects of your life.

Where the Trans-theoretical Model highlights the different stages and how we can help people progress through these stages to cement a behaviour, this current blog looks at the Theory of Planned Behaviour (Ajzen, 1985) which concerns the attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control. This theory proposes that if a positive balance between the attitudes, norms and perceived control is achieved then this will feed into higher intentions and motivation to engage in behaviour and thus increase the likelihood of the actual behaviour taking place. A basic representation of the model is as follows:

 Attitudes…

This factor simply relates the level of positive or negative evaluation the person has for the given behaviour. So basically how does the person feel about the behaviour, if they see the behaviour in a negative light their intention to engage will be low and thus the likelihood of them getting involved in the behaviour is very low.

The attitudes include two factors which are behavioural beliefs and outcome evaluation. The behavioural beliefs involve the consequences of the behaviour so what will it result in or achieve. For example, someone may think if I exercise I will improve my health and fitness. This is their belief about exercise.

The evaluation of the outcomes involves more of a subjective appraisal. So, looking positively, an individual may consider the health benefits and like the idea of being able to carry out daily activities with more comfort. They have therefore evaluated the outcome of the behaviour and form an attitude towards it.

These attitudes work with the other factors but also feed into the intention to engage in the behaviour potentially by fuelling the motivation of the individual.

Subjective Norms…

Norms consist of the perceived social pressures to perform and engage in the behaviour. This could come from peers, parents, or society pressures whereby the individual feels that people believe that they should perform the given behaviour. For example, someone may feel pressured by their partner to engage in exercise, because of comments about health or physique.

Individuals are exposed to so many pressures to look and act certain ways. A high pressure to do something may in fact cause someone to take up a behaviour but it won’t be through any personal beliefs so it is important to balance the attitudes and the types of pressure we experience. For example, it is ok to feel a little pressure or encouragement to exercise from a partner or family member, but if this is also paired with positive beliefs about exercise then a behaviour is even more likely. It will also increase the chance of the individuals maintaining their engagement in the behaviour.

Perceived Control…

This element is made up of two components perceived behavioural control, and control beliefs. The perceived behavioural control is basically how well the individuals thinks they can perform the behaviour. This is highly related to confidence and self-efficacy. For example, if the individual is more confident about their ability to exercise they are more likely to do it.

Feeding into this perceived behavioural control are the control beliefs. These are the things that the individuals believes to either help or hinder the behaviour. The more of these factors that are perceived to be controllable the more likely they will be to engage. For example, an individual may feel that they do not have enough time or money to exercise this will be seen as an obstacle to them exercising. There are however ways of altering the perspective and perception of control on these things, as will be discussed later.

Helping Achieve a Positive Balance…

Whether looking at helping yourself or others achieve the more positive attitudes, norms, and perceived control the principles are basically the same. The majority of it is simply education and altering the outlook of yourself or the individual.

Helping Attitude…

A person may have a specific attitude towards exercise that has be learned by previous experiences or cues they are exposed to. Therefore if you find yourself or a client struggling to find positive beliefs about exercise or any behaviour sit down and put together a decision balance sheet. Weigh up the pros and cons of the behaviour. A positive outlook and belief in a behaviour is needed, especially if you are looking to maintain the behaviour.

Altering any negative attitudes or encouraging positive ones may also require some form of education. Many people will not know the consequences of a behaviour and therefore have no incentive to try it or even may be fearful as they don’t know what to expect. Therefore seeking information about any behaviour such as the health benefits of exercise will help individuals gain a more clear understanding of the behaviour and form more positive attitudes and beliefs.

Helping Subjective Norms…

I personally believe that in today’s society we are under too many pressures to do things, or to look a certain way. However, some pressure in the form of encouragement from significant people in one’s life can help swing you towards the behaviour. For someone looking to change their own behaviour you can maybe seek out close friends or family and discuss their thoughts on the behaviour. Their thoughts may influence your intentions to engage. As a personal trainer we can help by providing positive, non-aggressive or pushy forms of encouragement. This will help feed into the intentions of the individual and as it is not ‘in their face’ it is less likely to work the other way and prevent exercise engagement.

Personally I also think we need to help reduce the amount of extreme pressures on ourselves and others in the form of extreme media images this forces the intentions of a behaviour to move towards often unrealistic and extreme expectations.

Helping Perceived Control…

To achieve more confidence and self-efficacy in a behaviour and thus more perceived behavioural control there are a few great things we can do. Witnessing others successfully performing exercise helps us gain self-efficacy, especially if these people are seen as equal to us or significant to us. For example the thinking of may be “if they can do it, so can I”. Similarly, simply getting ourselves or others to experience similar experiences to exercise or attending a one of class or session for them to experience some mastery in that behaviour before making the final commitment to it. Much like the subjective norms sections above, verbal persuasion can play a huge part in helping increase self-efficacy by offering positive and rewarding comments.  So allowing ourselves and clients to experiences these situations will help in this case.

People may possess control beliefs that they see as obstacles to exercising or whatever behaviour they are concerned with. Common examples of this when looking at exercise is lack of time, money or “no facilities”. This can be easily flipped around into a more positive light. We can help ourselves and others re-evaluate their lifestyle. If time is an issue we can then find opportunities within our life to fit in exercise, i.e. taking exercise kit to work which would allow activity to be done at lunch or straight after work. Regarding money and facilities we can reinforce the fact that nobody needs to fork out lots of money for gym memberships or equipment when they can perform exercises at home or go out for a run. There are also more and more outdoor exercise facilities around the country. This section is again working more into education of ways of exercising without equipment or having to commit to a gym.

Take Home Message…

We need to understand that as individuals we, and our clients, need to balance several factors and feel a positive from these in order to create a real intention to change our behaviour, these intentions will then turn into actual behaviour if the intentions are fully satisfied by the preceding factors. If we want our behaviour to be maintained these factors need to be more fully satisfied and placed in the most positive way possible. If you combine the brief content of this article with that of the Trans-theoretical Model you can start to form your own approach to altering both your own and others behaviour and start achieving your goals.

References…

Ajzen, I. (1985). From intentions to actions: A theory of planned behavior. In J. Kuhl & J. Beckmann (Eds.), Action control: From cognition to behavior. Berlin, Heidelber, New York: Springer-Verlag. (pp. 11-39).