In one line: Behaviour changes through what we experience and learn, not only through biology.
Behavioural change is why a nervous first-time cook becomes a confident one, and why someone who always slept late becomes an early riser.
Here we look at change from the outside. We do not ask what changed in the brain. We ask how the behaviour was learned, or learned again.
Remember: Behaviour is learned, so it can be relearned.
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Key idea: Behaviour changes in three main ways: we learn links, we build habits, and we are shaped by what follows our actions.
How behaviour changes
Learning a link
We learn that two things go together (conditioning).
A phone buzz has so often meant a message that the buzz alone makes us reach for the phone.
Building a habit
An action repeated in the same situation becomes automatic (habit formation).
Brushing your teeth. Checking a feed the moment you wake.
Shaping with consequences
Rewards and other consequences are used on purpose to change a behaviour (behaviour modification).
It works because behaviour that is rewarded is repeated. This kind of learning is called operant conditioning.
Learn a link · Build a habit · Shape with consequences
Take someone who starts running. She learns to link a run with feeling good afterwards. Running at the same time each day makes it automatic. And a small reward after each run keeps her going. Three routes, one new behaviour.
Exam tip: "They would get used to it" explains nothing.
Name the route, and say how it works for this behaviour.
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Key idea: Knowing that a change is good for you is rarely enough. Several things hold the old behaviour in place.
Four barriers to change
The old habit
An old behaviour is automatic, and everyday surroundings set it off.
The sofa and the television appear at the exact time she planned to run.
Reward now, benefit later
The old behaviour pays at once. The new one pays later.
The sofa is comfortable tonight. Fitness arrives in three months.
Other people
Friends and family may carry on as before.
It is harder to go out running when everyone else is ordering pizza.
Low confidence
People who do not believe they can change often do not try, or stop at the first slip.
Habit · Reward now · Other people · Confidence
These are called barriers to change. They explain why people so often go back to an old behaviour, and why a plan for change has to deal with them.
Watch out: Going back to the old behaviour is not proof that change is impossible.
It usually shows that a barrier was left in place.
Key idea: Psychologists design strategies to change behaviour. The strategies differ in who they are for and when they act.
Three kinds of strategy
Promotion
Encourages a healthy behaviour in everyone.
A town marks out running routes and holds a free weekly run.
Prevention
Stops a problem before it starts, often in people who are at risk.
Lessons for twelve-year-olds on saying no to cigarettes.
Intervention
Helps people who already have the problem.
A programme that supports smokers while they give up.
Promote · Prevent · Intervene
A strategy can work at different levels: with one individual, across a school or a town (local), or across countries (global), as with warnings printed on cigarette packets.
Whatever the level, the question is the same: did behaviour really change, and did the change last?
Good strategies remove barriers: A free weekly run deals with two barriers at once.
It gives a reward now, the company, and it puts other people on your side.
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How this is asked: Change is one of the concepts for the 15-mark essay on Paper 1. The essay is set in a context, such as health and well-being.
Details of studies are not needed. Clear ideas, explained examples and a judgement are.
The essay pattern
- Name the behaviour and the kind of strategy.
- Explain how the strategy changes behaviour: which route it uses.
- Say which barriers it removes, and which it leaves.
- Ask whether the change lasts.
- Finish with a judgement.
The trap: describing a campaign: Saying what a campaign did is description.
Say why it should change behaviour, and what could stop it working.
In the context of health and well-being, discuss one or more strategies for changing an unhealthy behaviour.
Model answer plan
See the answer broken into clear points, with guidance on how each point earns marks.