Behaviour Change Interventions: Introductory Principles and Practice

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for learners who would like an entry-level understanding of behaviour change. If you want to know more about behaviour and how to change it to create a healthy and happy population, and a sustainable world, this course is for you.

What topics will you cover?

The course is based on the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) framework which provides a method for intervention design. Specifically, learners will be introduced to three behavioural science tools and understand how they interlink and can be applied as a system in order to select target behaviours, conduct a behavioural diagnosis and develop intervention strategies and policies to change behaviour. The three tools are the Capability Opportunity Motivation – Behaviour (COM-B) model, the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) and the Behaviour Change Techniques Taxonomy (BCTTv1). It covers the following topics:

Defining and selecting behaviours to change

An introduction to the COM-B model (a theoretical model that can be used to understand influences on a target behaviour)

Applying the COM-B model to understand influences on a target behaviour (conducting a behavioural diagnosis)

Intervention Types and Policy Options and how to select amongst them as part of intervention design

Behaviour Change Techniques (BCT) and how to select amongst them as part of intervention design

This course is designed to be completed across a four week period. Content will be released week by week and the course will close with a live Q&A session with the educators in week four.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to…

Identify potential targets for behaviour change.

Describe a specific behavioural problem in terms of what needs to change: capability, opportunity and/or motivation and use the COM-B model to describe the influences on a target behaviour.

Apply the Behaviour Change Wheel to develop strategies for behaviour change.

Evaluate and select specific Behaviour Change Techniques within those strategies.