Consider the theory
Two key things have been found to affect a person’s readiness to change. These are importance and self-efficacy.
- Importance is the value the person places on making the change.
- Self-efficacy is the person’s belief or confidence in their ability to succeed at making the change (Bandura, 1994).
People can experience different levels of importance and self-efficacy at different times. For example, a person may know the importance of exercising for their long-term health but have low levels’ of confidence in their ability to engage in it and succeed.
So how do we build confidence?
Building self-efficacy can be addressed through psychological interventions. People may need help to develop confidence and this may be found through working with a health care professional specialising in techniques like Motivational Interviewing. Talking with other people who offer positive support, who exercise themselves or joining support groups can be helpful.
An excellent article by madhuleena-roy-chowdhury for PositivePsychology.com outlines 4 ways to understand the concepts of self-efficacy. These are:
- Mastery of experiences – Each successful experience builds one’s belief in his/her ability to overcome difficulties. It may require experience in overcoming obstacles through continuing effort.
- Vicarious experiences through social models – Observing others achieve success helps one believe that one can achieve similar success. The impact of modelling on perceived self-efficacy is strongly influenced by the perception that there is a similarity of oneself or one’s situation to the models.
- Social persuasion – Encouraging words from others can help motivate one to overcome fears and doubts. These boosts in perceived self-efficacy lead people to try harder to succeed and promote development of skills and a sense of personal efficacy.
- Reduce one’s stress reactions – Encouraging a positive attitude reduces stress and decreases negative thoughts.
Moving to practice
When looking to change behaviours such as exercising more it is helpful to use a theory as a guide. The reason for this is that theories are, in themselves, based on evidence. There are lots of models like the ‘Stages of Change’ model that have been developed within a theoretical construct. No one is perfect so don’t give up trying if one doesn’t work for you. We’ve used the Stages of Change model as our preferred choice due to its simplicity, underlying evidence base, its usefulness as a tool to apply to a number of change behaviours.
Now we have a more realistic understanding of where we’re at in terms of thinking about changing our exercise behaviour, we can start thinking how to do it. Lets’ look at the stages of change below and consider some options.
|
Stage
|
Characteristics
|
Strategies to change
|
| Precontemplation | The person isn’t considering change as an option. Exercise may have been tried in the past unsuccessfully, they’ve given up or in denial about a health difficulty. | Educate about risks. Focus on positive outcomes related to change in exercise. |
| Contemplation | The person is ambivalent about changing. That doesn’t mean they don’t want to exercise, they just have mixed feelings. They’re weighing up benefits versus costs (e.g., time, expense, fear etc). | Identify barriers. Tease out the positives. Address concerns. Identify support systems. How different will things be in 6 months if you change the behaviour? |
| Preparation | The person is prepared to take action. You may start putting plans in place like joining a gym, a class, or enquiring about a walking group. | Develop realistic goals and a timeline for change. Positive reinforcement. Talk to other people you know who exercise. |
| Action | You’ve made good progress and modified your lifestyle over the last six months. You may be experimenting with different types, volume or approaches to exercise. Keep going! | Provide positive reinforcement. Talk to others who exercise. You may prefer exercising on your own or with others. Look and keep track of your goals to show the changes work. |
|
Maintenance
|
You’re confident to continue this new lifestyle change. You’re less likely to relapse. | Provide encouragement and support. |
The stages of change model can help us understand where we are and how to apply some strategies for change. Ask yourself: What do I want to change? Am I ready to start? What stage am I at in my journey?
The model provides a lens through which we can view ourselves.
Elements of Change
It’s important to have an understanding of 3 key elements when changing a behaviour:
- Readiness: Are you ready?
- Barriers: Is there anything preventing you from changing?
- Relapse: What might trigger a return to a former behaviour?
The next blog will apply practical techniques to exercise behaviour change
Goal setting > Small steps vs big steps> Monitoring and feedback> Increasing social support
I’ll be looking at this in more detail in future blogs together with ideas of where to look for support and exercise initiatives.