What Helps Individuals to Change Their Behavior?  Social Cognitive Theory

Social learning theory, later renamed social cognitive theory, proposes that behavior change is affected by environmental influences, personal factors, and attributes of the behavior itself. A central tenet of social cognitive theory is the concept of self-efficacy. A person must believe in his or her capability to perform the behavior (i.e., the person must possess self-efficacy) and must perceive an incentive to do so (i.e., the person's positive expectations from performing the behavior must outweigh the negative expectations). Additionally, a person must value the outcomes or consequences that he or she believes will occur as a result of performing a specific behavior or action. Outcomes may be classified as having immediate benefits (e.g., feeling energized following physical activity) or long-term benefits (e.g., experiencing improvements in cardiovascular health as a result of physical activity). But because these expected outcomes are filtered through a person's expectations or perceptions of being able to perform the behavior in the first place, self-efficacy is believed to be the single most important characteristic that determines a person's behavior change. Self-efficacy can be increased in several ways, among them by providing clear instructions, providing the opportunity for skill development or training, and modeling the desired behavior. To be effective, models must evoke trust, admiration, and respect from the observer; models must not, however, appear to represent a level of behavior that the observer is unable to visualize attaining.

From the US Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health, Chapter 6. Cited on Jim Grizzell’s website: http://www.csupomona.edu/~jvgrizzell/best_practices/bctheory.html.

What Leads to Social Change?  Coordination of Services Approaches

• Coordinated and highly publicized community-wide events are recommended for making a lasting impression and raising awareness within a community. Use AIDS and MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) campaigns as examples (e.g. AIDS rides, court monitoring) (Klein et al., 1997).

• Look to other prevention efforts that have used the public health approach successfully (e.g. California Tobacco Control Initiative, MADD). The success of such programs has been credited to their comprehensive approaches (Chekal and Sorenson, 1998). For example, tobacco use in California was targeted using all of the following strategies in a coordinated manner: assistance to local agencies; statewide media campaign; competitive grants that targeted fostering prevention and organizing in ethnic minority communities; school education programs; medical care programs; tobacco tax.

• Corporate investment is a good way to get community-wide involvement and raise awareness (e.g. Marshall’s Domestic Peace Prize) (Klein et al., 1997).

• Traditional coordinated community responses (CCRs) need to expand beyond the justice system to other community agencies, including health care providers, child protective services, clergy and community-based providers… By being more inclusive of the variety of agencies that come into contact with persons experiencing abuse, early intervention is more likely and CCRs become more prevention oriented (Clark et al., 1996).

 A Vision for Prevention: Key Issues and Statewide Recommendations for the Primary Prevention of Violence Against Women in Michigan,
Michigan Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, p. 35.

What Prevention Activities Work Best in Communities of Color?

Efforts targeting communities of color need to be developed within a context of developing community institutions and support systems, public consciousness raising, and education. Efforts need to be designed with an intimate knowledge of the local community/culture and the underlying factors related to abuse (Klein et al., 1997:85).

By focusing on traditional values of family and community and challenging values that perpetuate and condone partner violence, programs can avoid putting forward one issue at the expense of another (e.g. women’s issues over race issues) and instead address their intersection (Klein et al., 1997: 86).

Church and community leaders are considered to be in an ideal position to provide support as well as to change social norms regarding violence (Hyman et al., 2000)

Efforts to prevent and reduce the occurrence of domestic violence among African Americans must occur within the context of a comprehensive prevention agenda that is culturally sensitive and competent (Oliver, 2000: 546).

Recast popular black culture (e.g. hip-hop, black radio, gospel plays or musicals) in interventions to help the community claim ownership of domestic violence as a significant social problem in the African American community (Oliver, 2002).

Excerpted from A Vision for Prevention: Key Issues and Statewide Recommendations for the Primary Prevention of Violence Against Women in Michigan,
Michigan Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, pp. 34-35.