Modifying Transport Behaviour – Assignment 2
Modifying transport behaviour: theory, practice and politics
Brief for Assignment 2
Introduction
Your task is to develop a transport behaviour change intervention from first principles. The culmination of the exercise will be the specification of an evaluated trial of your intervention.
The order in the following list is one that you could follow but do not feel bound by it. In reality, the process is not linear: you’ll probably iterate somewhat between theory, objective and target group, for example.
Problem/opportunity
Identify a problem/opportunity[1], either a transport[2] problem/opportunity or something in which transport plays or could play a significant role.
Objective setting and analysis of target behaviour and target group
Consider the target behaviour, referring to the literature and any relevant data you have found: what is challenging about it? What practical considerations need to be borne in mind when designing a response? Think about the risk of rebound effects/external factors that might undermine the endeavour.
Identify and analyse the target group. What do you know about them? In practical terms, how can they be reached? Is there anything about this group that makes certain behaviour-change techniques a good or a bad idea? You are advised to choose a relatively homogeneous target group; in other words, if you find yourself thinking that there is a good case for segmenting a given group, you may be better off concentrating instead on a single segment within that group.
Set your objective in terms of the target behaviour and target group. Make sure it is clearly linked to addressing the problem/opportunity you have identified. You may find logic mapping useful for this (Hills, 2010)[3]. In order to ensure that your objective provides you with the best possible basis for what follows, consider the questions posed by Michie et al (2014a, p. 48):
- Who needs to perform the behaviour?
- What does the person need to do differently to achieve the desired change?
- When will they do it?
- Where will they do it?
- How often will they do it?
- With whom will they do it?
Some people find the SMART acronym useful: a SMART objective is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. In summary, the better defined your objective, the likelier you are to develop a successful intervention.
Choosing a suitable theory
Adopt a theory or a theoretical framework that appears appropriate. Make sure that you include in your submission a justification for your choice. You may find the opening three chapters of Michie et al (2014b) helpful here. The remainder of that book provides brief summaries of 83 theories but you are not expected to assess them all!
It is important that, having chosen your theory, you follow that decision through, i.e. that your final intervention design reflects the application of your chosen theory to the target behaviour/audience.
Intervention development
Start with the literature: what has been tried and proved effective? Which interventions were tried but with inconclusive results? Are there promising gaps?
Create a short-list of at least four possible interventions. Try to make it diverse[4]. You can include both modifications to or novel applications of established methods as well as wholly new ideas. Here, the range of behaviour-change techniques in BCTTv1[5] may be helpful to you though note that its authors are aware it is light on some intervention functions, such as restriction (Michie et al., 2014a, p. 150).
Appraise your short-listed interventions, using a consistent framework to identify the likely strengths and weaknesses of each. Your appraisal should as a minimum capture: expected performance against the objective, cost, possible side effects (good and bad). You may find the APEASE framework (Michie et al., 2014a, pp. 23–4) useful for this process. You are not expected to provide quantified estimates for any element of the appraisal; it is sufficient to use an ordinal scale (e.g. 1 to 5). Referring to your appraisal, identify the strongest candidate and explain your choice. Try to be methodical in your selection process.
Intervention design and trial specification
Design your chosen intervention in reasonable[6] detail.
Specify an evaluated trial. Remember that we shall want to know whether your intervention achieved your objective. What evaluation design suits the circumstances? How can you design your trial so there is confidence that any effect is not the result of random variation and that it is attributable to the intervention?
Ground rules
- Maximum 2,500 words including footnotes, references and any tables or figures that you create.