1

The Challenge of New Behaviors

A Look at Will and Intentions

Week 11

2Announcements

Quick questions after class

Make a time to meet your TF or anyone on the team for particular puzzles

3

Review and Preview

4The challenge of new behaviors

Behaviorism

How is it best learned? – Reinforcement, conditioned reinforcers, shaping, desensitization, etc.

Beliefs and mental models

How is it best learned? – Low need for cognitive closure; reason, research, resonance, etc.

Will and intentions

???

5

Preview

A look at will and intentions, the third

session on “the challenge of new

behaviors”

1. The thoughtful will

2. Getting yourself to do, or not to do, something

3. Creating a willful culture

4. Summing up the challenge of behavioral change

5. Rapid review and looking ahead

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Learning Goals

Get acquainted with some of the potentials and limits of changing behavior through will and intentions

Develop a summative sense of how behaviorism, beliefs and mental models, and will and intentions all contribute to the challenge of behavioral change

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The Thoughtful Will

Goal: Get oriented to contemporary ideas about will and intentions through explanation and later application

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‘What’s hard about learning that?’ –

The gap between intentions and actions

The doing mind and the planning mind…

And sometimes they disagree

Enter the will

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Five powerful ideas about the will and ‘what makes it hard’

1. Depletion of the will

2. Impact of social exclusion

3. Cycle of self-deception

4. Low level vs. high level focus, e.g. ‘how’ rather than ‘why’

5. General ‘good intentions’ vs. implementation intentions

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1. Depletion of the will

2. Impact of social exclusion

3. Cycle of self-deception

4. Low level vs. high level focus, e.g. ‘how’

rather than ‘why’

5. General ‘good intentions’ vs.

implementation intentions

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The idea of the

Thoughtful Will

From Muscle to Management

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Getting Yourself to Do, or Not to Do, Something

Goal: Come to understand some tools for effective management of the will through personal examples and a key concept

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Implementation intentions for getting yourself to do something…

1. Are specific in what you will do

2. Are specific in when you will do it

3. Are near-term

4. Include setting up the environment to cue and support your efforts

5. Include guarding against distractions

6. Foreground ‘why’ not just ‘how’

7. Foreground learning rather than measuring up to someone else’s expectations

8. Avoid a lot of thinking at the time they are applied – just do it!

9. Avoid piling up a lot of change agendas at the same time

Implementation intentions for getting yourself not to do something…

1. Are specific in what you will do instead, substituting another behavior that interferes with the target behavior

2. Frame as promotion goals rather than prevention goals

3. Question whether emotional distress is really relieved by yielding to a temptation

4. Are specific in when you will do it instead

5. Are near-term

6. Include setting up the environment to cue and support your efforts

7. Include guarding against cues that trigger temptations

8. Foreground ‘why’ not just ‘how’

9. Foreground achieving something positive rather than resisting something negative

10. Avoid a lot of thinking at the time they are applied – just do it!

11. Avoid piling up a lot of change agendas at the same time

Quick design: The term project connection

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Creating a Willful Culture

Goal: Understand tactics for creating a culture of initiative and responsibility through principles and quick design

14Origins versus PawnsRichard deCharms in Personal Causation, 1968

Personal causation or intentional behavior invites a distinction between an internal perceive locus of causality, in which the actor is perceived as an ‘origin’ of his or her behavior, and an external perceived locus of causality, in which the actor is seen as a ‘pawn’ to external forces.

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Origin vs. Pawn

Attribution theory

Locus of control

Perceived self-efficacy

Incremental vs. entity learner

Social exclusion

Extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation

Culture of compliance

‘How’ vs. ‘why’ focus

Learned helplessness

Quick design: The term project connection

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Summing Up the Challenge of Behavioral Change

Goal: Synthesize ideas about behavioral change through a pop culture example

17The challenge of new behaviors

Behaviorism

How is it best learned? – Reinforcement, conditioned reinforcers, shaping, desensitization, etc.

Beliefs and mental models

How is it best learned? – Low need for cognitive closure; reason, research, resonance, etc.

Will and intentions

How is it best learned? – avoid depletion of the will, social exclusion, self-deception, foster implementation intentions, etc.

18Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

The Chancellor’s secret

Anakin Skywalker’s talent

Anakin Skywalker’s dedication

Anakin Skywalker’s pride

Anakin Skywalker’s girlfriend

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1. Behaviorism

Look for moments of positive or negative reinforcement – should come immediately after something Anakin does that the Chancellor wants to encourage or discourage

2. Beliefs and Mental Models

Look for efforts to influenceAnakin’s beliefs by…

Creating need for cognitive closure

Foregrounding reasons, research, resonance, redescriptions, resources and rewards, real-world events

3. Will and Intentions

Look for efforts to undermine Anakin’s will by depletion of the will, suggesting social exclusion, fostering self-deception about being in the driver’s seat, relief from emotional distress

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Rapid Review and Looking Ahead

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Learning Goals

Get acquainted with some of the potentials and limits of changing behavior through will and intentions

Develop a summative sense of how behaviorism, beliefs and mental models, and will and intentions all contribute to the challenge of behavioral change

22

Beyond

these walls

Try out ‘the thoughtful will’

Look for how conditions of reinforcement, influences on beliefs, and will and intentions jointly determine changes in behavior