Module

Module 2 | Part 1: Human Behaviour Change Learning Module | Understanding Behaviour

QUICK LINKS
1.1 Defining behaviour and understanding what shapes it
1.2 UNDERSTANDING BEHAVIOUR USING THE COM-B MODEL AND THEORETICAL DOMAINS FRAMEWORK (TDF)
QUIZ 3: Understanding Behaviour

Learning Objectives

Understand what behaviour is and examples of factors influencing it.
Understand what the COM-B model and the Behaviour change wheel are, and why they are useful to designing effective behaviour change projects.
Understand that behaviour change is a process and the implications of this on supporting others to change their behaviour change.
Understand the key ethical considerations for working with communities to change behaviours to improve animal welfare.

1.1 DEFINING BEHAVIOUR AND UNDERSTANDING WHAT SHAPES IT

Behaviour is defined as the way in which an animal or person acts or responds because of a particular situation or stimulus. As domestic animals’ welfare is dependent on people meeting their needs, improving animal welfare requires promoting human behaviours that support positive animal welfare states. However, how people behave with their animals is underpinned by their value and beliefs, which creates their frame of reference based on their environments and experiences within it [17]. This frame of reference shapes how people understand themselves, others, animals, and the world. For example, how people treat their animals may be the result of what they have been socialized to believe is normal. In addition, people’s external context can also shape their behaviours and resultant welfare of their animals.

Figure 22: Example of a personal frame of reference that can shape a person’s behaviour (Adapted from [18])

Case Study
How Kenyan Donkey Owners Behaviour is Influenced by their Frame of Reference [19]

A Donkey welfare project in Kenya undertook behaviour change research to better understand why the project was struggling to stop donkey owners from whipping their animals.

The research uncovered that donkey owners believe donkeys are ‘lazy and stubborn’ and will only listen or move faster if a whip is used. This belief system further reinforced by social norms and related experiences which normalized the use of discipline to correct behaviour.

As a result of understanding that these beliefs and norms were shaping people’s acceptance of whipping to communicate with their donkeys, the project explored alternative strategies for stopping whipping beyond raising people’s awareness about animal welfare and feelings, training in humane handling, and encouraging them to stop whipping. Without properly understanding the beliefs and norms influencing people’s expressed behaviour, why people continued to whip their donkeys would have remained poorly understood, and it would have been challenging to identify strategies best suited to supporting their behavioural change. This exemplifies the importance of not making assumptions about what needs to change, as this often leads ineffective behaviour change projects, and wasted time and resources spent working on addressing assumed rather than known barriers and motivators to change.

Projects seeking to change people’s behaviours are most commonly unsuccessful because they are designed based on assumptions about what needs to change without first understanding why people do what they do, from that person or groups’ frame of reference, and what their barriers and motivators to adopting the desired change [20, 21].

As any given behaviour is determined by many factors, understanding which to address to achieve the desired change, and then determining the most appropriate strategy for addressing it, can be a challenge. However, evidence suggests that behaviour change interventions that are grounded in theory are more effective than those that are not, with potential for the success of the intervention to increase with the number of theories included [22, 23, 24]. This learning module focuses on introducing the following four models and frameworks for understanding behaviour and how to change it because they are they represent the most comprehensive and well evidenced synthesis of human behaviour change science, and are helpful to understand to affect desired behaviour change to improve animal welfare:

COM-B Model of Behaviour used assess and identify what needs to change for a behaviour change intervention to be effective [25]
Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) used identify the key determinants of a particular behaviour [26]
The Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) method for designing behaviour change interventions [21]
Trans-theoretical Model (TTM) of Behaviour Change: used to understand how individuals and populations progress toward adopting and maintaining behaviour change and provides guidance on motivating successful progression through the change process [27].

1.2 UNDERSTANDING BEHAVIOUR USING THE COM-B MODEL AND THEORETICAL DOMAINS FRAMEWORK (TDF)

As we have learned through the C4A learning modules, animal welfare issues arise because of human's actions/inactions, and these human behaviours can be challenging to change. The COM-B model or system of behaviour is the easiest and most widely used model for understanding behaviour. “The COM-B model conceptualises behaviour as a part of a system of interacting elements that also involves capability, opportunity and motivation. For any behaviour to occur at a given moment, there must be the capability and opportunity to engage in the behaviour, and the strength of motivation to engage in it must be greater than for any competing behaviours. Capability may be physical or psychological, opportunity may be social or physical and motivation may be ‘reflective’ or ‘automatic’” [25]. Capability, opportunity, and motivation are drivers of behaviour which influence each other, as well as collectively drive change in behaviour, as illustrated by the figure below.

Figure 23: COM-B Model/System of Behaviour
(adapted from [21])

The COM-B model provides a simple and systems-based framework for investigating people’s existing behaviour, and the barriers and/or motivators to the adoption of new desired behaviour. The Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) can be thought of as a variant of the COM-B model, and similarly seeks to explain behavioural change by understanding the factors influencing behaviour. Through a synthesis of behaviour change theory, 14 domains, or determinants of behaviour were identified. The domains include knowledge; skills; memory; attention and decision process; behavioural regulation; social/professional role and identity; beliefs about capabilities; optimism; beliefs about consequences; intentions; goals; reinforcement; emotions; environmental context and resources; and social influences [28, 26]. These can be correlated with COM-B components, providing a further detailed understanding of the factors influencing behaviour related to each COM-B component. The definitions for each of these domains are reviewed in the book – ‘The Behaviour Change Wheel – A Guide to Designing Interventions’ [21].

The components of the COM-B model are defined below along with their relevance to the different TDF domains [25]:

CAPABILITY (C): Capability is defined as the individual’s psychological and physical capacity to engage in the activity concerned. It includes having the necessary knowledge and skills.

Physical Capability: refers to having physical strength and ability/or developed skill to carry out the behaviour. Examples: strength to carry water for animals, skill, and ability to pick up and clean hooves.

Relevant TDF domains: physical skills
Psychological Capability: refers to having the knowledge or understanding or emotional or cognitive or behavioural skill to practice the behaviour. Example: knowledge and skills in animal husbandry, ability to regulate emotions to promote positive human-animal interactions and compassionate handling.

Relevant TDF domains: knowledge; cognitive and interpersonal skills; memory, attention, and decision processes; behavioural regulation

OPPORTUNITY (O): all the factors that lie outside the individual that make the behaviour possible or prompt it can be defined as opportunity and includes both physical and social opportunity.

Physical Opportunity: is about factors in one’s environment that supporting the enactment of the behaviour through changing the physical environment. Examples: access and availability to animal related resources and services, financial resources, time etc.

Relevant TDF domains: environmental context and resources
Social Opportunity: is about whether animal owners/carers/users have social support from peers, family members or other service providers or community members in general to practice the desired behaviour change; or have a value/belief system that validates the desired behaviour change or condemns the problem behaviour. Examples: People who treat their animals well are held in high regard by others in their community; Animal health service providers acknowledge women as decision-makers and are responsive to their animal health needs.

Relevant TDF domains: social influences

MOTIVATION (M): Motivation is defined as all those brain processes that energize and direct behaviour, not just goals and conscious decision-making. It includes habitual processes, emotional responding, as well as analytical decision-making.

Reflective Motivation: refers to reflective processes involving plans (self-conscious intentions), evaluations, beliefs about what is good and bad, and understanding weighing benefits and consequences. Example: donkey owners believed their animals were stubborn and that they would only be motivated to work if they feared punishment.

Relevant TDF domains: professional role and identity; beliefs about capabilities; optimism; beliefs about consequences; intentions; and goals
Automatic Motivation: Automatic processes involving emotional reactions, desires (wants and needs), impulses, inhibitions, drive states and reflex responses. Includes habit formation, as habits are likely to form because of an established cue-response-reward loop [19]. Example: Members of animal owning households have been conditioned to allow their animals to freely socialize with other animals because they feel a sense of happiness when they see their animals playing.

Relevant TDF domains: reinforcement (e.g. what incentivizes behaviour?); and emotions (e.g. positive, or negative emotional responses of behaviour?)

Changing behaviour will generally involve changing one or more of the COM-B factors relating to the behaviour itself, or to the behaviours that compete with or support it. Because the three components of COM-B can interact and influence one another and the resultant behaviour, it enables the user to identify the components within COM-B that need to change for the behaviour to change. For example, you conduct a COM-B diagnosis to identify what needs to change for donkey owners to adopt desired feeding practices and find: The person does not know what defines nutritious feed for their working donkey (capability); quality donkey feed is expensive and not available locally (opportunity), and owners believe their animals are property and don’t prioritize investing in their welfare (motivation). In this case, a project assuming improving people’s knowledge and skills about appropriate donkey feeding practices would unlikely be effective in changing them. This example demonstrates how understanding what needs to change in terms of COM-B can encourage innovative and strategic thinking when designing behaviour change projects and help avoid the common pitfall of unsuccessful behaviour change projects which is making assumptions about what needs to change [21].

TDF can be similarly helpful to understanding influencing factors acting as barriers or motivators to behaviour change. However, undertaking in depth behavioural analysis across the 14 domains is not always needed, feasible, or desired all project contexts or communities. In this way, COM-B is simpler and easier to use. However, considering the TDF domains when undertaking a COM-B diagnosis can support a more comprehensive analysis of factors influencing a target behaviour, as well as greater insight into potential intervention options. For example, consider using the TDF to inform the development of focus group discussion questions to explore behavioural barriers and motivators with communities. For further information on the use of the TDF, COM-B model, and BCW refer to the “The Behaviour Change Wheel – A Guide to Designing Interventions” [21].

Link to References Cited