This post aims to illustrate the characteristics of intervention in behavioral models, and to do so we share a video with you.
They are functionally similar to those used in psychotherapy guided by behavioral principles.
Often, when you want to generate a change in behavior at the community level (for example, getting people to throw their garbage in bins, slow down driving or reduce alcohol consumption), “ awareness”, campaigns that attempt to modify events or internal psychological states, such as attitudes, motivation, etc., with a dubious success rate at best.
Instead, Behavioral psychological models take as a privileged point of intervention the modification of the context instead of the modification of the internal contents.
The video intervention does not appeal to change internal states (e.g. motivation), but rather modifies the environment to facilitate an alternative to be chosen with a greater probability: instead of campaigning to promote health, putting up posters that describe the benefits of climbing the stairs or the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle, etc., what is done is providing a more immediate reinforcement for climbing the stairs, or in other words, that there is greater availability of reinforcement for that behavior:
These types of interventions are functionally similar to those used in psychotherapy guided by behavioral principles. When working, for example, with depression from behavioral models (you can read more about it in ), the principle is very similar: modify the context of life so that certain behaviors (say, getting out of bed and having lunch with the family) , can be chosen with a greater probability than others (staying in bed watching TV, for example), as they have greater availability of reinforcement. Emotions and thoughts are not denied, but the intervention is contextual. And just like the intervention with the stairs in the video, it works.
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