Say you have a problem procrastinating. You would like to change this as you end up doing most things at the last moment. First, you’d have to figure out why you’re always procrastinating. Is it that you don’t see the weight of the deadline until it is right in your face (present bias)? Perhaps you are not the best at setting deadlines for yourself. Or maybe you are just bad at weighing how much you should commit to anything at any one time. That’s only a few factors, and you’re only thinking about changing one behavior in one subject (yourself). It gets even more complicated when trying to change behavior in different people, in different contexts. Yet this is what behavioral science is always trying to achieve.
Bringing structure to the study of behavior
Learning the practice of behavioral science has, very often, been treated as a craft that involves memorizing an unorganized and ever-growing list of biases and deciding which applies when. Those who have mastered this approach have gained the added benefit of deep knowledge. For the rest, these barriers to entry are very high and often create shallow applications of behavioral science.
Through a systematic approach, the SOBC consortium is building an understanding of the mechanisms of behavior change. This focus helps us answer the crucial questions: why do interventions work for some people, and not others, and above all what will work for the person seated in front of me? Get the answer to that right, and they may live a longer, healthier, happier life. Prescribe the wrong intervention, and we may do great harm.
The stakes are high.
Since 2009, 22 university partners have been undertaking this work. They have focused on three domains that have especial importance: Self-regulation, Stress Reactivity & Stress Resilience, and Interpersonal & Social Processes. For each of these, they’ve been learning how to identify, measure and influence behavior around this domain.
One especially valuable resource is now available on the SOBC website: a repository of measures. It features 186 different measures relevant to creating and measuring real improvements in people’s health — with more to come. Unlike other measure repositories, the SOBC repository is particularly interesting due to its excellent ability to filter by the domain of the measure, the extent to which it has been validated, and even its duration. For each measure, details are given on its background, some of the projects in which it has been used, how to cite it, the validation process it has undergone and its psychometric performance, and more.
There’s a whole lot more to come from SOBC in the coming months and years, including many enhancements to the measures repository. We believe that SOBC represents an important advance towards a better theorized, more structured approach to behavioral science. Busara is proud to be supporting this effort.
