Interpersonal style should be included in taxonomies of behavior change techniques.

Martin S Hagger,Sarah J Hardcastle

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00254

Martin S Hagger, Sarah J Hardcastle

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00254

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Abstract

Interpersonal style should be included in taxonomies of behavior change techniques.

Highlights

Efforts to identify these techniques have been hindered by a lack of detail in, and systematic reporting of, the content and protocol of behavior-change interventions (Michie and Johnston, 2012)
In this article we contend that authors of behavior change techniques (BCTs) taxonomies have focused their attention exclusively on intervention content and should pay closer attention to the role interpersonal style plays in promoting behavior change
We argue that interpersonal style is a unique set of techniques that likely interact with other contentrelated BCTs in affecting behavior change

Summary

Introduction

Efforts to identify these techniques have been hindered by a lack of detail in, and systematic reporting of, the content and protocol of behavior-change interventions (Michie and Johnston, 2012). In this article we contend that authors of BCT taxonomies have focused their attention exclusively on intervention content and should pay closer attention to the role interpersonal style plays in promoting behavior change. We use two approaches to behavior change that involve both content and interpersonal style to illustrate our point: autonomy support and motivational interviewing.

Results

Conclusion