A lesson from behavioral science

cordianet · July 2012

So I wanted to post something that has helped me in my weight loss journey so far. In the field of behavioral science there is one school of thought that categorizes the concept of "influence" into a six-quadrant grid containing the following areas:
1. Personal Motivation
2. Social Motivation
3. Structural Motivation
4. Personal Ability
5. Social Ability
6. Structural Ability

As I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that we can use the same concepts here for supporting any personal change, with a few small edits. Thus I took these ideas and have applied them to my own weight loss as follows:

1. Personal Motivation – overcome individual reluctance and resistance
Eliminate reasons for not eating better
Make eating better more enjoyable
Connect weight loss with my core values/wants/desires
Eliminate unpleasant parts of exercising
Eliminate excuses for not exercising

2. Social Motivation – enlist help
Use peer pressure to keep me on track
Stay accountable to someone

3. Structural Motivation – “Carrot and stick”
Use rewards that encourage the right behavior
Use negative reinforcement to discourage bad choices

4. Personal Ability – Learn the necessary skills for success
Learn more about good food choices
Learn to cook healthy foods
Learn to avoid injury when working out
Learn more about fun and interesting activities to stay active
Learn how to not use food as a reward
Learn how to make food less important in my life

5. Social Ability – Leverage teamwork
Work with other that have the same or similar goals such as family members, co-workers & friends
Use a fitness coach/mentor for learning, feedback, and accountability— NOTE: Does not have to be a professional
Use a diet coach/mentor for learning, feedback, and accountability— NOTE: Does not have to be a professional

6. Structural Ability – create a supportive physical environment
Remove obstacles such as junk food from house
Limit eating out
Make food ahead when possible or keep a ready supply of frozen dinners when not possible
Make lunches ahead of time and take to work – only eat what you take
Keep your goals top of mind by:
i. Placing notes in strategic places
ii. Placing pictures of my ideal physique in strategic places
iii. Placing pictures of rewards in strategic places

Obviously, the details of your individual plan may be different than mine, but enlisting ideas from all six quadrants can be very helpful to successful change. For what it's worth, In my plan, I have a ton more detail where I explain how I actually do some of these things. I left the bulk of that out because first of all, some of the details are a bit personal, and in addition, most of it would have made this unnecessarily long without really being beneficial to others.

I hope this concept is useful to some of you!

ceelg · July 2012

Thanks for posting this!

ninerbuff · July 2012

So I wanted to post something that has helped me in my weight loss journey so far. In the field of behavioral science there is one school of thought that categorizes the concept of "influence" into a six-quadrant grid containing the following areas:
1. Personal Motivation
2. Social Motivation
3. Structural Motivation
4. Personal Ability
5. Social Ability
6. Structural Ability

As I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that we can use the same concepts here for supporting any personal change, with a few small edits. Thus I took these ideas and have applied them to my own weight loss as follows:

1. Personal Motivation – overcome individual reluctance and resistance
Eliminate reasons for not eating better
Make eating better more enjoyable
Connect weight loss with my core values/wants/desires
Eliminate unpleasant parts of exercising
Eliminate excuses for not exercising

2. Social Motivation – enlist help
Use peer pressure to keep me on track
Stay accountable to someone

3. Structural Motivation – “Carrot and stick”
Use rewards that encourage the right behavior
Use negative reinforcement to discourage bad choices

4. Personal Ability – Learn the necessary skills for success
Learn more about good food choices
Learn to cook healthy foods
Learn to avoid injury when working out
Learn more about fun and interesting activities to stay active
Learn how to not use food as a reward
Learn how to make food less important in my life

5. Social Ability – Leverage teamwork
Work with other that have the same or similar goals such as family members, co-workers & friends
Use a fitness coach/mentor for learning, feedback, and accountability— NOTE: Does not have to be a professional
Use a diet coach/mentor for learning, feedback, and accountability— NOTE: Does not have to be a professional

6. Structural Ability – create a supportive physical environment
Remove obstacles such as junk food from house
Limit eating out
Make food ahead when possible or keep a ready supply of frozen dinners when not possible
Make lunches ahead of time and take to work – only eat what you take
Keep your goals top of mind by:
i. Placing notes in strategic places
ii. Placing pictures of my ideal physique in strategic places
iii. Placing pictures of rewards in strategic places

Obviously, the details of your individual plan may be different than mine, but enlisting ideas from all six quadrants can be very helpful to successful change. For what it's worth, In my plan, I have a ton more detail where I explain how I actually do some of these things. I left the bulk of that out because first of all, some of the details are a bit personal, and in addition, most of it would have made this unnecessarily long without really being beneficial to others.

I hope this concept is useful to some of you!

Yeah, not patented so I'm stealing this!!!! Great post and I applaud how you structured it.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Meloyelo2010 · July 2012

Awesome!

Melanie_RS · July 2012

how does one use negative reinforcement to discourage bad choices? just out of curiosity....

j2tyco · July 2012

great post thanks for sharing it!

Going4Lean · July 2012

bump

carinnaj · July 2012

deserves a bump!

jayb33z · July 2012

how does one use negative reinforcement to discourage bad choices? just out of curiosity....

White Goodman used it to keep himself off pizza. it worked until he lost the game to Lafluer

celebrity328 · July 2012

I really love this! - Funny because I have actually used some of these myself

!

stronglikebull · July 2012

how does one use negative reinforcement to discourage bad choices? just out of curiosity....

negative reinforcement created behavior change by stopping a bad consequence. it's not a 'negative' thing. it can be a confusing concept because of the work negative in the term, but it is not punishment. basically, you create/continue a behavior that keeps a punishment from happening. ie: you lose weight to keep your clothes from getting too small. that's not the best example, but it gets the point across. or, you stop biting your nails in order to avoid them bleeding.

so basically, you want to avoid the bad consequences that come with bad choices, and thus make better choices

Melanie_RS · July 2012

how does one use negative reinforcement to discourage bad choices? just out of curiosity....

White Goodman used it to keep himself off pizza. it worked until he lost the game to Lafluer

so if I see this movie it will prevent me from looking like a dumbass and having to google what you were talking about?!

Ok, I think I got it!!!

LOL thanks!!!

cordianet · July 2012

how does one use negative reinforcement to discourage bad choices? just out of curiosity....

negative reinforcement created behavior change by stopping a bad consequence. it's not a 'negative' thing. it can be a confusing concept because of the work negative in the term, but it is not punishment. basically, you create/continue a behavior that keeps a punishment from happening. ie: you lose weight to keep your clothes from getting too small. that's not the best example, but it gets the point across. or, you stop biting your nails in order to avoid them bleeding.

so basically, you want to avoid the bad consequences that come with bad choices, and thus make better choices

Right. one of my own examples is that when I started, I told myself if I didn't get to 280 by August 6th, I'd have to give up watching any TV for 4 weeks. Since I don't really want that to happen, I'm more motivated to hit that goal than I would be if I just had a positive reinforcement such as the bicycle I plan to reward myself with when I do make that goal. Thus there are positive consequences if I make a goal, and negative ones if I don't. This has been shown to be much more effective than just positive reinforcement since I both want the positive thing, and don't want the negative thing.