The challenges of behavior change The goal of psychologists is often about changing a person’s belief, attitude, or behavior: Psychology Assignment, TCD, Ireland

Assignment title: The challenges of behavior change The goal of psychologists is often about changing a person’s belief, attitude, or behavior – psychologists often expect clients to change and can be frustrated when they don’t! For example, psychologists might give people exercises to do or they may ask other staff to implement a program with clients.

Even when everyone might think it’s a great idea, the follow-through is often disappointing. In this exercise, you are encouraged to think about how difficult behavior change can be. For this assignment, you are being asked to change a health-related behavior in your routine over a two-week period e.g. going to the gym every day, stopping drinking coffee, eating more fruit and vegetables, stopping smoking. Your task is to write about the experience in terms of

1. Describe the behavior you changed and why.

2. Describe how you managed the behavior change.

3. Comment on how health psychology theory might help you to understand the process, e.g., the health behavior change models, and concepts such as motivation, exploring the barriers to change, habit formation, setting realistic goals, and getting back on track after a relapse may be relevant.

4. Use an appropriate writing style, as well as personal and critical reflection on the behavior change, and how your experiences fit in with the health psychology models and concepts. As this is a reflective exercise on a personal experience, you can write the essay using the first-person perspective