HIV/Aids has become a household term in South Africa. Most people are aware of the existence of the disease and how it is transmitted. Several people have used this information as the impetus for behaviour change but there are many individuals who have not heeded this call and have not made any significant changes to their lifestyles. This is reflected in South Africa’s high infection rate. It would seem as if, for various reasons, people know how to protect themselves but have not used this knowledge to guard against possible infection. The purpose of this study is to explore the reasons why people have not changed their behaviour and to identify possible techniques that can be used to amend this situation. This will take the form of an intensive three-day prevention workshop where participants will be asked to think critically about their own behaviour. The aim of the programme will be to discuss, demystify and debate ideas. How will this programme be designed? The researcher will make use of focus groups consisting of Technikon students who will offer their thoughts and opinions. Once these focus groups have been conducted the researcher will undertake an intensive analysis of the data and identify certain key issues. A literature review will then follow. Therefore, the foundation of this programme will be based on the ideas of the participants, the researcher’s ideas and some points from formal behaviour change theories. The goal of this study is to add to the already growing body of HIV/Aids prevention literature and to design a programme that is useful and relevant. / Dissertation (MA (Counselling Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Psychology / unrestricted

The psychological sciences offer a large spectrum of theories, principles, and methodological approaches to understand mental health, normal and abnormal functions and behaviours, as well as mental disorders. Based on continued research progress, psychology has derived a wide range of effective interventions for behaviour change and the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of mental disorders. Thus, psychology and clinical psychology in particular should be regarded as the ‘mother’ science for psychotherapy and psychotherapeutic practice. This paper provides a selective overview of the scope, strengths and gaps in psychological research to depict the advances needed to inform future research agendas on mental disorders and psychological interventions in the context of psychotherapy. Most maladaptive health behaviours and mental disorders can be conceptualised as the result of developmental dysfunctions of psychological functions and processes, and as associated neurobiological and genetic processes in interaction with behaviour and the environment. An integrative translational model, linking basic and experimental research with clinical research and population-based prospective longitudinal studies is proposed for improving identification of critical core vulnerability and risk factors and core pathogenic mechanisms. The proposed framework is expected to allow a more stringent delineation of targeted preventive and therapeutic psychological interventions and an optimisation and better understanding of cognitive-behavioural therapies and other psychological interventions. Based on a European consultation process, a ‘Science of Behaviour Change’ programme with the promise of improved diagnosis, treatment and prevention of both healthrisk behaviour constellations and mental disorders is proposed. / Psychologie als «Mutterwissenschaft» für Psychotherapie und psychische Gesundheit Psychologie als Wissenschaft bietet ein breites Spektrum an Theorien, Grundlagen und methodischen Ansätzen, um psychische Gesundheit, normale und gestörte Funktionen und Verhaltensweisen sowie psychische Störungen zu erforschen und zu «verstehen». Auf dieser Grundlage haben sich in der Klinischen Psychologie vielfältige effektive, psychologisch begründete Interventionen für die Prävention, Behandlung und Rehabilitation von psychischen Störungen ausdifferenziert. Damit ist die Psychologie als «Mutterwissenschaft » der Psychotherapie und psychotherapeutische Praxis anzusehen. Der Beitrag versucht auf der Grundlage einer Stärken-/Schwächen-Analyse der psychologischen Forschung diejenigen Themenbereiche zu definieren, die für Erkenntnisfortschritte bei psychischen Störungen und die psychotherapeutische Interventionsforschung besonders vielversprechend sein könnten. Dysfunktionale bzw. abweichende Verhaltensweisen wie auch psychische Störungen lassen sich als entwicklungsbezogene Störungen psychologischer Funktionen und Prozesse und damit assoziierter neurobiologischer und genetischer Prozesse konzeptualisieren. Für eine verbesserte Identifikation von zentralen Vulnerabilitäts- und Risikofaktoren sowie ätiologisch relevanten Schlüsselprozessen wird ein integratives translationales Modell vorgeschlagen, welches die Grundlagen- und experimentelle Forschung mit klinischer Forschung, Translation und Public-health-Implikationen verknüpft. Damit soll auf der einen Seite eine stringentere Ableitung gezielter Interventionen erleichtert werden, andererseits aber auch eine bessere Identifikation der zentralen Wirkfaktoren und Wirkprozesse psychologischer Therapien ermöglicht werden. Basierend auf einem europäischen Experten-Beratungsprozess wird ein EU-Programm ‘The science of behavior change’ angeregt.

Using design methods, techniques and tools for developing interventions to tackle complex issues have been on the rise. One such area is designing for sustainable behaviour, where the role of the designer is crucial. Addressing the limited availability of information regarding design research for effectively inciting behaviour change, this thesis aims towards developing a comprehensive guidance framework for designers. This framework is intended to be used in the research phase and meant to act as a base for scouting relevant information that will contribute to the development of a relatively sensible intervention. The framework views behavioural determinants via 3 lenses – context, culture and intent. This paper primarily takes a theoretical approach with mostly qualitative insight obtained from the literature review and case-study meta-synthesis, eventually resulting in a framework and a supporting toolkit.

Context: The amount of Mobile Health (mHealth) applications to cultivate a healthy lifestyle or rehabilitate patients with physical or mental disabilities are increasingly available on app stores[1]. However, without a validation process, satisfactory results may not be obtained, especially for behaviour change apps.  Objectives: Discover validation tools with high adaptability and design a validation process of mHealth apps for behaviour change involving theoretical frameworks.  Methods: The author conducted a literature review of previous behaviour change theories, validation tools, and research methods to design a validation process for behaviour change apps. A mixed research method of preliminary questionnaire followed by semi-structured interview for limited amount of participants was proposed to empathy with users and evaluate features in the app. Lastly, a case study of a smoking cessation app (Myli) was practiced to examine the feasibility of the designed validation process. Results: A four-step validation process was designed as an instruction to validate mHealth apps step by step, especially behaviour change apps. From the case study, we obtained the knowledge and opinions through the survey and interview such as smoking behaviours, expectations and requirements on user experience, recommendations on features,etc, with five elder smokers and five younger medical students.  Conclusions: This paper contributes a validation study of mHealth apps that applying behaviour change theories and validation tools. Furthermore, the proposed validation process allows app developers or medical professions to adapt their own requirements in validation to meet the app users’ needs. / Sammanhang: Mobile Health (mHealth) applikationer för att bilda hälsosam livsstil eller att rehabilitera patienter med fysiska eller psykiska funktionsnedsättningar är alltmer tillgängliga i appbutiker [1]. Men utan en valideringsprocess kan tillfredsställande resultat inte erhållas, särskilt i appar för beteendeförändringar. Mål: Upptäcka valideringsverktyg med hög anpassningsförmåga och designa en valideringsprocess för mHealth-appar för beteendeförändringar som involverar teoretiska ramverk. Metoder: Författaren genomförde en litteraturgenomgång av tidigare beteendeförändringsteorier, valideringsverktyg och forskningsmetoder för att utforma en valideringsprocess för appar avsedda till beteendeförändringar. En blandad forskningsmetod av ett preliminärt frågeformulär som följs upp med en semistrukturerad intervju med ett begränsat antal deltagare föreslogs för att bättre förstå användare och utvärdera funktioner i appen. Slutligen praktiserades en fallstudie av en rökavvänjningsapp (Myli) för att undersöka genomförbarheten av den designade valideringsprocessen. Resultat: En valideringsprocess i fyra steg utformades som en instruktion för att validera mHealth-appar steg för steg, särskilt appar avsedda för beteendeförändringar. Genom fallstudien fick vi kunskaper och åsikter såsom rökbeteenden, förväntningar och krav på användarupplevelse, rekommendationer om funktioner etc genom enkäten och intervjun med fem äldre rökare och fem yngre läkarstudenter. Slutsatser: Denna artikel bidrar med en valideringsstudie av mHealth-appar som tillämpar teorier för beteendeförändringar och valideringsverktyg. Dessutom möjliggör den föreslagna valideringsprocessen apputvecklare eller de medicinska yrkesverksamma att anpassa sina krav i validering för att möta appanvändarnas behov.

Today, circular economy is becoming more and more important to think about when developing new solutions, and considering the growing and aging population it may be extra important when it comes to the design of solutions for health care. This thesis aims at exploring how a digital health technology solution for incontinence care can be designed to contribute to a circular economy. In order to achieve the aim, a case study is performed with the intention to answer four different research questions. To gather data and information, the study also uses methods such as interviews, surveys, and a literature study. The first conclusion that can be drawn is that there are eight different circular design strategy categories, each category with a unique focus area, that are assessed to be suitable to investigate for the given purpose. Three examples of focus areas of these categories are to reuse resources, to influence the user behaviour, and to prolong the use phase for a solution somehow. Furthermore, the users and the production company are seen as the most significant actors for the studied digital health technology solution, and together they have ten important requests including needs regarding provision of knowledge, easily understandable solutions, and peace of mind to mention some. Based on the conclusions regarding circular design strategies and important requests, three concepts are developed which in different ways are assessed to contribute to both circularity and to fulfilling actor requests. One of the concepts focuses on prolonging the use of some components by providing an adapted cleaning kit to keep the components at a high hygienic standard. Another concept focuses on encouraging correct usage of the whole solution through giving the users personal statistics and notifications related to monetary and environmental costs. The last concept aims at providing a simple way to return reusable components to the company in order to enable reuse by another user. Finally, conclusions regarding positive and negative aspects of the three developed concepts are presented, focusing on attributes such as circularity and value creation. The thesis presents different ways regarding how circular design strategies can be applied to a digital health technology solution, which can inspire and aid organisations in their way towards providing solutions that are adapted to fit a circular economy.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka om nudging kan påverka individers ekonomiska riskbenägenhet och om effekten av nudging som beteendeförändrings teknik skiljer sig beroende på upplevd ekonomisk knapphet under livsloppet. Studien har utgått från en kvantitativ metodologi och design. Metoden innehåller ett standardiserat frågeformulär med ett väl beprövat instrument som mäter ekonomisk knapphet och ett pre-experiment för att kunna mäta deltagarnas riskbenägenhet. Urvalet bestod av ett studenturval (N= 304) och studien utfördes på studenter vid Högskolan i Skövde. Nudging är ett verktyg som kan användas för att ge människor möjlighet att kunna fatta mer medvetna beslut och därmed undvika ett automatisk tänkande. Tidigare forskning visar att människor ofta har svårt att ta rationella beslut när de ställs inför komplexa val. I sådana situationer tenderar människor att använda sig av ett heuristiskt tänkande och därmed appliceras ett automatiskt tankesätt. Individer som upplever eller har upplevt ekonomisk knapphet har svårare att ta långsiktiga ekonomisk beslut. Forskningar har visat att en uppväxt under låga socioekonomiska förhållanden kan leda till systematiska skillnader i beslutfattande. Vilket kan resultera i att dessa individer gör mer riskbenägna och impulsiva val. Forskarna ville undersöka om effekten av nudging som beteendesförändringsteknik kan påverka riskbenägenhet. Studiens resultat visade att upplevd ekonomisk knapphet under livsloppet inte hade någon större effekt på deltagarnas ekonomiska riskbenägenhet. Det fanns en tendens som visade att effekterna av nudging som beteendeförändringsteknik skiljer sig beroende på upplevd ekonomisk knapphet under livsloppet, dock var resultatet ej statistisk signifikant. / The purpose of this study was to investigate whether nudging can impact individuals'economic risk taking and whether the effect of nudging as a behaviour change technique differs dependingon perceived scarcity during the life cycle.The study has been based on a quantitative methodology and design. The method contains a standardized questionnaire with an established instrument that measures scarcity and a pre-experiment to be able to measure the participants' risk taking. The sample consisted of a student sample (N= 304) and the study was performed on students at the University of Skövde. Nudging is a tool that can be used to give people the opportunity to make more conscious decisions and thereby avoid automatic thinking. Previous research shows that people often find it difficult to make rational decisions when faced with complex choices. In such situations, people tend to use heuristic thinking and thereby an automatic way of thinking is applied. Individuals who experience or have experienced scarcity find it more difficult to make long-term economic decisions. Research has shown that growing up in low socio-economic conditions can lead to systematic differences in decision-making, which can result in these individuals making more risky or impulsive choices.The researchers wanted to investigate whether the effect of nudging as a behaviour change technique can affect risk taking. The results of the study showed that perceived scarcity during the life cycle had no major effecton the participants' economic risk taking. There was a tendency that showed that the effects of nudging as a behaviour change technique differs depending on perceived scarcity during the life cycle, however, the result was not statistically significant.

In order to reach sustainability, all parts of the system “individuals within organisations within society within the biosphere” must change. Individuals are major leverage points, and being more efficient in engaging them to act strategically towards sustainability is and will be of critical importance. To explore how to help the engager improve this engagement process, the authors did a broad transdisciplinary literature review; structured their information in a “Five Elements Guide – Structured information to help engage individuals to act strategically towards sustainability”; and used three brief examples to illustrate how to use their results. Based upon a deeper awareness about determinants of human behaviour and about how individuals change and become engaged, the results are structured into five interdependent elements: - ‘The Fifth Element’ – Think ‘Systems’. - ‘Earth’ – Understand yourself and what you want to achieve. - ‘Water’ – Understand the other’s behaviour and the influence of context. - ‘Air’ – Understand how change happens. - ‘Fire’ – Design an approach and perform it. This structure also allows for the addition of further findings that might be helpful for engaging individuals to act strategically towards sustainability. / För att nå ett hållbart samhälle måste alla delar av systemet "individer, inom organisationer, inom samhället, inom biosfären" förändras. Individen är mycket viktig i detta avseende och därför är det extremt viktigt att man blir bättre på engagera individer till att agera strategiskt för en hållbar utveckling. För att öka kunskapen om hur detta kan göras så har författarna av den här rapporten genomfört en transdisciplinär litteraturstudie, strukturerat informationen i guiden ”the Five Elements Guide” och använt tre exempel för att illustrera resultatet. Resultatets struktur är baserat på en förståelse av olika faktorer som påverkar mänskligt beteende, hur individer förändras och hur individer blir engagerade. Strukturen består av fem sammankopplade och av varandra beroende element: - ‘Det Femte Elementet’ – Tänk ‘System’. - ‘Jord’ – Förstå dig själv och vad du vill åstadkomma. - ‘Vatten’ – Förstå den andres beteende och kontextens inflytande. - ‘Luft’ – Förstå hur förändringar sker. - ‘Eld’ – Forma en plan och genomför den. Den här strukturen tillåter även att framtida upptäckter som kan vara hjälpsamma för att engagera individer att agera strategiskt för ett hållbart samhälle kan adderas till guiden. / <p>renaud@systeme-change.fr  kristoffer.lundholm@gmail.com</p>

The purpose of this study is to reduce littering in urban environments. This is done by using product design and sustainable development as main directions and thus being able to create a sustainable behavior change that can be used and further developed in the future. During the course of the study, it is found out how product design can contribute to reducing littering. With user-centered design and sustainable development as starting points, littering in urban environments, design for behavior change, nudging and emotional design are examined. This is in order to gain a deeper understanding of where this eind of environmental problem came from and why. Furthermore, a number of observations and interviews are performed that create a stable and clear basis for the final design's needs and requirements. These are tested and developed during the brainstorming process and concept development with the help of sketches and prototypes, which in turn leads to a final design concept. Based on all the research and method implementations, it is concluded that people repeat each other's behaviors (Håll Sverige Rent, etc.) while there is a great lack of communication and guidance to trashcan´s in urban environments. Simplicity, prompts, guidance, colors, entertainment and different concepts are the most important factors that can contribute to a positive behavior change and hopefully a solution to the environmental problem. The final design proposal was therefore developed into a design concept that represents a connection between existing trashcan´s in urban environments and individually designed accessories that can be attached to them, regardless of the shape or size. The purpose of the concept is therefore to guide and inform about the trashcan´s important function regarding the handling of all kinds of rubbish and where these are located in an urban environment.

Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest global threats we face today. Human overuse ofantibiotics is a contributing factor and major behaviour change around antibioticconsumption is needed, but several challenges exist in communicating antibiotic resistanceto the public. In 2018 the UK Government relaunched a national television advertisement aspart of the ‘Keep Antibiotics Working’ campaign which aimed to raise awareness of antibioticresistance and reduce public demand for antibiotics. This study evaluates what role theframing of antibiotic resistance in the advertisement played in increasing publicunderstanding of antibiotic resistance and motivating behaviour change. The study isgrounded in behaviour change and health communication theory from the field ofCommunication for Development, and health and social psychology theory, reflecting theneed for multidisciplinary approaches to addressing antibiotic resistance. A textual analysisidentified how the issue was framed in the advertisement and surveys and interviews wereconducted with members of the target audience groups to analyse what effect theadvertisement had on their understanding of, and attitude towards antibiotic resistance.The findings show that the framing of antibiotic resistance in the TV advertisement led to anincrease in misunderstandings of what becomes resistant to antibiotics. The advertisementwas helpful in highlighting the vulnerability of antibiotics and for creating a new social normaround being a responsible antibiotic user, however was interpreted as childish byparticipants. It did not communicate the severity of antibiotic resistance or specific risk ofantibiotic overuse to the audience, or accurately reflect the audience’s existing knowledge ofantibiotic resistance and current behaviours. As the severity of antibiotic resistance was notconveyed, the advertisement did not motivate a change in antibiotic seeking behaviours orattitude amongst the majority of participants. The findings did highlight knowledge gapsamongst study participants including the importance of completing a course of antibiotics asprescribed, and that it is the bacteria itself, not the person, that develops resistance, andhopes this research can inform the development of future campaigns.

Plastmaterial har sedan 1950-talet orsakat problem i naturen på grund av materialets slitstarka och svårnedbrytbara egenskaper. Dessa egenskaper är också en anledning till dess popularitet, och varje år tillförs ungefär 100 miljarder plastbärkassar bara till den europeiska marknaden. En stor del av dessa hamnar i hav och andra vattendrag där de påverkar biodiversiteten genom att plastpartiklar förtärs av marina varelser och sedan transporteras upp i näringskedjan. För att minska problemet med marin nedskräpning har Europeiska unionens medlemsstater i en gemensam ansträngning satt ett mål att till år 2025 reducera antalet plastbärkassar som förbrukas per person och år till 40 stycken. För att uppnå detta mål infördes den 1 maj i Sverige en skatt på plastbärkassar som för konsumenter innebär en prishöjning i butiker med 3 SEK per påse. Syftet med denna studie är att identifiera hur konsumenter kan förväntas svara på denna prishöjning, och vilka faktorer som förhindrar en möjlig beteendeförändring. För att få en bättre förståelse för detta intervjuades sju konsumenter från olika typer av hushåll, som ombads redogöra för sina konsumtionsrutiner och förväntade reaktion på införandet av skatten. Resultaten visade att majoriteten av informanterna trots en positiv attityd till införandet av skatten inte har för avsikt att minska den egna konsumtionen av plastbärkassar, och att den främsta anledningen till detta är de många funktioner som materialet möjliggör. / Plastic pollution has been a problem since the 1950s due to the material’s durable and persistant characteristics and slow degradability, and these characteristics are also the reason for the material’s popularity. An estimated 100 billion plastic bags are introduced to the european markets every year, with a significant amount of these ending up in oceans and other bodies of water. Plastic pollution harms biodiversity as marine species consume plastic particles which are then transported through the food chain. To counteract this problem, the European Union member states strive to limit the amount of plastic carrier bags being used to 40 per person and year, by 2025. As a means to achieve this goal, the Swedish government introduced a tax which increased the retail price of plastic carrier bags by 3 SEK as of May 1st 2020. This study aims to identify consumers intended response to this tax, and what factors might prevent a possible change of behaviour. To better understand this, seven interviews were carried out with consumers from different households, in which they were asked to share their shopping routines and expected response to the tax. The results showed that while the majority of the consumers expressed a positive attitude towards the tax, few had any intention of reducing their own consumption of the plastic carrier bag, primarily due to the many irreplacable functions provided by the material.