New resources

I have been having very little success sourcing the behavioural change publications via UCL - literally no response on emails from my work or personal addresses.  I've ordered them from Amazon: The Behavioural Change Wheel - A Guide to designing interventions Susan Michie, Lou Atkins, Robert West (ISBN 978-1-912141-00-5) and ABC of Behaviour Change Theories - An essential resource for researchers, policy makers and practitioners Susan Michie, Robert West, Rona Campbell, Jamie Brown, Heather Gainforth (ISBN 978-1-912141-01-2)

Continuing down the left side of the Psychological model of behaviour the next balloon is marked "Control".  This relates to how much control my pupils will believe they have over their behaviour.  Some models use the term "Self-efficacy" and others "Perceived Behavioural Control".

This is further categorised into 'capacity' - the beliefs a pupil has about how able they are to perform the behaviour in practical/logistical terms.  And then 'autonomy' which addresses the belief the pupil has that they actually have the power to carry out the behaviour.... I'm thinking that the funding of driving training may be out of their control, they may feel that they do not have the power within themselves to organise the required time for the training.  I know from experience that the schedules of some of our young adults is unbelievably busy.

Self-identity covers how the sense of self aligns with the target behaviour.  If my pupil thinks they are a safe driver or a conscientious driver they would be more willing to perform the target behaviour. 

Thinking attitudes is when the pupil makes a judgement whether the behaviour is good or bad, necessary or not, interesting or boring etc.  Officially described as "instrumental attitudes" but often referred to as "cognitive beliefs".  I do have grave reservations in this regard about how the target behaviour would be perceived.  My concern is that pupils will readily respond to the concept of being able to identify when driving conditions change for the better or worse without necessarily knowing (or wanting to know) what it entails.  I think it could very well be perceived as "boring" and unnecessarily challenging.  Apparently this generalising of attitudes is frowned upon by psychologists because it tends to suggest they are immovable when in fact beliefs can change as can the perceptions/judgements.

Feeling attitudes cover the belief of the pupil about how they will feel when they perform the target behaviour.... officially described as "affective attitudes".  Do they consider that performing the behaviour will result in them feeling happy, sad, safe, proud, criticised? 

These models help to predict driving behaviour not to change it.  They raise the awareness of the pupils intentions but not necessarily their actual behaviour.  "Feeling attitudes" are often the strongest predictor of a behaviour.... which raises the question in my mind of how much (as a driving instructor) I can change feelings?