In their book, Change Anything, researchers describe findings from a study in which they tested factors that influence high school students’ behavior as it relates to financial decision-making.
High school seniors were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The individuals in each group did not have noticeable differences demographically or in their attitudes or personalities. Each group came to a separate budgeting workshop that was set up very differently.
Both groups were given fake money before their workshop, which money the kids could exchange for real money a few weeks later if they kept it. They could also choose to spend it on candy and soda at the workshop if they wanted. Prior to the workshop, they also filled out a survey in which they answered questions about future plans and how much of the fake money they wanted to save. There were no differences between the overall answers to these questions when comparing group to group. There was a similar distribution of answers from each group.
Unbeknownst to research participants, both experimental groups had actors (confederates, as they are called in research experiments) that were posing as fellow students in the study. In one group, the confederates were instructed by research designers to spend a lot of their fake money on candy and soda. In the other group, the confederates were instructed to spend very little or no money on the treats.
In one of the groups, the room was designed with the treats prominently displayed up front, and posters of candy bars and soda lined the walls. In the other group, the treat table was back in the corner and the posters on the walls were of careers and universities.
The study set out to find how groups that had no discernible differences and were motivated in the same way toward certain behavior (saving money) were impacted by things other than their own agency.
From this and other studies and research literature, researchers came up with 6 domains of change. They are as follows:
A key finding in the research is that personal motivation (aka willpower) is only 1 of 6 significant domains in determining our behavior.
When we overestimate the role that willpower plays in our own efforts to change or in someone else’s behavior, we are more likely to be lead to pejorative judgments as to why someone is acting the way they do. Labels like lazy, bad, stupid, mean, etc. are shortcuts for understanding. They are less likely to help us understand what is actually happening and typically do not motivate us or others toward sustainable and healthy change.
This study didn’t prove that willpower or personal responsibility is not important, but rather it highlights the ways in which many other significant factors influence our choices and behaviors—beyond willpower and personal ability.
In other words, while we do have personal choice and person accountability for choices, there are a myriad of other factors that influence our behavior besides our willpower, personal skills, and resources. Our access to social motivation (people close to us that want healthy change for us) and social resources (people close to us that are skilled and have resources that can help us make healthy changes) are both prominent factors in our own healthy behaviors.
Beyond the personal and social domains, the structural domains (physical, cultural, economic, political, legal, etc.) of both motivation and resources impact our behavior. If I see a police cruiser on the freeway in front of me, I may immediately check my speed and slow down. This could rightly be seen not as a “free choice,” but an impulsive reaction to my environment. If I get a ticket for speeding, my personal motivation to drive more slowly will likely increase. But it was acted upon by a structural incentive of the speeding ticket, which is based on another structural reality—the law.
The fact that domains outside of our own personal willpower and abilities impact and even condition our behavior isn’t meant to be taken as an excuse for behavior that is unhealthy. Rather, it helps us understand ways that we are influenced so that we can more effectively pay attention to these areas, tweaking where possible and accepting where necessary.
Awareness of these domains of change can also help increase our empathy for people who we may judge as not having enough willpower to make changes that we think are easy or common sense. This awareness can also help us have more empathy for ourselves along with more strategic effectiveness to address areas where we and people we love are stuck.
A personal example of these 6 domains of change:
When I was 14 years old, I had a grand mal seizure. After a second one that occurred at school, I was prescribed medication by a doctor specializing in seizure disorders. I didn’t like to take the medicine and often forgot to do so, which led to more seizures as well as more pressure from my siblings and parents to take my medication. Eventually, when I was 16 and wanted to drive, I became more motivated to take my medication so as not to have a seizure that by law would suspend my driving privileges for a minimum of 6 months.
Still, I often forgot to take my medication. The side effects were annoying and there were emotional aspects to this new part of my life that I was not yet skillful in dealing with. Like many people that suddenly face new physical limitations due to a disorder or medical change, I felt depressed and wondered if my life would unfold in the ways I had hoped for and imagined. I had seen an after school movie a few years before my seizure about a high school student that had epilepsy. I remembered watching this depiction and feeling like this would be the most embarrassing thing in the world! This media portrayal added to my own personal struggle with depression and embarrassment.
As my high school grades declined due to side effects and possibly due to my own depression, I wondered if I would be able to be married, have children, go to college, have a job, etc. I had wonderful parents and friends who supported me and didn’t treat me as though I were “less than” and who accepted me even when I was having a hard time accepting this part of my life.
After having another seizure and being unable to drive for an extended period of time, my parents got me a pill box with the days of the weeks and am/pm slots. I used it to clearly see if I had taken my medication or not. Placing it on the counter of my bathroom further helped me to remember to take the medication in the morning and evening. Over time this became a habit. Various factors from the personal, social, and structural levels of my life shaped this habit that has allowed me to live a full life without the adverse effects of grand mal seizures.
We can use the domains of change paradigm to analyze this personal example and see the ways that these domains of change overlap and interact in dynamic ways.
Personal motivation
I lacked motivation to take the medication. This changed over time based on social motivation of my family and structural motivation of the law that suspended my license when I had a seizure. Motivation still would fluctuate over the years. It would be much stronger after a seizure and then would slowly reduce if I hadn’t had a seizure for an extended period of time.
Personal ability/resources
I lacked the skill to remember to take the medication (my family was much more aware of my disorder than I was at first, since I would be unconscious and couldn’t remember the episodes). My personal skill of taking medications increased with the structural motivation of putting the medication in a med box and leaving it out on my bathroom counter. I lacked the emotional maturity skills and resources to initially accept this part of my life. Academic skills reduced when taking the medication, which affected my focus and increased my fatigue. Eventually I developed skills to meet my academic goals. Part of this included the structural ability to schedule in naps and things that would allow me to rest in between classes in college and in my career.
Social motivation
My social circle was motivated to help me take my medication. This was often annoying to me initially but was likely helpful. Over time the structural (legal) consequences of not taking the medication increased my motivation more than the social motivation did. My social circle’s motivation in relation to friendship was very motivating at a time when I could’ve fallen into a deeper depression rather than a mild one had it not been for a group of friends and a loving family.
Social ability/resources
Neurologists treated me and had knowledge and expertise to advise on medications and precautions to take.
My social environment (friends and parents and classmates) was skillful in accepting me and not treating me differently. They were skillful in giving me rides to school and other outings when I couldn’t drive. They also had the resources and knowledge to introduce me to the idea of the pill box which I didn’t know of beforehand.
Structural motivation
As mentioned above, the legal requirement to be seizure free for at least 6 months was a structural incentive that acted upon my own personal motivation. The media portrayal of epilepsy that I had seen on TV years earlier, led me to believe that this would be an awful affliction to have and made me very glad that I didn’t suffer from it. Which in turn impacted the way I felt about it when I started having seizures.
Structural ability/ resources
Having access to medical care and living in a place and time and culture that treats epilepsy with medication are all realities of the structural setting I found myself in. This allowed for treatment to be a possibility in the first place. Other structural realities such as the simple pill box and leaving it on the counter made a difference when it came to knowing if I had taken my medication or not.
We can use the 6 domains of change to analyze areas of our personal and shared lives. This will help us to better understand the cause of unwanted behavioral patterns and the areas where small tweaks could make a difference in wanted change.
Consider the following examples of things that you or someone you know may be motivated to change:
- Going on more hikes
- Saying more positive things to your children
- Spending less time on social media
- Affecting local politics in a valued direction
- Increasing a feeling of spiritual connection
- Increasing understanding and peace in a family setting
Any area of desired change can be analyzed and impacted through the 6 domains explored in this article. Remember that willpower is only one part of the formula when it comes to making a wanted change.
Patterson, K; Granny, J; Maxfield, D; McMillan, R; Switzler, A. (2011). Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success. New York: Hatchette Book Group.
