Posted in Behavior Change theories health education health promotion

Maslow did not create Maslow’s pyramid

Three weeks before, I had to unlearn my learning about Maslow’s pyramid; it is not his. He did not build it to explain his theory about human motivation; “Maslow did not build a pyramid to explain his theory”. I read about it for the first time in a Scientific American…

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Posted in mental models

Swiss Cheese Model for COVID-19

The Swiss Cheese Model for COVID-19 is an excellent mental tool to visualize COVID-19 prevention strategies at the system level, a bird’s eye view. First, about the Swiss Cheese Model. As emphasized by James Reason, the model’s creator, it invites us to view human errors as a consequence, not as…

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Posted in health promotion

The legendary journey of the Ottawa Charter

Above are the global conferences logos of the Ottawa Charter held in different cities since 1986. Since then, thirty years have passed. This post explores the Charter’s legendary 30-year-long journey travelling from city to city from Ottawa in 1986 to Shanghai in 2016. The Charter’s birth The Ottawa Charter‘s groundwork…

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Posted in Behavior Change theories message framing

How social norms shape our behavior

You must have been in a library; you stay silent. That is a classic social norm example. Another common one is littering. As we all know social norms can either be socially desirable or socially undesirable. Every day we adhere to social norms that are an array of unwritten sets…

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Posted in Behavior Change theories

Theories of reasoned action and planned behaviour

Can we change behaviour by changing attitudes? Not really, contrary to popular belief. The connection between attitude and behaviour is complex. In the 1960s, Fishbein and Ajzen explored the connection between attitude and behaviour. Based on the findings, they developed a theory to explain the connection between the two. It…

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Posted in Behavior Change theories

Stages of Self-Change

Although behaviour change occurs in a continuum, researchers have identified stages of self-change in some behaviours such as quitting smoking. Let us embark on this journey starting 37 years ago: In 1983. 1983: “Stages of change” Since the early 1980s, two researchers – James Prochaska and Carlos DiClemente – had…

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Posted in Behavior Change theories

Health belief model

The Health Belief Model (HBM) is a mental tool. It helps us to create messages to persuade others to start healthier habits. It also helps us to design upstream public health interventions. In this blog post, we will explore, Health Belief Model’s origins The model has a rich history. It…

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