How Brief Social‐Psychological Interventions Can Cause Enduring Effects

Abstract

In recent years, several studies have shown that brief, theory‐based social‐psychological interventions can cause large, enduring effects on important outcomes, such as school achievement and marital relationships. How are such effects possible? We propose a field‐theory model : this model distinguishes “nudge” interventions—interventions designed to change a “snapshot” in time such as a particular decision or behavior—from interventions designed to change a “movie”—core beliefs or other aspects of the self and thus people's behavior as it unfolds over time in diverse settings. Movie interventions target underlying social‐psychological processes—such as students' confidence that they belong in school or individuals' felt security in close relationships. These psychological processes can interact with naturalistic variables—such as how people interact with one another and the relationships they build—to propel intervention effects forward in time. In this model, real‐world factors can serve as proximal outcomes that catalyze long‐term effects. An important implication is that such interventions can sometimes amplify their effects over time, if the targeted recursive process “snowballs.” A second implication is that the long‐term effects of movie interventions are dependent on the context—specifically, on whether the context affords naturalistic variables that can catalyze changes in the self forward in time. To illustrate this field‐theory model , we compare it to Mortensen and Cialdini's (2010) full‐cycle model . Although both models share important features, including an emphasis on laboratory research, the latter treats forces in the world as “noise” and predicts that the effects of psychological interventions will dissipate, not strengthen with time. In addition to their applied potential, movie interventions raise profound new theoretical questions, such as how psychological processes unfold over time and do so in interaction with social contexts. Exploring these questions represents an exciting direction for future research.

The New Science of Wise Psychological Interventions

“…These interventions can seem magical (Yeager & Walton, 2011). To understand them, it is essential that one consider how interventions change not a moment in time ("a snapshot") but a process that unfolds over time ("a movie"; Kenthirarajah & Walton, 2013). In a relationship, every interaction builds on the previous interaction.…”

Persistence and Fadeout in the Impacts of Child and Adolescent Interventions

“…Characteristic adaptations include many motivational and socio-cognitive features of personality, such as beliefs, values, goals, plans, strategies, and developmental tasks, some of which are viewed as both fundamental and malleable (Kenthirarajah and Walton, 2015; Yeager & Walton, 2011) as well as more closely linked than dispositional traits to an intervention’s targeted outcome (Littlefield, Stevens, & Sher, 2014). For example, children’s understanding of their ability to learn is hypothesized to be both malleable and fundamental for academic achievement (Wilson & Linville, 1982, 1985), since students who encounter difficulties in school but attribute these difficulties to transitory factors may be more likely to persist in their efforts to succeed, compared with students who encounter difficulties in school and attribute them to their own persistent shortcomings.…”

Effects of a Brief Preventive Intervention in Cyberbullying and Grooming in Adolescents

“…Furthermore, given their recursive nature, wise interventions are expected to exert long-term effects by interacting with individuals' experiences after the intervention. Thus, Kenthirarajah and Walton (2015) and Walton (2014) proposed that wise interventions have the potential of setting in motion recursive cycles that promote behavioral changes over time through the snowball effect. The second limitation refers to the temporal range of pretest measurements.…”