Understanding pivotal experiences in behavior change for the design of technologies for personal wellbeing

Abstract

Most health technologies are designed to support people who have already decided to work toward better health. Thus, there remains an opportunity to design technologies to help motivate people who have not yet decided to make a change. Understanding the experiences of people who have already started to make a health behavior change and how they made a pivotal decision can be useful in understanding how to design such tools. In this paper, we describe results from data collected in 2 phases. Phase 1 consisted of 127 surveys and 13 interviews with adults who have already accomplished behavior change(s). Phase 2 consisted of 117 surveys and 12 interviews with adults who have either already accomplished their behavior change(s) or are currently working toward them. We identified four factors that lead to pivotal experiences: (1) prolonged discontent and desire to change, (2) significant changes that increase fear or hope of future, (3) increased understanding of one's behavior and personal data, and (4) social accountability. We also describe a design space for designing technology-based interventions for encouraging people to decide to make a change to improve their health. Based on feedback from participants, we discuss opportunities for further exploration of the design space for people who are not yet motivated to change and for ethical considerations for this type of intervention.

Biobehavioral Intervention Targeting Physical Activity Behavior Change for Older Veterans after Nontraumatic Amputation: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Indeed, there is evidence that pivotal experiences (such as LLA) may provide time windows of opportunity when people are open to health behavior changes. 61 Little is known regarding the influence of time since amputation on physical activity. A study of 72 people with LLA from various etiologies (35% nontraumatic, dysvascular) found lower self-reported physical activity to be weakly associated with shorter time since amputation.…”

“…It is possible that people are more able or willing to change walking behaviors early after LLA compared to more than a year after LLA (as in the current trial). Indeed, there is evidence that pivotal experiences (such as LLA) may provide time windows of opportunity when people are open to health behavior changes …”

Serious Gaming for Behaviour Change: A Systematic Review

“…The contextual differences between the fields and the relationships with the game features and theories are articulated in the following sections. 'Challenges' was the most common game feature in health studies; this feature taps into players' tendency to accept challenges in order to onboard and engage, as this behaviour can motivate players to complete the game [54]. Various health studies employ games that apply challenge mechanics that influence players to do or stop certain habits when they play together [87].…”

“That's what they talk about when they talk about epiphanies”: An invitation to engage with the process of developing found poetry to illuminate exceptional human experience

“…Positive transformational experiences following trauma in the form of adversarial or post‐traumatic growth (PTG, Linley & Joseph, ) have received substantial attention in recent decades, and PTG could be said to have become the flagship theme of positive psychology (Joseph, ). Other terms have also been adopted in an attempt to capture the capacity of the human organism for profound and enduring positive change, including transformative change experiences, (White, ) unencumbered moments (Murray, ), turning points (Berglund, ), transformational growth (Ivtzan, Lomas, Hefferon, & Worth, ) and pivotal experiences (Bhattacharya et al., ). Common characteristics among these experiences have been demonstrated.…”