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CBC produce a number of open-access tools for researchers, practitioners and policy makers. These freely available tools are periodically updated as the science of behaviour change develops.
Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy (BCTT)
To replicate and implement behaviour change interventions in research and practice, we need an agreed language to report their content, that is, their ‘active ingredients’. A reliable method has been developed to specify content in terms of behaviour change techniques (BCTs), the smallest components of behaviour change interventions that on their own in favourable circumstances can bring about change.
The BCTT is a cross-domain, hierarchically ordered taxonomy of 93 distinct BCT’s with labels, definitions and examples. BCTT offers a reliable method for specifying, interpreting and implementing the active ingredients of interventions to change behaviours that can be used by researchers and practitioners communities. Its development was funded by the Medical Research Council.
BCT Taxonomy (BCTT) App
A mobile app version of the taxonomy is freely available to allow more flexible use of the BCTT by intervention developers and researchers. This enables users to explore the structure of the taxonomy, as well as view definitions and examples of BCTs. New versions of the app have been recently launched on ITunes and Google Play.
References
Michie, S, Richardson, M, Johnston, M, Abraham, C, Francis, J, Hardeman, W, Eccles, MP, Cane, J, Wood, CE.
The Behavior Change Technique Taxonomy (v1) of 93 Hierarchically Clustered Techniques: Building an International Consensus for the Reporting of Behavior Change Interventions. Annals of Behavioral Medicine. 2013;46(1):81-95
Michie S, Wood C, Johnston M, Abraham C, Francis J & Hardeman W.
(2015) Behaviour change techniques: the development and evaluation of a taxonomic method for reporting and describing behaviour change interventions, Health Technology Assessment,19 (99), 1-188, DOI: 10.3310/hta19990
The Behaviour Change Technique Study Repository
An open access online repository of published papers reporting interventions coded by BCTT has over 400 papers, providing a resource for the research community. It includes instructions for users to upload new research papers with interventions coded using BCTT.
Full guidance on how to do this is provided on the website. The usefulness of this resource will depend on the research community updating the repository with information from their own, or others’, papers.
The Theory and Technique Tool
The effectiveness of behaviour change interventions depends on good understanding of the links between behaviour change techniques (BCTs) and their Mechanisms of Action (MoAs) i.e. the processes through which they affect behaviour. Considerable progress has been made in developing a method for specifying BCTs. The Theories and Techniques project developed and applied a methodology for linking BCTs to their hypothesised MoAs (see project protocol: rdcu.be/ORFH)
The tool is a heat map of 74 BCTs and 26 Mechanisms of Action (MoAs) resulting in 1924 cells. Each cell represents the link between a BCT and an MoA, with stronger links represented in green. The strength of a link is determined by the triangulation of data from two studies, a literature synthesis study and an expert consensus study. Within each BCT-MoA cell, you will find the results of the literature, expert consensus and triangulation studies. By clicking on a cell, you will find the data from all contributing studies.
It is also possible to upload data, papers and comments and seek collaborations for studying any of the links. The website introduces the tool and guidance on how to use it. You can access the tool and relevant information here.
You can find an introductory video about the tool here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3xpnm0s8jw
References
Carey R, Connell LE, Johnston M, Rothman AJ, de Bruin M, Kelly M & Michie S.
(2019) Behaviour change techniques and their mechanisms of action: a synthesis of links described in published intervention literature. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 53(8). DOI:10.1093/abm/kay078
Connell LE, Carey R, de Bruin M, Rothman AJ, Johnston M, Kelly M & Michie S.
(2019) Links between behaviour change techniques and mechanisms of action: an expert consensus study, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 53(8):708-720. doi: 10.1093/abm/kay082.
Johnston, M., Carey, R. N., Connell Bohlen, L., Johnston, D. W., Rothman, A., de Bruin, M., … Michie, S.
(2018, October 12). Linking behavior change techniques and mechanisms of action: Triangulation of findings from literature synthesis and expert consensus. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ur6kz
Contact
humanbehaviourchange@ucl.ac.uk