How Brief Social‐Psychological Interventions Can Cause Enduring Effects
Title
How Brief Social‐Psychological Interventions Can Cause Enduring Effects
Author
Kenthirarajah, Dushiyanthini (Toni)
Walton, Gregory M.
Research Area
Methods of Research
Topic
Research Methods ‐ Qualitative
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.