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Achieving behaviour change : Evaluating the differences in content and motivational value of peer- and expert-written messages in the context of physical activity

Bayer, F. (2017) Achieving behaviour change : Evaluating the differences in content and motivational value of peer- and expert-written messages in the context of physical activity.

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Abstract:De Vries et al. (2016) have been focussing on designing a mobile application that helps to motivate its users to increase their current level of physical activity by relying on the theory of the Transtheoretical Model of Behaviour Change (Prochaska & Di Clemente, 1982). The current study aimed to improve their design by examining in depth the differences that may occur in the content and the motivational value of peer- and expert-written messages. Therefore we asked several health professionals to come up with motivational messages for different scenarios and coded them according to the ten processes of change. A comparison with the messages previously generated by peers revealed that experts generated proportionally more experiential messages and proportionally less behavioural messages than peers did. Furthermore we asked participants to rate the motivational value of all written messages, which revealed that messages written by peers are perceived to be more motivating in most phases than those written by experts. Concluding, the idea of implementing a mobile application that sends motivating text messages is very promising in achieving behaviour change in the context of engaging somebody in physical exercise.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:77 psychology
Programme:Psychology MSc (66604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/72070
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