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ASP Notes - Intervention Process

Applied social psychology :- process of intervention. As it is a science and what makes it unique is the control that includes process of intervention to make desired change

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5 views

ASP Notes - Intervention Process

Applied social psychology :- process of intervention. As it is a science and what makes it unique is the control that includes process of intervention to make desired change

Uploaded by

bresh808
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

PROCESS OF INTERVENTION

Introduction
An intervention can be explained as a planned strategy or procedure to
influence the existing behavior of an individual with an aim to improve
their functioning in a society. Interventions are the actions performed to
bring about a change in the existing behavior of people. Psychologists
have tried different techniques to get people to do what is healthy by
designing interventions based on different theories and using the
scientific method to bring about change.
Different interventions focus on different antecedents of behavior.
Interventions may or may not target people’s behavior directly, for
example, certain interventions are designed to create awareness (e.g.,
taking polio drops eradicates polio) or are designed to change attitudes
(e.g., becoming more supportive of taking children under 5 years to take
to polio booth and get polio drops.). However, the ultimate goal of
most interventions is behavior change (e.g., decreasing the prevalence
rate of polio).
The way an intervention is designed can depend on the specific behavior
that needs to be changed, the funding available for the behavior change,
and the number of people that the intervention has to reach.
Interventions can be conducted at different levels of analysis (e.g.,
individual, group, organization, community). Food for Thought provided
an example of an effective intervention in the real world.
Interventions in applied social psychology can be distinguished between
two broad types - Personal Intervention and Programmatic Intervention.
 Personal interventions refer to the intervention which aims at
bringing the required changes which are needed for the wellbeing
of the individual in a society.
 A programmatic intervention is any program, strategy or policy
implemented in a society that prevents and reduces the social
atrocities. For example. youth crime, violence, harassment,
bullying, and the illegal use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco etc.

Interventions

Personal Programmatic
Intervention Intervention

Some interventions can be identifies as trial interventions. Trial


interventions are those that are implemented to determine whether the
interventions, as designed, in fact have the intended positive
consequences. These are also known as program efficacy studies. Trial
interventions typically are associated with programmatic interventions,
although theoretically personal interventions can be “tried out” as well.
Process of Intervention
The process of intervention design and implementation follows four
overarching steps that reflect the general problem-solving approach
adopted by many areas of applied psychology and are applicable
whether the recipient of the intervention is one individual or many
individuals. These steps are –

Identifying a
Problem

Arriving at a
Solution

Setting Goals &


Designing it

Implementation

STEP 1: Identifying a problem.

Programs are initiated to address social problems or practical problems.


The first step in program design is to identify the existence and
severity of a problem. A problem usually is identified and defined by
stakeholders, they are individuals or groups who have a vested interest
in the possible development of a program in such a way that they may be
affected by it.
Stakeholders include not only the potential recipients of the program
but also individuals such as program funders, administrators of the
organizations responsible for delivering the program, program
managers, and frontline staff members (i.e., the employees who actually
carry out the program activities). However, there are probabilities of
controversies amongst the different stakeholders regarding the existence
or severity of the problem, thus a need assessment should be done in
such situations.
Need assessment is the term that is commonly used to refer to the
process of establishing whether or not there is a need or problem (these
words are used interchangeably) to sufficiently warrant the development
of a program. A needs assessment may be informal in nature, for
example, when a manager decides that his department needs a workshop
on sexual harassment after overhearing some of his staff members
making sexually inappropriate remarks.
In general, people have more confidence in the conclusions of a formal
needs assessment that relies on systematic research procedures for
collecting data that are relevant to problem severity and prevalence.
Problems may be investigated using a variety of qualitative and/or
quantitative procedures, for instance, by means of interviewing
representatives of various stakeholder groups or administering
questionnaires to them. Also, a formal needs assessment gauges the
availability of existing programs or services as well as possible barriers
to or gaps in service.

STEP 2: Arriving at a solution.

Ascertaining the existence of a problem or need is one thing;


determining how best to address it is quite another. To arrive at a
solution, it is important to identify the factors responsible for causing the
problem.
When identifying causal factors, one should distinguish between
 precipitating factors (i.e., those that triggered the problem), and
 perpetuating factors (i.e., those that sustain the problem and keep
it from being solved).
Making the distinction between precipitating factors and perpetuating
factors is critical to the design of an intervention because the factors or
events that lead to a problem are not always directly involved in its
continuation.
For instance, factory employees may be laid off for one reason (the
precipitating factor may be a slowdown in the economy) but unable to
secure new employment for another reason (the perpetuating factor may
be a lack of skills that are demanded by alternative jobs). In this case,
one must identify the perpetuating cause—lack of important skills—as
the factor to be targeted so as to solve the problem (inability to find new
employment).
Once causal factors have been identified, the next step is to find out
whether interventions that have effectively addressed the same needs
already exist. Such interventions can be used to guide the development
of a solution to the current problem. If previous interventions cannot be
located, then a solution must be developed independently. When
possible, solutions should be based on relevant social psychological
theory and research evidence as well as theory and evidence from any
other field that may contribute to a solution.
Ross and his colleague Nisbett (1991) cautioned against the
development of interventions based on conventional methods lay
understanding and intuition because ‘‘predictions are often both wrong
and too confidently made’’. Consider the following example of an
ineffective smoking prevention intervention that was based on
McGuire’s (1964) research on the “inoculation effect.” McGuire found
that just as it is possible to be immunized against a disease, such as
polio, by being inoculated with a vaccine containing a weak strain of the
virus, so too is it possible for people to be immunized against attacks on
their beliefs, intervention and the expected outcomes.
STEP 3: Setting Goals and Designing the Intervention.

Once the need and the proposed solution have been determined, it is
necessary to develop the program activities, which refer to the specific
components and procedures of the program. The best place to begin this
process is to set the goals and objectives of the intervention.
Knowledge of goals and objectives serves to guide the selection of
program activities.
Goals refer to the ultimate or long-term outcomes that one hopes to
accomplish through an intervention. For example, a goal for a substance
abuse program might be to have the clients abstain from alcohol and
other drugs. Once goals have been established, it is important to define
the program objectives.
Objectives refer to short-term outcomes (e.g., during or immediately
after an intervention) and intermediate-term changes (e.g., one or two
months later) that occur as a result of the intervention and are required
for (i.e., support) the attainment of the program goals.
In other words, goals refer to the ends, whereas objectives refer to the
means or steps by which the ends are achieved.
For instance, if the goal is for clients with substance abuse problems to
remain abstinent, one objective might be for them to understand why
they use drugs in the first place.
Once the goals and objectives have been set, the next step in intervention
design is to determine the program activities. When choosing activities,
one of the most important questions is the following: What objective
(and ultimate goal) will the proposed activity help to meet? For example,
for clients to learn the reasons for their drug use (objective), they might
need to have individual counseling sessions with a certified counselor
(activity).
The process of specifying the various components of a program—goals,
objectives, and activities —requires a sound rationale, often referred to
as a program logic model.
A program logic model is an explanation or a blueprint of how the
program activities lead to the attainment of the program objectives and,
in turn, how the objectives logically and operationally contribute to the
eventual achievement of the program goal(s). Logic models vary in
complexity and detail, but all of them stress a “cause and effect” flow as
expressed in the intervention hypothesis. Program logic is the glue that
holds the activities, objectives, and goals together. Fundamental to a
program logic model is its theoretical basis, i.e., a logic model should be
based on a theoretical rationale that explains the causal connections
among its various components, for example, why rehearsing rebuttals
will induce resistance to peer pressure to smoke.
From the point of view of intervention design, this means that one
should be able to point to any component of the intervention and
indicate not only what its contribution is but also why the effect should
occur. The use of a program logic model ensures a careful theoretically
and empirically based articulation of the program and increases the
likelihood of its success. This, of course, helps to ensure that program
resources are used as effectively as possible.

STEP 4: Implementing the Intervention.

As the term implies, implementation refers to the actual process of


enacting the intervention activities, that is, of delivering them to the
recipients of the intervention. A point worth noting is that there are many
practical details that might need to be in place to implement programs
properly. Depending on the complexity of an intervention, determined
by factors such as its size and structure, practical details might include
securing an appropriate facility, hiring staff members, ensuring adequate
training, and developing things such as operating budgets, management
structures, job descriptions, performance appraisal methods, promotional
strategies, and cross-agency referral protocols. Moreover, an
intervention always should be designed and implemented in such a way
that its degree of effectiveness can be evaluated

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