ArticleHealth psychology review2016
Celebrating variability and a call to limit systematisation: the example of the Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy and the Behaviour Change Wheel.
Article in Health psychology review, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Does socioeconomic position moderate the associations between the content and delivery features of digital behaviour change interventions for smoking cessation and intervention effectiveness? A systematic review and meta-analysis.Health psychology review · 2024Pooled it
- Behavior Change Techniques Within Digital Interventions for the Treatment of Eating Disorders: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.JMIR mental health · 2024Pooled it
- Adapted motivational interviewing for brief healthcare consultations: A systematic review and meta-analysis of treatment fidelity in real-world evaluations of behaviour change counselling.British journal of health psychology · 2023Pooled it
- Knowledge of infection prevention and control among healthcare workers and factors influencing compliance: a systematic review.Antimicrobial resistance and infection control · 2021Pooled it
- A qualitative examination of affect and ideology within mass media interventions to increase HIV testing with gay men garnered from a systematic review.British journal of health psychology · 2021Pooled it
- Effective behaviour change techniques for physical activity and healthy eating in overweight and obese adults; systematic review and meta-regression analyses.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2017Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Contemporary educational and behavior change strategies improve dietary practices around a match in professional soccer players.Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2024Trial
- Ethical and social difficulties of addressing environmental harms related to health research.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2026Article
- Commentary and methodological insights: Reaching girls/women, boys/men and vulnerable groups to maximise uptake for the Human papillomavirus vaccine.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2025Article
- Article
- Enhancing HIV Cognitive Abilities and Self-Management Through Information Technology-Assisted Interventions: Scoping Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Barriers and facilitators to weight-loss in patients with overweight/obesity and cardiac disease: a realist qualitative synthesis.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2024Review
- Behaviour Change Techniques: An Application to Increase Employees' Willingness to Accept a Salary Reduction.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- "It's what mothers do." A qualitative exploration of mothers' experiences of supporting their daughter to be physically active.PloS one · 2024Article
- Exploring the Use of the Behavior Change Technique Taxonomy and the Persuasive System Design Model in Defining Parent-Focused eHealth Interventions: Scoping Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- Ethical preparedness in health research and care: the role of behavioural approaches.BMC medical ethics · 2022Article
- 'It's their mouth at the end of the day': dental professionals' reactions to oral health education outcomes.British dental journal · 2022Article
- The role of family, school and neighbourhood in explaining inequalities in physical activity trajectories between age 9 and 18.SSM - population health · 2022Article
- A Mixed-Methods Participatory Intervention Design Process to Develop Intervention Options in Immediate Food and Built Environments to Support Healthy Eating and Active Living among Children and Adolescents in Cameroon and South Africa.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Within any discipline there is always a degree of variability. For medicine it takes the form of Health Professional's behaviour, for education it's the style and content of the classroom, and for health psychology, it can be found in patient's behaviour, the theories used and clinical practice. Over recent years, attempts have been made to reduce this variability through the use of the Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy, the COM-B and the Behaviour Change Wheel. This paper argues that although the call for better descriptions of what is done is useful for clarity and replication, this systematisation may be neither feasible nor desirable. In particular, it is suggested that the gaps inherent in the translational process from coding a protocol to behaviour will limit the effectiveness of reducing patient variability, that theory variability is necessary for the health and well-being of a discipline and that practice variability is central to the professional status of our practitioners. It is therefore argued that we should celebrate rather than remove this variability in order for our discipline to thrive and for us to remain as professionals rather than as technicians.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.