The Psychology of Regenerative Transformation — Part 1: Why Change is So Hard

The science and art of personal, organizational and social change is still in its infancy. We have, however, learned a great deal in the past century about why change is so hard to do, based on insights into human nature that have emerged from dozens of fields including anthropology, psychology, medicine, and sociology.

Behavioural change theories attempt to explain why human behaviours change. These theories cite environmental, personal, and behavioural characteristics as major factors in behavioural determination. In recent years, there has been increased interest in the application of these theories in the areas of health, education, criminology, energy and international development, with the hope that understanding behavioural change will improve the services offered in these areas.

Some scholars have recently introduced a distinction between models of behavior and theories of change. Whereas models of behavior are more diagnostic and geared towards understanding the psychological factors that explain or predict a specific behavior, theories of change are more process-oriented and generally aimed at changing a given behavior. From this perspective, understanding and changing behavior are two separate but complementary lines of scientific investigation.