PhD position on Sustainable health behavior change (1.0 FTE)

Project description
It is a well-known phenomenon that many people try to change their unhealthy behavior, but very few persist. This problem contributes to many illnesses and early deaths that might have been prevented. Therefore, new knowledge on the psychological laws of long-term behavior change is needed. In this project some brand new perspectives on long-term behavioral change are tested in different research designs (experimental, cohort and qualitative research). This new knowledge can be used, for example, to design more effective sensor and information technology, such as feedback systems on a smartwatch, to support sustained behavior change. Until now, the effectiveness of these system on long-term behavior change is very limited.

With the “Working Memory approach of Behavior Change” we get an innovative view on the process of behavior change with different new angles for influencing behavior. With the “Feedback Learning theory” we finally see why sensor and information technology mostly does not work well to achieve long-term behavioral change. In all studies in this project, socio-economic status (ses) is investigated as an important determinant of sustainable health behavioral change, based on the innovative “ses=culture” theory.

This PhD position at the Psychology department is part of the larger consortium project “Healthy living as a service”, funded by the NWO. The aim of the larger project is to generate knowledge about how people can permanently improve their lifestyle using information and sensor technology. Very different sensor and information technologies will provide individuals and groups with useful information from various sources (e.g., the physical environment, their own body), to support healthy and sustainable choices. In the larger project, studies will be conducted on the build environment, Artificial Intelligence, group cultures, and behavior change (the present project).

The PhD student on this psychologically oriented sub-project will generate knowledge on long-term health behavior change to be published through international scientific channels. Importantly, this knowledge also needs to be diffused in the larger consortium project, in which it will be used to design effective sensor and information technology.

The tasks of the PhD candidate are:

• conduct research that results in a dissertation and is in line with the objectives and requirements of the project
• organize and execute the data collection for the different studies
• publish the results of the research in international scientific journals
• present the research findings to fellow scientists and developers in the larger project, and collaborate with them
• provide a limited number of educational activities at the Psychology department, such as small-scale tutorials and guest lectures, in collaboration with the supervisors.