Connecting students to knowledge
and its application
Southern Utah University
Lynn White, Ph.D.
Health Behavior Intervention Project
Goal: use what you will learn about health behaviors and behavior modification to modify either a) daily step counts b) water intake c) consumption of added sugars d) soda intake e) screen time use, or f) diaphragmatic (belly) breathing. Note that you are doing this intervention on yourself.
This is a three-part project.
Part 1: Group Presentation of the Health Behavior
Those of you working on the same behavior will form a team: Together, you will: conduct a literature review on the behavior you chose to modify and present your findings in a slide presentation to the class. Click on the "Phase 1 instructions and rubric" below to for more detailed guidance. Note: everyone on the team must contribute meaninfully to this phase of the project.
Online Summer Class students: you will do the same thing, which means you will need a few "zoom" meetings to put this together. Each of you will narrate and record your slide(s), which will then need to be stitched together into one "movie" - saved as a .mov or .mp4
Part 2: Baseline observations of your own Behavior
Each of you (individually, not as a group) will track and record the behavior you chose to modify for one week to get a baseline, identify variables that are controlling the behavior, and based on all this - develop a plan to change the behavior. Note that your plan will need to include an excel graph: days of the week on the x-axis and the frequency (or amount) of the behavior on the y-axis. A video guide to graphing in excel is below.
BUT FIRST! Learn what the expectations are for tracking the behavior you want to modify.
water consumption daily steps screen time
soda intake added sugar belly breathing
Click on the "Behavior Intervention Plan: Instructions & Rubric" (also below) to learn more about what is expected and required.
DO NOT PROCEED TO Part 3 until I have reviewed your plan and provided you with the official green light.
Part 3: Intervention Time and Self-Reflection
Now is the time to put your plan into action! You will execute the intervention and record your behavior for three weeks. Finally, you will summarize the results and reflect on the intervention: the good and bad as applicable. Note that you will need to include at least two excel graphs: one for the 7 days of baseline data and one for the three-weeks (21 days) of intervention data. Alternatively, you can put all this information into one graph as long as everything is clearly labeled. NOTE: do not just graph the averages for the 4 weeks. You stand to lose sight of trends and other valuable information if you do this.
Click on the "Results and Reflection: Instructions & Rubric" at the bottom of this page to learn more about the requirements and expectations. Also, see the link below.
Is this project right for me?
If you have been wanting to improve your health but needed a little push, then this might be the right project for you. It does require a lot of time and very meticulous observation of your behaviors and the motivations behind them. Beyond creating an Excel graph, no special skills are required. As an added bonus, once you learn how to do this on yourself, you can then help others to modify their behavior!
Personal Health Journey
Decrease Soda Intake
Personal Health Journey
Increase Water Intake
One of the biggest things I learned is that making a plan is crucial to changing a behavior. While making the plan I was kind of annoyed and thought that it was going to be useless. I felt like it was really tedious, but it was actually very necessary and key for change. It provided important guidelines and ways on how to change my behavior. If I wouldn't have made a plan I would've slipped within the first week and not have recovered.
(Katie Finlinson, 2023)
Using AI and Article Requirements
You may use AI on this project as a means of generating attractive slides and ideas for the content. However, user beware. AI will sometimes fabricate sources (e.g. articles). You MUST read the articles you use, so you should catch this. To make sure, I require everyone to submit a screenshot of the first page of every article they use. Ultimately, you are responsible for the accuracy of the things you turn in. Blind and uncritical use of AI could result in a lower grade than what you would have received without it.
This project will take some time - plan accordingly! This project is worth 25% of your grade. How well you do does not depend on whether you succeed at changing your behavior. It will depend on your attention to detail, self-insight, your ability to find and explain relevant literature, the thoroughness of the plan, your understanding of behavior change techniques, and your ability to follow instructions.
Instructions and grading rubrics for each phase of the project is below. You will be filling these out directly in Canvas. Look at all three links below ASAP to learn a lot more about what is expected.