The Big Engine that Couldn't

It's monsoon here in the desert southwest. Every summer from about July 4th to Mid-October, that's the season we're in. We expect rain; lots of it. Last week both Tucson and Phoenix were hit by the remnants of storms in the gulf and a hurricane in the Pacific.  The place flooded and even a few people were killed.  Yesterday, the city of Tucson nearly closed down.  Schools were closed. Businesses closed. People actually decided to NOT earn a dollar rather than risk being in a thunderstorm. People kept their children home from schools that weren't closed. Sandbags were being handed out AND on a limited basis.  You could get only five.  All of this, because of the remnants of the storm that hit Cabo San Lucas, Odile, that was heading our way.

Well,  it was the big engine that couldn't.

There were isolated downpours but no flooding and no washes overflowing. No streets were turned into rivers. No panic in the streets, looting and mass hysteria.

There are hundreds of theories and models to try to understand human behavior.  There have been numerous attempts to unify models to get better, more representative models.  But, there is no Grand Unified Theory of human behavior. The human psyche is complex. Using the Integrated Behavioral Model (Glanz, Rimer, & Viswanath, (Eds.), 2008) the reaction that was displayed yesterday had everything to do with beliefs - behavioral, normative, control and efficacy.  Beliefs that there was a severe risk, they had control, were able to take measures to mediate the risk and the attitudes that lead to the intention to do something.  John Meyer has a song, Belief.

"Is there anyone who ever remembers
Changing their mind
From the paint on a sign?
Is there anyone who really recalls
Ever breaking rank at all
For something someone yelled real loud
One time

Oh, everyone believes
In how they think it ought to be
Oh, everyone believes
And they're not going easily

Belief is a beautiful armor
But makes for the heaviest sword
Like punching under water
You never can hit who you're trying for

Some need the exhibition
And some have to know they tried
It's the chemical weapon
For the war that's raging on inside

Oh, everyone believes
From emptiness to everything
Oh, everyone believes
And no one's going quietly

We're never gonna win the world
We're never gonna stop the war
We're never gonna beat this if belief is what we're fighting for

(Is there anyone who you can remember
Who ever surrendered
With their life on the line?)

We're never gonna win the world
We're never gonna stop the war
We're never gonna beat this if belief is what we're fighting for

What puts a hundred thousand children in the sand?
Belief can
Belief can
What puts the folded flag inside his mother's hand?
Belief can
Belief can"

Beliefs are held deeply.  They lead to intention. But intention alone doesn't change behavior. I could get hit by a bus if I leave my house.  That doesn't keep me indoors. In fact, I could get hit by a bus, every 20 minutes.  What was it that made people jump the intention-behavior gap yesterday and would they do it again?  I hear another hurricane is coming.

There are many more and far more risky things in the world where health psychologists hope to change behavior for the better and cannot.  We're trying to understand how to help make effective, enduring, positive change. For myself, how many times do I need to watch Forks Over Knives, or Sick, Fat, and Nearly Dead to really jump that intention-behavior gap and change my diet to truly become vegan?  Does it have to take cancer to do it?

Well, The sky did not fall yesterday and recently I WAS diagnosed with cancer.

Time to get out the juicer and read the instruction manual again. Time to make that jump.

What positive change will you do?

References:

Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K. (Eds.). (2008). Health behavior and health education: theory, research, and practice. John Wiley & Sons

 

"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes." - MacBeth, Shakespeare