Model
(in progress)
Self-shaping is the practice of modifying one's environment to influence future behaviors, habits, and actions. This page describes, in an accessible (not academic) manner, how we are thinking about self-shaping. We invite feedback and thoughts.
Self-shaping is something that occurs frequently but we are rarely cognizant of it. Hence, we don't often take full advantage. Further, tool and systems designers rarely take into account how their tools should effectively and simply support self-shaping (they usually think only as far as to shape the user).
Let's first look at three examples of self-shaping. we'll then describe a Model of Self-shaping that we are working on, then re-visit our examples.
Example 1:
Example 2:
Example 3:
Fogg's heuristic for designing behavior-changing interventions is to "Put hot triggers in the path of motivated people". There are three components to such interventions: triggers, path, and motivation. We believe all three can be modified by the user to more effectively shape themselves. Let's look at each in turn.
Motivation ("Know what drives you"): You (re-)design the stimulus/environment that will motivate you. We often think of motivation as something that either comes intrinsically or extrinsically (Deci, Ryan, 2002). Self-shaping tells us that people may be intrinsically motivated to modify their external environment such that it motivates them (a kind of 'middle path'). Emotion is an important component to consider in motivating oneself - you have to "know what drives you".
Triggers ("Push your own buttons"): You (re-)design how/when triggers appear. When queried, we can often say what triggers us better than other things. This valuable knowledge is individualistic and so users must be able to design their environment to "push their own buttons".
Paths ("Design your defaults"): You (re-)design the spatial/interactional path for the intended behavior. Each person's path is unique. Therefore, it makes sense to enable users to modify their paths to shape their own behaviors. One way to do this is to "design your own defaults".
Now that we have a cohesive understanding of how self-shaping occurs, let's revisit our previous examples. It's not always simple to know a self-shape when you see it. When we inspect a potential self-shaping example we ask ourselves three questions:
- What's the behavioral goal?
- What exactly is the person changing (physically, virtually, or otherwise)?
- Given that change, what effect on the person is being shaped (trigger, path, or motivation)?
Example 1:
Example 2:
Example 3:
Negative example:
Self-shaping tools and technologies
Self-shaping technologies are essentially collaborative tools where the device acts as an agent. The user is 'collaborating' with the device to affect future actions. The user gives the device 'feedback' to change its functionality. This, in effect, 'levels the playing field', enabling the user to take ownership over their own behavior change. Together, the user and device change the user's behavior.
Take, for example, a self-shaping emotional motivator. i can set highly-tailored, concrete, and emotionally-charged goals for myself. i can give feedback to the system to dictate how motivating a particular image/phrase is, thereby shaping the motivator.
Example - the "proverbial wallet":
Cognitive, situational and design components
From a cognitive perspective, one is essentially explicitly distributing the aspect of their own cognition [hutchins] that concerns behavioral self-regulation.
From a situational perspective, one either consciously or sub-consciously understands the effect of one's environment on oneself and thereby modifies relevant situational factors.
From a design and "design-thinking" perspective, one takes on the role of designer for one's environment. this entails an iterative, generative, and evaluative process that benefits from principles of design. for example, contextual design [holtzplatt] motivates a contextually-relevant design methodology that attempts to fit interventions into the present sociocultural, physical, and device context instead of designing an unrealistic 'ideal'. another relevant principle comes from studies that found that generating a large number of designs provides better outcomes that focusing on only one.
Studying the effectiveness of self-shaping
We are interested in studying whether or not people can engage in explicit self-shaping, how tools should support it, and whether self-shaping results in effective behavior change or compliance.
In the health domain, motivational Interviewing is a method of patient-doctor interaction that acknowledges that in real, lasting behavior change, "Motivation to change is elicited from the client, and not imposed from without." This is as opposed to "coercion, persuasion, constructive confrontation, and the use of external contingencies".
