Presenters:
Talea Cornelius, Ph.D., M.S.W., M.S.
Date: November 1, 2022, from 9:30 to 11:00 AM EST
Register here
Dr. Talea Cornelius, Ph.D. MSW, MS, and Dr. Jeffrey Birk, Ph.D. MS at the Research and Coordination Center of SOBC gives a virtual seminar on the SOBC experimental method for behavioral science, providing tools to foster behavioral science and a master class on designing an SOBC method study.
Adopting healthy habits: What do we know about the science of behavior change?
“For many people, living a long, healthy life can be attributed to adopting and maintaining healthy behaviors. NIA-funded researchers are looking at mechanisms that can help make behavioral interventions more successful for everyone. ” – National Institution of Aging.
Special Issue Title: Cognitive Behavioral Treatment Development: An Experimental Therapeutics Focus on Novel Mechanistic Targets
Special Issue Guest Editors: Michael W. Otto, PhD and Jeffrey L. Birk, PhD
The core of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) experimental therapeutics approach is a focus on specifying and then rigorously testing potential mechanisms by which treatments may exert their beneficial effects. The purpose of this special issue for Behavior Therapy is to put a direct focus on the “pipeline” of potential mechanistic targets for behavior change by presenting a series of empirical papers on novel mechanistic variables. We encourage submitted papers that investigate mechanistic variables in research reflecting an early stage of intervention development prior to clinical trial testing. This special issue highlights research that follows the recommended NIH Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) developmental format of: (1) identifying hypothesized mechanisms of behavior change, (2) utilizing reliable measures of those mechanisms, (3) conducting experiments to influence those mechanisms, and/or (4) testing whether influencing a hypothesized mechanism indeed yields behavior change (see Nielson et al., 2018, BRAT; Riddle et al., 2015, Translational Behavioral Medicine). For the series, we are interested in empirical articles offering elements #1, #2, and/or #3 that present new data showing the identification of novel mechanistic factors that may underlie behavior change, as relevant to psychopathology or negative health behaviors. Relevant to element #1, identification of novel mechanistic targets often starts by showing associations with psychopathology cross-sectionally and longitudinally. The focus will be on papers that span the range between basic science and initial intervention development.
This special issue is particularly interested in studies that include diverse and representative samples and/or that explicitly address issues of race, ethnicity, and culture.
* Deadline for article proposals/letter of intent: December 3, 2021. Please submit article proposals/letters of intent by email directly to SOBC’s Project Coordinator, Deanna Lewis, at djl2185@cumc.columbia.edu.
Timeline
Deadline for article proposals/letter of intent: December 3, 2021
Deadline for submission of full papers: February 10, 2022
The NIA-funded Columbia Roybal Center for Fearless Behavior Change will fund one-year pilot studies relevant to developing health behavior interventions for patients who have suffered acute medical events. Our prior research has shown that many patients develop fear-based responses to these traumatic events (e.g., fear of recurrence, heightened distress from internal physiologic stimuli) that lead to avoidance of the very health behaviors (e.g., exercise, take medications regularly) that are recommended to prevent recurrence. Accordingly, our Center seeks to develop interventions that address these fear-related mechanisms. Relevant study populations include, but are not limited to, patients with stroke, myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, COPD, heart failure, respiratory failure, COVID-19, or recent diagnosis with cancer or end-stage renal disease. Relevant behavioral outcomes include, but are not limited to, medication adherence, physical activity, sleep, as well as measures of psychological distress and quality of life. The goal of the award is to help investigators obtain preliminary data to support independent grant applications to the NIH or other funders. Applicants are encouraged to follow the experimental medicine approach to intervention development promoted by the Science of Behavior Change.
In the United States, behavioral scientists are gradually responding to the imperative need to address the climate change crisis and the detrimental effects it will have on human health and well-being. The leaders of the NIH Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) program are no exception. For the past 10 years, SOBC has supported scientists to engage in a rigorous and reproducible experimental medicine approach for early-phased, evidence-based interventions and further understand and identify the underlying mechanisms of behavior change. The primary mission of SOBC is to disseminate this approach and provide resources for behavioral scientists at every level to be applied to their research in an open and accessible manner. We continue to uphold this mission by providing the scientific community with the information and opportunities available that surround climate change. As you read this, the SOBC Resource and Coordinating Center is working to create a page solely dedicated to climate change resources, events, topics, and ways to get involved.
On this page, you will find the Request for Information (RFI) from the National Institutes of Health that will begin efforts for the NIH to support research that is focused on climate change and health. In addition, users will have access to relevant publications, including an upcoming Special Issue in Translational Behavioral Medicine. Further, this page will offer a central location for information regarding the work of some of the leading scientific societies like, American Psychological Association’s Climate Change Task Force, Society of Behavioral Medicine’s Presidential Working Group on Climate Change, Behavior Change & Health, and American Psychosomatic Society’s Climate Change, Sustainability, & Health Special Interest Group that are bringing climate and behavioral scientists together to address these accelerating risks. In 2021, the Academy for Behavioral Medicine Research and the Society of Behavioral Medicine both focused their annual conferences around climate change and promoted more opportunities for scientists to engage in this work in a meaningful way. There will only be more chances to learn about and join initiatives dedicated to climate change. We plan for this new addition of our website to offer the scientific community a live and interactive digital space where users can learn about these emerging opportunities, provide feedback, and engage with the Resource and Coordinating Center to further address and inform climate change and health to our community. If you have any questions or comments for us, please contact us at: info@scienceofbehaviorchange.org. For up-to-date information about SOBC and when this webpage is available, please follow us on Twitter (@SOBC_RCC)!
The Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) seeks to improve the understanding of underlying mechanisms of human behavior change by promoting research on the initiation, personalization, and maintenance of behavior change. SOBC aims to bring together basic and applied scientists across health-related behaviors, such as diet, exercise, and medication adherence, in order to develop more effective behavioral interventions. SOBC research is funded by the SOBC Common Fund Program in the Office of Strategic Coordination, Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Common Fund programs resonate with the missions of multiple Institutes, Centers, and Offices at the NIH. Its programs are intended to be transformative, cross-cutting, and unique. NIH staff from more than 15 Institutes, Centers, and Offices are involved in SOBC research and several of them are active members of the SOBC Research Network as Program Officials and Project Scientists associated with Network projects.
Visit and subscribe to the SOBC YouTube Channel here to access all recent presentation recordings.
We all know first-hand how tough it can be to adopt and maintain healthy behaviors, even though we know that poor health behaviors account for a good portion of the disease burden in the United States.
In response to this challenge, NIH launched the Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) Common Fund Program in 2009. The program was established with two major long-term goals: 1) to promote a systematic approach to discovering the mechanisms underlying successful behavior change, and 2) to provide blueprints for developing behavior interventions that could reliably improve health outcomes.
Over the past 10 years, under the leadership of co-chairs Dr. Richard J. Hodes, director, NIA; and Dr. Patricia Grady, former director, National Institute of Nursing Research, SOBC has hosted several scientific workshops and annual meetings of investigators and supported 48 awards and administrative supplements. You can learn more about the work of SOBC’s network of researchers in special issues of Behavioural Research and Therapy (February 2018), Health Psychology Review (February 2020), and Health Psychology (September 2020).
The NIA-funded Columbia Roybal Center for Fearless Behavior Change will fund one-year pilot studies relevant to developing health behavior interventions for patients who have suffered acute medical events. Our prior research has shown that fear of recurrent events and interoceptive bias (i.e., excessive awareness of physiologic stimuli) are common in these patients and adversely influence health behaviors. Accordingly, our Center seeks to develop interventions that address these fear-associated mechanisms. Relevant study populations include, but are not limited to, patients with stroke, myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, COPD, heart failure, respiratory failure, COVID-19, or recent diagnosis with cancer or end-stage renal disease. Relevant behavioral outcomes include, but are not limited to, medication adherence, physical activity, sleep, as well as measures of psychological distress and quality of life. The goal of the award is to help investigators obtain preliminary data to support independent grant applications to the NIH or other funders. Applicants are encouraged to follow the experimental medicine approach to intervention development promoted by the Science of Behavior Change.(link is external and opens in a new window)
Please join the next APS Connects meeting on Wednesday, October 28 at 2:00 pm Eastern. APS Connects – Journal Club paper: “Does episodic future thinking repair immediacy bias at home and in the laboratory in patients with prediabetes?” Published in the Sept 2020 issue of Psychosomatic Medicine. APS members can read the article in the latest issue of the Journal, either in your paper copy or on the Journal website.
Join APS Connects at the following link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84916214581?pwd=dEpZTjhTdVp5bGIvL0NFM2Jxa1h2QT09
Meeting ID: 849 1621 4581
Password: 784615
To dial in use: 312-626-6799 or 646-876-9923
