IBTN will be hosting a hybrid conference from May 19 to 21 in Montreal, Canada. During this conference, SOBC Co-Investigator, Dr. Talea Cornelius will be a Plenary Speaker to discuss How do we Measure Mechanisms of Behavior Change?
Registration is now open for virtual and in-person tickets:
More information on Dr. Cornelius:
Speaker: Sean D. Young, Ph.D., M.S.
Executive Director, University of California Institute for Prediction Technology
Associate Professor, Departments of Emergency Medicine and Informatics, University of California, Irvine
Date: November 2, 2021 – 1:00 p.m. ET to 2:00 p.m. ET
Location: Virtual; NIH videocast >
Description: Social technologies and their associated data are increasingly being used as tools in public health research and practice. Examples include social media, mobile apps, internet searches, and wearable sensors. More than half the world (4.5 billion people) uses social media sites to create, share, and discuss content—often in the form of personal thoughts, behaviors, and clinical diagnoses. Dr. Young will discuss how social technologies and data (e.g., artificial intelligence and data science modeling) are being used to impact public health and how researchers and health departments/agencies might apply them in public health surveillance/intervention efforts. He will also present his team’s research on how these tools can be employed to predict and change health behaviors, and on implementation-related issues such as policy and ethical questions. The studies to be discussed involve populations affected by HIV, mental health and substance use disorders, car crashes, or COVID-19.
This meeting will be held online via zoom October 8th-11th, and you will be invited to participate through zoom Q&A sessions. You will receive the zoom link in the week before the conference. Registration is $50 for students, and there is a sliding scale for general admission from $100 – $400. Like many events, this meeting had to be rescheduled several times due to the pandemic, and has become very expensive to host with financial losses. If you can afford one of the higher rates, ABMR greatly appreciates your support of their non-profit academic society!
On October 7th at 11am, Dr. Guillaume Chevance will give a Grand Rounds presentation on: Thinking Health-related Behaviors in a Climate Change Context.
Human activities have changed the biosphere so profoundly over the past two centuries that human induced climate change is now posing serious health-related treats to the current and future generations. Rapid actions from all scientific fields are needed to contribute to both the mitigation and adaption to climate change. This presentation will discuss the bi-directional associations between climate change effects (i.e., rising average temperatures, natural disasters, air pollution, rising sea level) and health-related behaviors, as well as a set of key actions/propositions for the behavioral medicine community.
To register, click here.
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.
Co-hosted with Columbia Roybal Center for Fearless Behavior Change on June 1st at 3pm EST, Dr. Jeff Huffman will present on Developing and testing positive psychology-based interventions to promote physical activity.
To register: click here
Dr. Jeff Huffman is a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the Cardiac Psychiatry Research Program. His work has focused on developing scalable clinical interventions to improve mental health and health behaviors in people with heart disease and related medical conditions. This includes developing a positive psychology-based intervention program to promote physical activity among patients with recent acute cardiac events and those with more chronic conditions. His work has led to more than 180 peer-reviewed publications, and he has received funding from multiple NIH institutes, the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, and the Templeton Foundation.
Event Date: March 23, 2021
Presenter: Rebecca Cunningham, M.D.
Register for this online only event.
Overview
This presentation will provide overview of violence prevention among Emergency Department patients including the CDC best practice program SafERteens. Participants will understand the longitudinal outcomes of Emergency Department youth regarding substance use and violence including how to utilize the SAFETY score to predict risk for firearm injury. Review the history of firearm injury prevention research and the capacity building NICHD funded FACTS grant.
Co-hosted with Columbia Roybal Center for Fearless Behavior Change on February 17th at 12pm EST, Dr. Samantha Farris will present on Targeting Fear and Avoidance of Exercise in Cardiac Patients.
To register: click here
Dr. Samantha Farris is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and is the Director of The Rutgers Emotion, Health and Behavior (REHAB) Laboratory. Dr. Farris received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at The University of Houston, and completed her psychology internship at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University. She completed fellowships in cancer prevention at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and in cardiovascular behavioral medicine at The Miriam Hospital/Alpert Medical School at Brown University. Dr. Farris has published over 100 peer-reviewed publications and has received continuous funding for her research from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Farris’ research focuses on understanding how and why stress and anxiety (i.e., worry, fear, panic) commonly co-occur with and contribute to problematic health behaviors and chronic disease. She utilizes an experimental medicine approach to (a) identify cognitive-affective mechanisms that contribute to health behaviors and physical disease, (b) isolate how these mechanisms influence health behaviors “in real time” through use of laboratory methodologies, and in turn (c) develop tailored interventions that target these mechanisms to promote health behavior change and prevent the onset or progression of chronic disease. Dr. Farris is also a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island, and specializes in cognitive-behavioral therapy for the treatment of anxiety and related disorders.
Date: Wednesday, February 3, 2021
Time: 2:00 to 3:00 pm ET
Register for the webinar here.
It is well established that health behaviors such as physical activity, sleep, diet, and medication adherence are strong predictors of greater longevity and lower occurrence of adverse medical events. Nevertheless, it remains largely unknown how to develop effective interventions to alter these health behaviors. Research psychologists with training in experimental methodology are uniquely positioned to measure and systematically identify the operative factors underling successful behavior change. A core principle of the National Institutes of Health’s Science Of Behavior Change (SOBC) initiative is that a causal understanding of the means of shifting behaviors may be achieved by following the systematic scientific approach used in experimental medicine: focusing on how a behavioral intervention (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy) can engage a hypothetical psychological mechanism (e.g., worry) that can be assessed with a valid and reliable measure.
Please see the following recording and associated resources from the SOBC Research Network and expert panelists on a webinar focused on the behavioral and social science challenges and solutions to the COVID-19 vaccine uptake/adoption, particularly in underserved populations.
SOBC COVID-19 Webinar Information Sheet
