Workshop on Exploring Normative Change
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The document outlines a workshop focused on exploring normative change, emphasizing the importance of social norms and their impact on behavior change interventions. Participants will learn about techniques for assessing social norms, integrating these approaches into projects, and developing skills to influence behavior positively within communities. Key concepts discussed include the differences between social norms and individual attitudes, and the role of social reference groups in shaping health behaviors.
![What is an attitude?
Attitudes can affect behaviors – many definitions
“People’s individual preferences [dispositions to act in certain
ways in a certain situations], largely independent of what others
do or what is deemed to be appropriate; what a person would
prefer to do if they could choose outside of a social context”
(Cislaghi & Heise, 2017)
“A tendency to evaluate something (a person, symbol, belief,
object) with some degree of favor or disfavor” (Heise & Manji,
2015)
What the individual believes he/she should do based on
personal beliefs](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/coreghpc-workshopnormativechangepassages-24sep20173-171010193443/85/Workshop-on-Exploring-Normative-Change-16-320.jpg)
![Formula for constructing vignettes
Desired target behavior: Parents talk to their very young adolescents (VYA) about
puberty (including body changes and the menstrual cycle)
1-What are the factors that support this behavior? Which ones are socio-cultural?
2-Identified social norm behavior: (Normative behavior you would like to shift, eg, parents not
talking about purberty / sexuality to VYAs)
Descriptive norms: Perceptions about what is common behavior
1-In your opinion, how many people practice this behavior? [ few| some | many |most ]
2-What are the advantages of practicing this behavior? What are the disadvantages?
A-How many see this as advantageous? [ few| some | many |most ]
B-Are these advantages/disadvantages stronger for some community groups than other
groups?
Injunctive norms: Perceptions about what other people think is approved behavior
4-How many people in your community approve of this behavior? [ few| some | many |most ]
5-What happens if you do not practice this behavior?
A-How many in your community would sanction people if they did not practice the behavior
B-Are these sanctions stronger for some community groups than other groups?
Subjective norms: Perceptions about what significant others think is expected
behavior
3-Do people in your community expect men and couples to act this way?
A-How many have this expectation [ few| some | many |most ]
B-Are these expectations stronger for some community groups than other groups?](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/coreghpc-workshopnormativechangepassages-24sep20173-171010193443/85/Workshop-on-Exploring-Normative-Change-41-320.jpg)
Workshop on Exploring Normative Change
- 1. Welcome to our workshop on exploring normative change! Please take a minute to begin exploring norm change by adding your thoughts to the flip charts.
- 2. Exploring normative change: Concepts and techniques for identifying and assessing norms that influence behaviors Pre-conference Workshop | CORE Group GHPC | 25 September 2017 Susan Igras, Nana Dagadu, Bryan Shaw
- 3. Participants will… Gain clarity on social norms and attributes of normative change interventions that lead to individual behavior change. Develop skills in using 3 diverse PLA methods for collecting and analyzing data on social reference groups and norms that influence specific health behaviors. Discuss applications of integrating normative change approaches into existing/new projects from design through evaluation phases. Learning Outcomes
- 4. Why the ‘S’ matters in SBC
- 5. Girls’ education Age at marriage Violence/coerced sex Masculine ideologies (authority, virility, son preference, paternity) Feminine ideologies (purity, chastity, obedience, humility) Family Planning Use Healthy Timing & Spacing of Pregnancy Access to info and services Reproductive health intentions Women’s agency Couple communication & decision-making Social norms shape behavior
- 6. Promote examination of existing norms in relation to new ideas and new desired behaviors by: Correcting incorrect information Catalyzing different normative expectations Supporting collective action as it emerges Normative change interventions seeking to influence behavior My friends think that having many children makes them valued by society My father and uncles think I should have many children ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS
- 7. For the Passages project, normative interventions are often integrated with other approaches. A normative change intervention is an intervention primarily or exclusively designed to promote collective change, by encouraging communities to reflect on, and question, social and cultural factors that exist and that support attitudes and behaviors that are harmful to sexual and reproductive health. What is a normative change intervention?
- 8. Our KISS Challenge: Keep It Simple and Scalable Begin with the end in mind
- 9. Our KISS Challenge: Keep It Simple and Scalable Explicit understanding of change mechanisms at play Simple materials Lean strategies using existing platforms Acceptable, interesting, and fun for communities Minimal need for support & supervision after base training
- 10. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CLASSIC SBC AND NORMS INTERVENTIONS 10 MINUTES: Discuss at your tables, using post-its to jot down your ideas how classic SBC interventions differ from norms interventions Put your ideas on the wall Let’s discuss! image via Bavarian Cafe
- 11. Situating change by level SOCIAL NORMS • Social constructs – collectively shared beliefs about • What is typical • What is approved • Maintained by approval and disapproval NORMATIVE CHANGE • When norms change in a segment of society • Norm change interventions focus as catalysts for communities to ‘challenge existing social norms that support individuals’ action and behaviors leading to poor health (Passages) SOCIAL CHANGE • Change adopted by a whole society, eg, protection of workers, 25h work week • Focuses on society groups as a unit of change • Involves redistributing power within social and political institutions (UNICEF, C4D) (Antje Becker-Benton, 2017)
- 12. Community-based SBC Improving the quality or coverage of health products and services is not, in many cases, sufficient to improve health outcomes. .. Requires changing the health-seeking behaviors of individuals and communities as well as the norms that underpin those behaviors. Interventions that seek to change behaviors by addressing factors such as knowledge, attitudes, and norms, known collectively as social and behavior change interventions, complement and enhance the role played by services… Social and behavior change interventions are critical to ensuring that those most in need can access available services and products. (USAID) Normative-focused SBC Focuses on new, alternative behaviors Works at different levels of the social ecology Offers social spaces for critical reflection Roots issues within communities’ cultural/values systems Dialogical (versus message-based) Based on social norms assessment & identification of relevant norms Seeks to clearly articulate community change
- 13. A nascent area of inquiry SBC and C4D interventions may seek to influence norms to create enabling environments for health behavior change, but processes and outcomes are usually not explicit. Likewise, measurement is focused on individuals’ attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and not the enabling, normative environment - what the community or significant others think, believe, and do. Consequently, norms as critical factors in many behavior change efforts are not well considered. This is critical knowledge for scale-up of normative change interventions.
- 15. Behavior What people do (behavior) can be influenced by independent and/or interdependent beliefs. Heise & Manji, 2016
- 16. What is an attitude? Attitudes can affect behaviors – many definitions “People’s individual preferences [dispositions to act in certain ways in a certain situations], largely independent of what others do or what is deemed to be appropriate; what a person would prefer to do if they could choose outside of a social context” (Cislaghi & Heise, 2017) “A tendency to evaluate something (a person, symbol, belief, object) with some degree of favor or disfavor” (Heise & Manji, 2015) What the individual believes he/she should do based on personal beliefs
- 17. What is a social norm? Many definitions and conceptions exist: “What people in a group believe to be typical and appropriate action in that group” (Paluck and Ball, 2010) “Behavioral rules constructed, shared and considered acceptable by a group, and are different from individually held beliefs and attitudes” (CARE, 2017) Examples of social norms/behavioral rules Maintain ‘normal’ personal space Offer hospitality Promiscuity is shameful Young people have low social status
- 18. personal attitude / belief personal behavior social norms What a person perceives other people in his/her social reference group do, approve of, and expect others to do Attitude: A positive, negative, or neutral opinion that an individual has Belief: An internal feeling that something is true, even though that belief may be unproven or irrational. What and how much a person actually does something
- 19. Let’s try! Are these attitudes/beliefs or norms? 1. My mother and mother-in-law want me to breastfeed my baby, so I do. 2. Breastmilk is good for babies’ health. 3. I feed my baby formula because my best friends give formula to their babies. 4. Women who breastfeed are good mothers. 5. If a pregnant woman craves ice cream and does not eat it, her baby will be born with a birth mark.
- 20. What is a social norm? Social norms are a function of social expectations and common elements 1. A reference group 2. What is typical (normal) behavior in the group 3. What is approved of in the group
- 21. Social norms influence behavior if a person says she/he does or does not do something for the following reasons: • Because other people do it. A person does something because they believe many other people in their social group also do it. Descriptive norm • Because other people expect me to do it. A person does something because other people in their social group expect them to. Subjective norm •Because it is what a person is supposed to do. A person believes doing something will lead to approval from other people in their social group. Or not doing something will result in disapproval or a sanction from their social group. Injunctive norm
- 22. These are individuals who The social group listens to Give information and advice Influence the attitudes, behaviors and decisions of a specific group Can sanction or reward behavior Reference groups A social reference group “includes everyone who matters to an individual in a certain situation” (Mackie et al. 2015) Social reference groups dictate norms, which is why it is important to identify the social reference group/s of your target population
- 23. Social norms: unspoken rules of what is typical and appropriate behavior What are social norms? What I think others are doing AND What I believe others think I should do Norms are not attitudes or beliefs Why do people comply with these rules? They care about social rewards and punishments (although sensitivity to these varies) Often influenced by “reference groups” (people whose opinions matter) They are embedded in the web of cultural systems
- 24. Why do people conform to social norms (especially if they disagree)? Power, identity and belonging… – We are brought up to conform (socialization) – We value the approval of others and may fear sanctions But sometimes we do violate norms… – If norms contradict our knowledge and attitudes – If our self-efficacy or personal agency is strong
- 25. Norms, interests & power inequalities “Norms are vital determinants of social stratification… they reflect and reproduce relations that empower some groups of people with material resources, authority, and entitlements while marginalizing and subordinating others by normalizing shame, inequality, indifference or invisibility. …These norms reflect and reproduce underlying gendered relations of power, and that is fundamentally what makes them difficult to alter or transform.” (Sen et al., 2007: 2008)
- 26. Let’s try! Are these statements reflecting descriptive, subjective, or injunctive norms? 1. “A husband that does not beat his wife will be thought of as less manly.” 2. “Faith leaders expect a husband to beat his wife to correct her behavior.” 3. “Most husbands beat their wives in this community.” 4. “A husband should not beat his wife.”
- 27. Bonus Points: CORE Group GHPC! 1. Everybody at CORE GHPC expects Resiliency experts to use complicated concepts that no one understands. 2. All my trainer-of-trainers friends present their results with PowerPoints. 3. A program evaluator who always finds positive aspects of programs, will not be hired again.
- 28. Putting it together Term Definition Behavior What I do Attitude & Belief What I prefer / What I know Self-efficacy & Agency What I think I can do / What I have power to do Socialnorm Descriptive norm What I think others do Injunctive norm What I think others will approve/disapprove of me doing Subjective norm What I think significant others expect me to do Adapted from CARE, 2017 & Chung & Rimal, 2016
- 29. Caution! Many factors influence behavior Heise & Manji, 2015 Environmental Social Individual • Economic constraints, lack of info, no access to services, infrastructure, laws (factors in the nonsocial environment) • Social norms, gender norms Influence of social norms on behavior is situational; existence, direction, strength can vary •Self-efficacy, personal agency, personal beliefs, knowledge, attitudes
- 30. CAUTION! Not every thing is a norm and not every norm matters for a behavior Social norms are often important, but other factors can drive behavior; rarely does a single factor drive behavior and influences can act at different levels Social norms operate in complex social systems, thus are situational, contextual, fluid
- 31. Three techniques from Passages’ Social Norms ExplorationTool Learning from communities about norms and reference groups to improve programs and program evaluation
- 32. 3 questions to inform design and evaluation of normative change efforts Critical questions Why important? Participatory exercise 1. Who are the social reference groups that influence the health behavior? Identifying social reference groups that are supportive or not of the health behavior help you know who else to include in interventions and evaluations Influence Mapping 2. What are the social norms that influence this behavior? Identifying the root causes of an issue – including social norms - ensures your program articulates and addresses the range of determinants of health behaviors The Five ‘Whys’ 3. What are the social norms that influence this behavior the most? Discussing, analyzing, and prioritizing normative factors allows more effective, efficient use of resources Vignettes
- 33. Draw a figure in the middle of a piece of paper and write the respondent’s name. Explain: This represents you. Ask the respondent to put dots on the paper that represent persons who are influential to her/him. The distance from the center represents how much each person influences their decisions (ex: using family planning) Write the category of the person next to each dot (ex: grandmother, mother) Ask the respondent to rank the people (‘1’ is most influential) the people from most influential to least. Data analysis: Create an analysis grid and draw your conclusions of who has most influence on the target behavior Instructions - Influence Mapping Exercise (Individual Interview)
- 34. LET’STRY ONE! Exploring Social Reference Groups Who do you seek advice and counsel from on issues of using a family planning method?
- 35. Results from Growing Up Great! Who is most influential forVYAs, for Parents ofVYAs? Very Young Adolescents (Masina) Girls Boys In-school Out-of- school In-school Out-of- school ▪ Moms ▪ Dads ▪ Teachers ▪ Friends ▪ Big sisters ▪ Moms ▪ Dads ▪ Big sisters ▪ Moms ▪ Dads ▪ Teachers ▪ Moms ▪ Dads ▪ Grandmothers Mothers and Fathers of VYAs (Masina) Mothers Fathers ▪ Church members/ friends ▪ Neighbors’ girls and boys ▪ Health agents, ▪ Pastors, ▪ Spouses, ▪ Older sons and daugthers
- 36. Instructions:The Five ‘Whys’ Exercise (Group Discussion) Orient the group and ask - ‘Is X behavior common in your community?’ Have group generate 3-6 first-line answers to create lines of exploration. Divide into pairs and assign them first-line answers, asking each pair to start the ‘5 Whys’, asking each other ‘Why X behavior exists (or does not exist)?’ Pairs will take turns asking ‘Why’ for every answer his/her partner provides. (Tip:There may be >5 answers-keep going!) Ask pairs to write down their answers to share in a group discussion Ask all pairs to report back. Facilitate a group discussion to compile a list of the top five reasons given
- 37. LET’STRY ONE! Exploring root causes of non-behaviors, including social norms Why do people not get HIV testing?
- 38. No discussion on puberty - between VYA/parents Girls (not boys) are responsible for household chores Boys’ education is prioritized over girls’ education Parents are ashamed to speak Parents prioritize boys’ development Parents cannot afford to send all children to school. Speaking of sexuality is tabou in our culture D/I Girls will marry and become housewives D Boys have responsibilities to help their families because they are strong D/S Parents (schools, community) don’t have knowledge to share Certain kinds of work are reserved for girls D/S All men are strong D Parents feel inferior to their children with more knowledge Boys have to take responsibility from a young age.S Girls all get married S Nobody talks to their children about puberty D Girls are meant to be submissive S A girls’ role is to be married D/S TOP 5 Results from GUG! THREE ‘WHY’ QUESTIONS FOR PARENTS OFVYAs
- 39. Vignettes Description: Vignettes are culturally-relevant short stories about the behavior of fictional characters. Open-ended questioning allows group discussions on normative and other behavioral influences. Read the vignette to participants Next, with the help of a guide, ask questions to lead the discussion
- 40. Instructions: UsingVignettes (Individual or Group Discussion) Prior to FGD, create a vignette using generic formula. FGD: Explain you are going to tell group a story about X and seek their advice throughout. FGD: Note taker records advice/respons es from group Post-discussion : Team analyses responses using analysis grid
- 41. Formula for constructing vignettes Desired target behavior: Parents talk to their very young adolescents (VYA) about puberty (including body changes and the menstrual cycle) 1-What are the factors that support this behavior? Which ones are socio-cultural? 2-Identified social norm behavior: (Normative behavior you would like to shift, eg, parents not talking about purberty / sexuality to VYAs) Descriptive norms: Perceptions about what is common behavior 1-In your opinion, how many people practice this behavior? [ few| some | many |most ] 2-What are the advantages of practicing this behavior? What are the disadvantages? A-How many see this as advantageous? [ few| some | many |most ] B-Are these advantages/disadvantages stronger for some community groups than other groups? Injunctive norms: Perceptions about what other people think is approved behavior 4-How many people in your community approve of this behavior? [ few| some | many |most ] 5-What happens if you do not practice this behavior? A-How many in your community would sanction people if they did not practice the behavior B-Are these sanctions stronger for some community groups than other groups? Subjective norms: Perceptions about what significant others think is expected behavior 3-Do people in your community expect men and couples to act this way? A-How many have this expectation [ few| some | many |most ] B-Are these expectations stronger for some community groups than other groups?
- 42. LET’STRY ONE! Exploring which social norms are most influential on a target behavior Using a real-life vignette from Growing Up GREAT!
- 43. Results from Growing up GREAT! What we learned using vignettes with parents & adolescents Behavior: Parents do not have conversations with their young adolescents about puberty and sexuality Factors correlated with social norms: Lack of dialogue between parents and children Topics are taboo Factors not correlated with social norms: Lack of information Shame Fear “What worries us most is how the person we’re speaking to will react”
- 44. Descriptive norms A father says: “Children in our families really have this problem.” An older sister says: “We receive information at school. Outside of school, nobody gets information.” Injunctive norms A father says: “We were not prepared for this, if the big brother had been ready, he would have discussed it. In our culture, it’s taboo.” Generally: If very young adolescents try to discuss these questions,“they will be treated impolitely”, they will get reprimanded. “Bang”. Subjective norms Parents are the group that most frequently have these expectations General Growing Up GREAT! Results All 3 norm types were important influencers on whether parents discuss puberty and sexuality with their children
- 45. Reflection Questions Applying this thinking to your projects 1. At what point in the project lifecycle would you choose to do norms exploration exercises like the 3 we just practiced? How would you gather such info? What challenges do you foresee? 2. How might more explicit articulation of norms linked to behaviors lead to changes in your project activities? 3. How might better articulation of norms activities influence project change theories? 4. What would it mean for project log frames and project evaluation?
- 46. FINALTHOUGHTS Your takeaways? Interested in more discussion on this issue? Join us! CORE Group SBC Working Group and Learning Collaborative on Social Norms
- 47. info@passagesproject.org www.irh.org/projects/passagesTHANK YOU! Susan Igras - smi6@georgetown.edu Nana Dagadu - Nana.Dagadu@georgetown.edu Bryan Shaw - Bryan.Shaw@georgetown.edu