4.2.3. The Role of Motivation in Systemic Education and Risk Management
A simple view of behaviour change of any sort reflects two main elements, (1) competencies necessary to enact change (knowledge and skills) that is (2) “fuelled” through emotional factors (Psychology textbooks include in their definition of emotions the idea of emotions as “behavioural tendencies”. That is, a primary function of emotion is to motivate particular types of behaviour [65]). That fueling function is generally referred to as motivation. For any change behaviour, it assumes that a person “can do” the behaviour (i.e., has competence to think through and perform the behaviour) but it also assumes that a person wants to carry out some behaviour, the “will do” factor.
According to the motivational interviewing (MI) model, Miller and Rollnick [68] extend the can do and will do ideas to a sequence that emphasises being “willing, able, and ready” to make change. Willingness to change is tied to one’s emotional investment. In terms of the can do or ability factor, this represents an individual’s capacity and sense that a behaviour itself (e.g., hazard preparedness activity) can be effective (general efficacy), alongside confidence that they are able to carry out the behaviour (self-efficacy) [20]. The “ready” factor reflects the idea that changing behaviour now is better than doing it later.
The MI model focuses on the idea of “developing discrepancy” as part of the process to increase one’s willingness to consider change. The idea is to create a noticeable discrepancy between one’s current status and a value or a goal state. The more the discrepancy, the greater potential for motivation and the carrying out of some change behaviour, Representing an underlying philosophy that is relational (versus split) [43], there is a connection (i.e., a relationship) drawn between a current state of affairs and its degree of discrepancy from an imagined future. The “discrepancy space” itself represents motivational space. Thus, the idea of helping people “develop and amplify” discrepancy is intended to elicit motivation. Motivation that is intrinsic (from within) versus extrinsic (e.g., “I need to prepare because my teacher tells me I have to”) is the focus here (In terms of hazards mitigation, it is worth noting that we also favor extrinsic motivation (e.g., mandated land use planning, building codes and so forth). Mandated activities can co-exist with voluntary activities that children and families can adopt to help them protect themselves and their households in the event of a major hazardous event, mindful that regulation in relation to hazardous events comes with opportunities, opportunity costs, tipping points and so forth [36]).
As a discrepancy is first widened through discussions, it can then be “resolved” through “change talk.” This can include consideration of the advantages (and disadvantages) of change and begin to promote change talk that has increasing “commitment strength”. Increasing commitment strength can then help a person, classroom, or community to move along in the “stages of change” continuum [69]. Support for a motivational approach in the hazards preparedness literature has come from research that implicates increased motivation as key to initiating change (see review [3]). Thus, disaster preparedness education programs can include such discussions to help motivate children while at the same time providing them with a set of motivational tools for use in other contexts.
Preparedness education programs that introduce the idea of hazards and risk as challenges versus threats can also incorporate “discrepancy tools” to help children work from a current state of affairs to a more desirable future, including delineating vulnerable versus resilient pathways to the future. As part of that process, it could then further help them begin to learn about problems (i.e., current state of affairs) through a systemic and scientific understanding and then be able to picture and map an imagined future. Then, with the assistance of problem-solving tools, children can then begin to discuss and map out movement from present to future, mindful in the case of wicked problems [33] that the process quite often is non-linear.
As a result, as children develop more mature thinking, this process should include the idea that problems related to risk tend to get more effectively solved with holistic solutions: Ones that take account of both physical and human systems, employ systemic thinking strategies, use collaborative problem-solving, and so forth. Related to collaborative efforts, developing relationships and strengthening links between systems within a community would be thought to help develop a shared sense of motivation for both personal and collective action. This could of course include leveraging the school-youth-family network to initiate a community-wide focus on a problem. Thus, as children carry their learning, their motivation and growing sense of efficacy and mastery home with them, they can at the same time understand that schools and households are embedded in communities that are interconnected socially, occupationally, economically and in other ways. Helping them understand how to connect within a community would be thought to enhance their own learning while also potentially helping contribute to community-level competence, efficacy, and action. This can include for problems related to hazards preparedness and resilience [29] and a host of others. In other words, children can leverage their learning to help motivate their homes, and their communities, to act in important ways [2,47].