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UNIT IV

INTERVENTION AND EVALUATION

Intervention may be defined as a strategy or procedure that is intended to

influence the behavior of people for the purpose of improving their functioning
with respect to some social or practical problems.
DESIGN OF INTERVENTION
NATURE OF INTERVENTION

Personal intervention are those that people carry out in the course of their daily
lives, which includes using knowledge of social science.
Programmatic intervention, comprise a program which is directed toward
addressing social or practical problems with the objective of preventing, reducing,
or eliminating its negative consequences.
Trial interventions are those that are implemented to determine whether the
intervention as designed in fact, has the intended positive consequences.
Evidence based intervention makes use of research which is to be implemented
in various programs.
KEY TASKS
Design of intervention involves following tasks:

1. Identifying a problem: The first step in program design is to identify the

existence and severity of problems. Problems are defined by stakeholders, which
includes individuals or groups who have vested interest in possible development
of a program. Need assessment is done to see if intervention is at all necessary.
Need assessment can be formal (relies on systematic research procedures) or
informal (relies on personal experience).
2. Arriving at a solution: identifying the causal factor is key to the second
step, accordingly, there are precipitating factors which trigger problems, and
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perpetuating factors i.e. those which sustain problems. Once a causal factor is
identified, the solution of the problem should be expressed in the form of
intervention hypotheses. These are basically “if then” statements that summarize
the intervention and expected outcome.
3. Setting goals: Program activities are developed which includes specific
components and procedures of the program. It includes goals which are long term
outcomes, and objectives refer to short term outcomes which lead to goals. A
program logic model is a blueprint of intervention which includes specific goals,
objectives and activities.
4. Implementation: implementation refers to the actual process of enacting
the intervention activities, that is delivering them to the recipient of intervention.
TYPES
two types :
a)Personal intervention are those that people carry out in the course of their daily
lives, which includes using knowledge of social science.
b)Programmatic intervention, comprise a program which is directed toward
addressing social or practical problems with the objective.
EVIDENCE BASED INTERVENTION

• Evidence-based interventions (EBI) are treatments that have been proven

effective (to some degree) through outcome evaluations.
• EBI are treatments that are likely to be effective in changing target behavior
if implemented with integrity.
• EBI assumes that the treatment is used in the manner that it was researched.
There are many ways to change an intervention (frequency, material, target and
so on) which can alter the effectiveness of EBI. They are typically validated with
large group research, or a series of small group studies.
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An Intervention Example: Reducing Alcohol Problem on Campus

This Intervention involves direct application of social psychological theory and

research evidence. The goals of the intervention was developed and implemented
at Northern Illinois University (NIU), to reduce high-risk drinking among
students and to reduce the incidence of injuries due to alcohol consumption. They
took place in various steps. they are:
1. Identifying the Problem

The Harvard School of Public Health surveyed students at 119 colleges and
Universities in the united [Link] result showed that the higher percentage of
binge drinkers has experienced alcohol related problems since the beginning of
the school years and have reported the following: missed class, fallen behind in
school work, unplanned Sexual Activity, had sex without protection, physically
hurt and damage properties. A survey of NIU students confirmed about having
serious campus wide alcohol problem.
2. Developing a solution

Forming the Intervention Hypothesis An intervention that represented an

application of social norm theory was [Link] refer to shared beliefs
about which behaviours are acceptable and which behaviours are not acceptable
for members of a given group to engage in. Researchers identified one cognitive
error is false consensus, tendency for people to believe that others are like them
when in fact they are not, heavy drinkers believe that most of their peers are also
heavy drinkers when in fact they are not. Another cognitive error is Pluralistic
Ignorance,when majority of individuals incorrectly assume that others behavior
or thinking is more different from theirs than it actually is. Students believe that
their friends drink more than they do when in fact it’s not. The intervention
hypothesis raised was If the misperceptions of drinking norms are corrected,
levels of high risk drinking will decline.
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3. Goal Setting and Designing the Intervention

The goal of intervention was to reduce high risk drinking among NIU student.
The objective of the intervention was to reduce misperception of amount of
drinking on campus. A campus wide intervention was planned. Four rules used to
guide the development of campaign message to the student body were to a) Keep
it Simple
b) tell the truth
c)be consistent

d)highlight the norm of moderate drinking.

The main program activity would be to use a mass media campaign, including
print medias like campus newspaper advertisements, newspaper columns, press
releases, flyers, and posters. A survey determined that NIU students rated health
professionals as more believable than educators and friends
4. Implementing the Intervention

The media campaign was held at the beginning of each fall semester until spring
break. The messages will diminish after spring break then begin again on next
academic year.
5. Evaluating the Intervention

The pre test and post-test data after first year of implementations were evaluated.
Results shown there was 12% reduction in perceived high risk drinking and 8%
reduction in actual high risk drinking, but no significant reduction in alcohol
related injuries. Over a span of 10 years, NIU experienced 37% reduction in
perceived high risk drinking, 30% reduction in actual high risk drinking, and 20%
reduction in alcohol related injuries to self and others.
Other Interventions:
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• One of the excellent example of applying social psychological theory on a

relevant social problem is the work of Stice and Colleagues on Eating Disorders,
by applying Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance theory(1957).
• The first is a dissonance intervention in which adolescent girls with body
image concerns who have internalized the thin-ideal voluntarily engage in verbal,
written, and behavioural exercises in which they critique this ideal (e.g., write
essays and engage in role-plays that are counter attitudinal).
• These activities theoretically produce psychological discomfort that
motivates them to reduce pursuit of the thin-ideal, which decreases body
dissatisfaction, dieting attempts, negative effect, and eating disorder symptoms.
• The second is a healthy weight intervention that promotes lasting healthy
improvements to dietary intake and exercise as a way of improving body
satisfaction among young women with body image concerns, which putatively
decreases risk for unhealthy weight control behavior that typify eating disorders.
• Participants implement a lifestyle change plan involving gradual healthy
improvements to their diet and activity level. Adolescent girls assigned to these
two interventions showed a 60– 61% reduction in risk for onset of threshold or
sub threshold anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorders over
3-year follow-up relative to assessment-only controls.

EVALUATION

Evaluation is carried out to assess the effectiveness of an intervention .

There are two types of evaluation :

● Formative evaluation : it is undertaken to determine whether the program

has reached desired audience and whether the program activities have been
implemented in prescribed manner.
In other words it’s process evaluation.
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● Summative evaluation : it assesses how well a program met its objectives.

It is comprehensive which assesses how well a program is achieving its goal. It
is also called outcome evaluation.
Developmental evaluation involves testing and experimenting with new
approaches to problems.
GOAL SETTING

• Goals refer to the ultimate or long-term outcomes that one hopes to

accomplish through an intervention. Once goals have been established, it is
important to define the program objectives. • Objectives refer to short-term
outcomes (e.g., during or immediately after an intervention) and intermediate-
term changes (e.g., one or two months later) that occur as a result of the
intervention and are required for (i.e., support) the attainment of the program
goals. In other words, goals refer to the ends, whereas objectives refer to the
means or steps by which the ends are achieved.
• Goal setting is a key aspect of any applied social psychological
intervention, as goals help define intervention success or failure- i.e., the
benchmarks that must be achieved by an intervention for it to be a success.
• Goal setting also provides direction to an intervention and helps maintain
logical consistency between efforts and outcomes. Goals may be narrow or wide
in terms of their scope, and while most goals tend to be specific and narrow,
sometimes achieving the goals of an intervention can lead to changes in social
policy.
INFLUENCING SOCIAL POLICY

• Social psychology can contribute to both the development of policy and

the development of interventions.
• The difference between policy and intervention is that policy refers to a
general course of action endorsed by an organization, whereas an intervention
refers to the specific concrete action(s) (i.e., program activities) that the
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organization chooses to take to implement the policy. • On the other hand,

interventions pertain to exactly how the agency chooses to implement the policy,
that is, the actual steps taken to carry out the policy of community policing.
• Influencing social policy is a very important applied function of the social
science disciplines, including social psychology.
• The path from social psychological knowledge to influencing social policy
is seldom straightforward. Many factors that preclude the direct use of knowledge
in policy decision making have been identified, including the failure of
researchers to adequately communicate research findings to policy makers, time
pressures on decision makers that undercut thorough assimilation of research
evidence, resistance to change stemming from comfort with the status quo,
pressures from stakeholders whose positions do not accord with the scientific
evidence, and so forth.
• In the case of the development of interventions, the route from knowledge
to practice is more direct in that there are likely to be fewer obstacles to
application than is the case for social policy
PROCESS ISSUES AND ETHICAL ISSUES PROCESS ISSUES

PROCESS ISSUES

There are above steps to be followed in applying an intervention on a social group.

It is very challenging to carry out them with some common obstacles. They are:
1. Interventions must be paid for, the funders need and wants have to be well

satisfied

2. Interventions cannot be implied just by a social psychologist alone, it needs

collaborative effort from people of different disciplines to work as a team to a

common goal.
3. Constraints that are specified by the law also exists.
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ETHICAL ISSUES

Ethics refers to the correct rules of conduct necessary when carrying out research.
We have a moral responsibility to protect research participants from harm.

1. INFORMED CONSENT
Whenever possible investigators should obtain the consent of participants. In
practice this means it is not sufficient to simply get potential participants to say
“Yes”. They also need to know what it is that they are agreeing to. In other words
the psychologist should, so far as is practicable, explain what is involved in
advance and obtain the informed consent of participants.
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Participants must be given information relating to:

● Statement that participation is voluntary and that refusal to participate will not

result in any consequences or any loss of benefits that the person is otherwise
entitled to receive.
● Purpose of the research. All foreseeable risks and discomforts to the participant

(if there are any). These include not only physical injury but also possible
psychological. Procedures involved in the research.
● Benefits of the research to society and possibly to the individual human subject.

● Length of time the subject is expected to participate. Person to contact for

answers to questions or in the event of injury or emergency.

● Subjects' right to confidentiality and the right to withdraw from the study at any

time without any consequences.

2. DEBRIEF

• After the research is over the participant should be able to discuss the
procedure and the findings with the psychologist.

• They must be given a general idea of what the researcher was investigating
and why, and their part in the research should be explained.
• Participants must be told if they have been deceived and given reasons why.
They must be asked if they have any questions and those questions should be
answered honestly and as fully as possible.
• Debriefing should take place as soon as possible and be as full as possible;
experimenters should take reasonable steps to ensure that participants understand
debriefing.
2. PROTECTION OF THE PARTICIPANTS
• Researchers must ensure that those taking part in research will not be
caused distress. They must be protected from physical and mental harm.
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• The researcher must also ensure that if vulnerable groups are to be used
(elderly, disabled, children, etc.), they must receive special care.
4. DECEPTION

This is where participants are misled or wrongly informed about the aims of the
research. Types of deception include
1. deliberate misleading, e.g. using confederates, staged manipulations in
field settings, deceptive instructions
2. deception by omission, e.g., failure to disclose full information about the
study, or creating ambiguity.
The researcher should avoid deceiving participants about the nature of the
research unless there is no alternative – and even then this would need to be
judged acceptable by an independent expert. However, there are some types of
research that cannot be carried out without at least some element of deception.
5. CONFIDENTIALITY

Participants, and the data gained from them must be kept anonymous unless they
give their full consent. No names must be used in a research report.