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Audrey Begun, College of Social Work

Posted on | January 19, 2011 | 1,449 views | Comments Off

Why do people make New Year’s resolutions?

The best way to answer this would be from the perspective of the Prochaska and DiClemente “readiness to change” model from the discipline of health psychology.

People make New Year’s resolutions because there is a behavior or habit that they wish were different. This suggests that they have moved out of the earliest stage of the behavior change cycle (Precontemplation, where a person either does not believe there is a problem or recognizes a problem but does not believe that he or she has the ability to effectively change). The person has moved into Contemplation, which is where there is a recognition of a need to change, but there is not necessarily a concrete, specific commitment to a “how” to change and the decisional balance is still bouncing back and forth between the costs of changing/rewards of not changing and the costs of not changing/benefits of changing.

At this point, a person may be shopping around, looking for solutions that might work. There may even be some poorly thought through efforts to take action, some initial attempts to cut back or baby steps in the right direction as they prepare for change (Preparation). Action is where an individual takes systematic, organized, planful change efforts. This might involve engaging outside help such as a treatment program, support group, medical intervention or other formal effort. It might involve very specific steps and skills being applied to the problem. Intervention at this point is about helping maintain motivation and skills building, as well as reinforcing a sense of efficacy – that a person can do this and recognizing the benefits of changing despite the personal costs.

Once a person has successfully maintained the state of change for six months to a year, there may be a transition to a Maintenance phase in which the efforts are dedicated to relapse prevention. Individuals fluctuate up and down across this cycle of change on a daily, even hourly, basis. It is not at all unusual to have five to seven serious change attempts necessary before the change attempts “stick.”

What is the success/failure rate of New Year’s resolutions? What are the steps one can take to make their resolution more successful?

People are all over the map in terms of where in the change cycle they fall when they make a resolution. They are more likely to succeed when they set themselves up for success well in advance of the attempt, they have support for their sense of efficacy, when failures and slip-ups are viewed as part of the common process rather than as a complete failure (taking them all the way back to Precontemplation), and when they are able to capitalize on lessons learned during previous attempts. This includes clearly recognizing their own personal “triggers” for back sliding on their planned course of change. We see this pattern applies to a wide range of behaviors including smoking cessation, dieting, initiating exercise plans, practicing safe sex and cutting back or stopping drinking alcohol.

It helps to be sure that there is an evidence base supporting the type of change attempt adopted and regarding how to make it fit their own personal situation. If individuals find a need to modify the approach being adopted, they need to consider what are the elements in common to successful programs and be sure to incorporate these elements at the very least. And, they need to carefully consider the goals they set, making sure that their overall goals are reasonable and that they set multiple milestones to celebrate success and achievement along the path to success.

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