Project description
Exploring how adolescent behaviours impact values
Values serve as powerful motivators of behaviour and are a central focus within the realm of education. Research proposes that changing behaviour might represent an efficient approach to modifying values rather than attempting their direct alteration. This connection between behaviour and values could open a new theoretical avenue for the examination of changes in values. The ERC-funded BeValue project is poised to undertake the inaugural systematic assessment of the link between behaviour and values. The project’s goal is to formulate a theoretical model that facilitates the understanding and testing of how changes in behaviour influence values. BeValue delves into the impact of adolescent behaviours on values and the conditions that either facilitate or impede this transformative process.
Objective
Given their role as powerful motivators of behavior, values are a key focus of educational programs, but are difficult to remold once set. Our and other’s recent longitudinal studies of youth indicate that changes in behavior may lead to changes in values—and may be a more efficient way to alter values than seeking to directly modify them. This behavior-value link opens a new theoretical avenue for studying value changes.
In BeValue, I propose to conduct the first-ever systematic assessment of the bahavior-value link. I will build a novel, comprehensive theoretical model for understanding and testing how behavioral changes affect values. The theoretical model will answer three fundamental questions: What is the impact of behaviors on values? What are the mechanisms that explain this process? What conditions or factors allow or prevent this process?
BeValue will focus primarily on adolescents, address multiple levels (individuals, peers, parents, cultural characteristics) and combine the following diverse methodologies: natural field experiments to assess how presocial/environmental behavioral change leads to value change (WP1); app-based and virtual reality experiments to examine the cognitive and emotional mechanisms of the behavior-value link (WP2);
longitudinal survey to trace construct development (WP3); school-based intervention designed to enhance proenvironmental behavior as a means to examine how behavioral change predicts value change and the role of self-consciousness in this process (WP4); diary study to assess micro behavior-value longitudinal relations and the contribution of parental attribution (WP5); large-scale state-of-the-art Natural Language Process analysis of how behavior in social media platforms relates to future values in a broad population across various cultures
(WP6). The behavioral change model will potentially serve as a practical tool for educators, parents and policy makers to advance prosocial, pro-environmental and other values.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsHost institution
91904 Jerusalem
Israel