University of Hertfordshire

Area of research:

Purposeful change is difficult for some people. This is problematic when the inability to change has negative health outcomes, or makes people feel bad about themselves. There are many reasons why people fail to do what they say they want to, but our research looks at the role that habits have in preventing required change. One core approach is to investigate the role of behavioural flexibility in the change process, since our research suggests that expanding flexibility can help break constraining habits. We have done this in various contexts and with different problem areas, and have tested the efficacy of a habit -breaking tool (known as Do Something Different, based on the FIT Framework of Fletcher & Stead, 2000). We are also developing a new area of psychological research within a well-used technique in business training and the theatre – improvisation and role play – as another branch of the work on flexibility.

There are three broad strands to the research:

1. Areas where habits interfere with desired behaviours. We have shown, for example, that hand hygiene of health professionals does not mirror what they say (Jenner) and that current approaches to training are unlikely to be successful without attention to habitual behaviours. In the area of acquired brain injury (ABI) (Uprichard, Kupshik) our research suggests that when assessment techniques consider the individual as an active participant in their recovery process, as in the dynamic tests we have developed, the latent knowledge they tap is usefully predictive of recovery outcome (unlike the majority of normal static assessments).

2. Can breaking habits that are distal to the target behaviour bridge the gap between want and act? Our research with dieters suggests that they are more susceptible to external food cues. We have also shown that increasing behavioural flexibility (through daily distal habit breaking regimes) can lead to successful weight loss. The Do Something Different approach also works to reduce anxiety and depression. We are currently examining its efficacy as a smoking cessation tool (Merziani), as a technique to assist families who have to cope with problem children (Sharma), and to assist those with Personality Disorder (Kupshik). In the commercial world, the approach is being used with great success as a personal development tool (www.Corporate FITScience.com). The early research on role play and improvisation (Lovatt) is suggesting that there are cognitive benefits of enhancing behavioural flexibility too.

3. Does the stressed person see the world differently? We are interested in this area because Fletcher’s early work on stress suggested that the perceptions of work stress are consequences rather than causes (in most jobs). The FIT framework has been used as backcloth in our more recent research. Some of this research (N. Page) suggests that environmental stressors are less important than individual differences (in FIT variables) and that cognitive processing is largely unaffected by stress unless it places an online working demand on the person. This helps to understand why stress reduction tools that focus on work, or the environmental factors, have limited efficacy. We are also researching personal coherence at the intra-cognitive level, as well as between cognition and behaviour, as a predictor of negative outcome.

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download FIT Reports - Findings From FIT Science

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Some example publications:

Books since 2000:

FLETCHER, B. (C). & STEAD, B. (Inner) FITness & The FIT Corporation, 2000, International Thomson Press: London ISBN 1-86152-644-X

FLETCHER, B (C), PENMAN, D., & PINE, K. J. The No Diet Diet: Do Something Different. Orion: London, 2006, ISBN 0-75287-400-4
This book has also been published in 19 languages (e.g. Chinese, French, Spanish, Latvian, Portuguese, Japanese, Icelandic, Danish, Italian, Swedish, German, Finnish, Indonesian, Hebrew, Brazilian, Dutch, Russian)

FLETCHER, B (C), PINE, K. J. & PENMAN, D.,, The No Diet Diet: Do Something Different. Orion: London, 2007, 2nd and updated edition. ISBN 978-0-75288-864-4

FLETCHER, B, (C) FIT: A new framework for stress & health. In M.J. Schabrach et al. (Eds), Handbook of Work & Health Psychology, John Wiley, 2004. pp. 549-568.

JONES, F. & FLETCHER, B, (C). Work autonomy & well being. In M.J. Schabrach et al. (Eds), Handbook of Work & Health Psychology, John Wiley, 2004. pp. 121-142.

STEAD R. W. & FLETCHER, B. (C) (2003) FIT for learning: The Learning Personality. In J. Hill, S. Armstrong, M. Graff., S. Rayner, &E. Sadler-Smith (Editors) Conceptions and Uses of Style, Sunderland University Press.

Journal papers:

FLETCHER, B (C), HANSON, J. PINE, K. J & PAGE, N. A new psychological intervention tool for facilitating weight loss: Do Something Different. submitted, 2007

FLETCHER, B. (C), KUPSHIK, G. A., UPRICHARD, S., SHAH, S., & NASH, A. Diagnostic biases in eating disorders – a reconceptualisation of clinical need through Rasch Analysis. European Journal of Eating Disorders. 2007

E. A. JENNER , B. (C) FLETCHER, P. WATSON, F. JONES, L. MILLAR, G.M. SCOTT Discrepancy between self-reported and observed hand hygeiene behaviour in healthcare professional. Journal of Hospital Infection, 2006, 63, 418-422.

FLETCHER, B. (C), PINE, K. J., WOODBRIDGE, Z., & NASH, A. How visual images of chocolate affect guilt and craving of female dieters. Appetite, 2007, 48, 211-218.

E. A. JENNER, F. JONES, B. (C) FLETCHER, L. MILLAR, G.M. SCOTT Review: Hand Hygiene posters: Selling the message. Journal of Hospital Infection, 2005, 59/2, 77-82.

E. A. JENNER, F. JONES, B. (C) FLETCHER, L. MILLAR, G.M. SCOTT Empirical Research: Hand Hygiene posters: Motivators or mixed messages. Journal of Hospital Infection, 2005, 60, 218-225.

CHOLACHATPINYO, A, CROCKER, M., FLETCHER, B. (C), & PADGETT, I, A conceptual model of the fashion process- part 1: the fashion transformation process model. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 2002, vol 6(1), 24-34.

This article won the Literarae Prize of 2003 for the best article in 2002.
CHOLACHATPINYO, A, CROCKER, M., FLETCHER, B. (C), & PADGETT, I, A conceptual model of the fashion process - part 2: an empirical test of the micro-subjective level. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 2002, vol 6(2), 24-35.

FLETCHER, B. (C) & STEAD, R. Intuition & FITness in a personal and organisational context. Drishti:Insight: Journal of ARTDO International. 2000, vol.1 no.1, 9-16