Application of Behavior Change Theory to the Development

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BEHAVIOR CHANGE THEORY
violations. A driver is classified as a negligent driver when four, six, or eight points are
levied within a 12-, 24-, or 36-month period, respectively. The first level of intervention,
a warning letter, was mailed to a total of 267,315 California drivers in 2001. That same
year, an additional 63,884 drivers received a second level treatment letter, Notice of
Intent to Suspend, when they reached a point count equal to one fewer than the prima
facie definition of negligent operator. Finally, 44,086 Californians were notified that
they had reached the prima facie definition of negligent operator, thereby invoking an
automatic suspension of their driving privilege. However, the suspension was often
reduced to a probation period when the driver requested a hearing with the
Department to explain extenuating circumstances relating to their driving records. If
the driver accumulates subsequent countable convictions while under negligent
operator probation, the Department will take a suspension action.
With the discontinuation of the NOTES program in 1995, legislative and departmental
decision makers were denied an empirical basis for assessing program effectiveness.
Furthermore, it is known that the effects of treatments change over time, but there is no
system in place to evaluate whether the current treatments remain effectual.
Overview of Current Study
The goal of this literature review is to study the relationships between the theory and
practice of constructing treatment letters for the purpose of identifying components
likely to improve their effectiveness with high-risk drivers.
Specifically, treatment letter components recommended in the traffic safety literature
were compared with the elements of a theoretical model of behavior change. Then, the
contents of a sample of warning letters were evaluated against these elements in an
attempt to identify the frequency with which each appeared in the sample. The first
reason for these specific emphases is practical, the second financial and the third
theoretical. McBride and Peck (1970) addressed the first consideration when they stated
that the advantages of an effective warning letter over a meeting are obvious when it is
recognized that a larger number of drivers can be contacted more rapidly and easily,
and it may be possible to make a letter as effective as a meeting for improving traffic
safety.
Secondly, given limited financial resources, government needs to be mindful of
opportunities for providing improved services at reduced costs. In this spirit,
California’s NOTES program has produced a large and reliable, positive traffic safety
impact through a strategy of mailing inexpensive letter treatments to thousands of
negligent operators. In this way, relatively small effect sizes were magnified into the
statistically significant and cost-effective results reported in this review of the literature.
In addition, as reported by McBride and Peck (1970), the rapid delivery of a letter
intervention has the potential to prevent the need for a more costly meeting between the
negligent-operator and the department.
Finally, for more than 50 years, traffic safety researchers have been studying the results
associated with a variety of treatments and commenting on the elements needed to
create more effective treatments. Adding credence to the accuracy of these early traffic
safety researcher’s intuitive recommendations, a more disciplined research agenda in