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Table 1 Schedule of weekly core themes and micro-interventions

From: PEACH, a smartphone- and conversational agent-based coaching intervention for intentional personality change: study protocol of a randomized, wait-list controlled trial

Week

Weekly core theme (Source)

Brief description

Individualized implementation intentionc

Psycho-educationb

Behavioral activation tasksc

Individualized progress feedbacka

1

Organizing a change teamd [27]

Participants are asked to inform 1-3 significant others such as friends or family members to talk with them about their change goals, the coaching intervention itself and to keep them updated during the intervention.

Implementation intention 1

Daily film clip or scientific input

Behavioral activation task 1

Dashboard

2

Learning from experiences by systematic reflectionb [17]

People are asked to analyze their own behavior and advance explanations for the resulting success or failure to learn from both. Questions that prompt self-explanations include: “How did you contribute to the performance?” or “How effective were you in the experience”. Then participants are confronted with questions such as “Consider a different approach that could have been taken.” And finally they should ask themselves: “What worked and what did not work? How will you behave in the future?”

Implementation intention 2

Daily film clip or scientific input

Behavioral activation task 2

Dashboard

3

Identifying situational/ contextual triggersb [23]

Participants learn how to identify situational and contextual triggers (e.g., people, places, time in the day) that help or hinder them to show their desired behavior.

Implementation intention 3

Daily film clip or scientific input

Behavioral activation task 3

Dashboard

4

Thinking and writing about the pro’s and con’s of changea [15]

Participants think about advantages and disadvantages of changing in the desired direction and of staying the same. This might eventually also enhance individual change motivation.

Implementation intention 4

Daily film clip or scientific input

Behavioral activation task 4

Dashboard

5

Learning from others by observational learningb [20, 21]

Participants should look out for people in their environment, who already show their desired behavior. They analyze what these people are doing differently and try to model this behavior.

Implementation intention 5

Daily film clip or scientific input

Behavioral activation task 5

Dashboard

6

Self-reflection by means of introspectionb [21, 22]

Participants should watch their own thoughts and feelings when they are able to show their desired behavior and thoughts and feelings when they are not able to show the desired behavior.

Implementation intention 6

Daily film clip or scientific input

Behavioral activation task 6

Dashboard

7

Keeping a diary of strengths and resourcesd [28]

Participants are asked to think about what they are grateful in life and about their personal strengths.

Implementation intention 7

Daily film clip or scientific input

Behavioral activation task 7

Dashboard

8

Reflecting about strengths and resources using the tree of resourcesd [29]

Participants write down individual resources inside their tree of resources in order to visualize and reflect about personal strengths and positive aspects of life.

Implementation intention 8

Daily film clip or scientific input

Behavioral activation task 8

Dashboard

9

Thinking about the desired personality using miracle questionsa [16]

Miracle questions are thought experiments, which ask people to imagine their desired personality, their desired future and specific plans and their priorities for the next five years.

Implementation intention 9

Daily film clip or scientific input

Behavioral activation task 9

Dashboard

10

Looking forward and thinking about the futured [30]

Participants should think about future plans, dreams, hopes, and poss

Implementation intention 10

Daily film clip or scientific input

Behavioral activation task 10

Dashboard

  1. Note. aActuating discrepancy awareness; btargeting thoughts and feelings to realize insight; ctargeting behaviors to realize practice; dactivate strengths and resources to realize strengths-orientation; since these general change mechanisms are overlapping in content, weekly core themes and micro-interventions might fit to more than just one general change mechanism