Abstract #209  -  The contribution of cultural-historical activity theory to the problem of lack of behaviour change: examining the individual-social dialectic
Authors:   Presenting Author:   Ms Mary van der Riet - University of KwaZulu-Natal
Additional Authors:  Ms Mary van der Riet,
Aim: This study aimed to explore the application of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) to the problem of behaviour change in response to HIV and AIDS. It aimed to counter the individualistic and cognitive assumptions of many of the commonly used behaviour change theories. It also aimed to provide a critique of the notion of context as a 'variable', or as a 'container', which affects individual behaviour.
Method / Issue: Using a qualitative research approach, 45 participants between the ages of 10 and 71 in a rural area in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa were interviewed about sex, sexuality and sexual health. The study then applied an activity system analysis (Engeström,1996) to the activity of sex.
Results / Comments: Activity theory enables a fundamentally different conceptualisation of behaviour, and therefore of behaviour change, from that which dominates the HIV and AIDS field. It does this through a focus on the activity of sex; through re-framing the notion of context in the form of activity systems; and through understanding the dynamic nature of activity systems.
Discussion: Activity theory, and activity system analysis in particular, provides for strategies of contextualisation, which reveal the way in which 'individual' activity is inextricably related to social, cultural context, and the historical form of the activity. CHAT essentially provides a way of examining the individual-social dialectic. The analysis of the data reveals three critical outcomes of sexual activity: pregnancy, HIV and personhood. The relative role that these outcomes play in the activity system, and the relationship between these outcomes and other components of the activity system, affects whether or not behaviour will change.
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