Causal Pathways

Precision Feedback Causal Pathways

Goal Approach Causal Pathway

This pathway describes the influence of feedback interventions that show the message recipient that their performance is improving, and is approaching an explicit performance goal. This goal is institutional, and invariate with changes to peer performance.

Preconditions

Preconditions for Goal approach are factors that are necessary for the success of the feedback intervention using this pathway. The Goal approach pathway has the following preconditions:

Information content preconditions:

1. Goal comparator content _(BP)
2. Negative performance gap content _(BP)
3. Positive performance trend content _(BP)

Message preconditions:

1. Goal comparator element _(BP)
2. Negative performance gap set _(BP)
3. Positive performance trend set _(BP)

Moderators

Moderators are factors that inhibit or promote the influence of the feedback intervention on the recipient. The Goal approach causal pathway has the following moderators:

1. Message recency - The number of months since this message was delivered previously.
2. Message delivery count - How many times has the recipient previously received this message in the last year?
3. Regulatory fit - To what extent is this message aligned with characteristics of the behavior/task, context, and recipient personality, with regard to motivation to avoid negative outcomes / problem (prevention focus), or motivation to achieve positive outcomes / develop and learn (promotion focus)?
4. Gap size - How large is the gap between the recipient's performance level and that of the social comparator?
5. Slope of trend

Mechanisms

Mechanisms are factors that the intervention operates through to influence the feedback recipient. Adapted from Carey et. al. 2019. The goal approach pathway has the following mechanisms:

1. Awareness (knowledge): The message may change the recipient's awareness of their own performance and of institutional performance goals.
2. Goals: The message may create or reinforce mental representations of outcomes or end states that an individual wants to achieve relative to their clinical performance.
3. Motivation: The message may give the recipient purpose or direction towards changing their own performance.
4. Optimism: The message may increase the recipient's confidence that things will happen for the best or that desired performance goals will be attained.

Outcomes

The expected outcome of a successful goal approach pathway precision feedback intervention is clinical process performance improvement.