Theoretical domains framework
Fourteen domains that together capture every psychological and environmental influence on a behavior.
What it means
The Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) is an integrative tool that synthesizes dozens of behavior-change theories into fourteen domains — including knowledge, skills, beliefs about capabilities, beliefs about consequences, social influences, environmental context and resources, emotion, intentions, goals, and reinforcement — that together encompass the full range of influences on a target behavior. Its purpose is diagnostic: rather than committing in advance to a single theory, practitioners use the fourteen domains as a comprehensive checklist to investigate which factors are actually acting as barriers and enablers of a specific behavior in a specific setting, most often in healthcare and implementation science. The mechanism of use is typically structured interviews or surveys coded against the domains, which surface the precise levers that need to be addressed and then map onto intervention design via the Behaviour Change Wheel and technique taxonomy. By spanning capability, opportunity, and motivation, it ensures that an analysis does not overlook whole classes of influence, such as emotion or environment, that narrower theories might miss. It matters because it turns the unwieldy proliferation of behavior-change theories into a single, usable framework for diagnosing why a desired behavior is not happening before designing how to change it.
Examples
Interviewing clinicians against the fourteen domains pinpoints exactly why a clinical guideline is not being followed — whether the gap is knowledge, skills, environment, or beliefs.
A factory blames workers for skipping ear protection. Coding interviews against the domains shows the barrier is not knowledge but environment — the plugs are stored two floors away — and norms on the line.
Before redesigning a recycling scheme, a council surveys residents across all fourteen domains and finds emotion and beliefs about consequences — not skills — explain why bins go unsorted.
First described in Michie et al. (2005); Cane, O'Connor & Michie (2012).