LEVERAGE BEHAVIOR SETTING THEORY TO BUILD YOUR LIFE ARCHITECTURE

You’ve tried the trendy morning rituals. You’ve downloaded the popular habit-tracking apps. You’ve even rearranged your schedule to prioritize quality time with either yourself or your loved ones. Though somehow, flash forward a month later, you’re back to doom scrolling in your bed, skipping healthy morning routines, and dwelling on why you can’t seem to change.

Most might think the problem is a lack of willpower or motivation, but it’s that you’re fighting against your environment each day. While you’re pouring all your energy into changing your behavior, your surroundings and environment are quietly working against you and reinforcing the already established and subtle patterns they’re designed for with the power of familiarity.

So, I’ll tell you the secret to lasting change. It’s not about trying harder, it’s about designing smarter. What if your home, the stage where our personal development begins, could be your greatest ally in successful and productive self-growth?

Social scientist Roger Barker

In his 1968 book "Ecological Psychology: Concepts and Methods for Studying the Environment of Human Behavior," Roger Barker, a prominent social scientist, theorized a concept called behavior settings. Barker developed the behavior setting theory to explain the connection between individuals and the social environment that surrounds them. 

Beginning in the late 1940s in Oskaloosa, Kansas, and continuing for decades, Barker conducted a naturalistic study focusing and observing everyday activities in public settings. He and his team at the Midwest Psychological Field Station discovered how patterns of behavior correlated directly with environmental contexts, thus identifying “behavior settings.”

These stable environments foster predictable patterns of behavior due to their physical structure, social roles and frequent activities. They are more than just places, but functional spaces that shape behavior with both the environment and social expectations associated with it.

As a behavior setting, your home combines space, function and social structure in ways that shape and stabilize daily life. One could even argue that to truly understand and assess a person's — or your own — behavior, you must observe not only the person but where they live as well.

Your home, whatever it looks like, is the quintessential example of a behavior setting through the lens of Roger Barker's theory.

The first and most obvious example to support this idea is your home's physical architecture. Your kitchen offers opportunities for cooking, eating, and social gathering. The bedroom creates space for rest, sleep, and privacy, just as the living room supports conversation and relaxation.

Though it's not just your physical environment that shapes us, but our routines, too. Children do homework at the table while their parents cook dinner around the same time each night, and then afterward, the family gathers around the TV after the meal. Repetitive behaviors like these form structured and observable behavior tied to the space, eventually leading to the development of our own habits and preferences.

But Barker didn't just identify how environments shape behavior — he discovered what makes some environments more powerful than others. Home is the stage where your life begins, and it’s also the setting that fosters your personal development. Life architecture is about leveraging Barker's theory to your advantage. In fact, he created a term for it.

To complement the behavior setting theory, he introduced the idea of synomorphy — the perfect balance between physical and behavioral patterns. When there is equilibrium between your home's design and your behavior, the environment achieves synomorphy.

Opt for an open floor plan kitchen layout to gather your family around delicious meals, or designate space for your hobbies in an effort to step away from the screens we stare at every day. Creating spaces that support your existing behaviors, and potential new ones, is what Life Architecture is all about.

Life Architecture is the practice of designing your environment to support who you want to become, not just accommodate who you are now. Instead of depending on sheer willpower and discipline to override the power of your environment - Life Architecture harnesses its power to work in your favor. 

Barker’s behavior setting theory and the power of synomorphy both point to one profound truth: No one needs to be a passive character of their environment’s influence. You can become its architect.

By making strategic choices that create harmony between your environment and your goals, you’re not just decorating— but redesigning the behavioral patterns your environment creates. When you change your space with purpose, you alter existing behavioral patterns, ultimately, evolving who you become.

Your home shaped who you are today, now it’s time to shape your home to support who you want to be tomorrow.

Life Architecture. It’s not a lifestyle. It’s life’s work. Continue to explore more in The Living Edit.