Glossary
Theoretical Domains Framework
What is the Theoretical Domains Framework?
The Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) groups concepts from behavior theories to help investigate barriers and facilitators. A 2012 refinement contains 14 domains; it differs from the earlier 2005 framework.
The 14 domains
The following short prompts illustrate the distinctions in the 2012 domain definitions. They are examples to adapt, not a validated questionnaire.
- Knowledge: What do you know about the required procedure?
- Skills: Which steps can you perform through practice?
- Social or professional role and identity: Is this part of your role?
- Beliefs about capabilities: Do you believe you can do it?
- Optimism: Do you generally expect things to work out?
- Beliefs about consequences: What do you expect will happen if you act?
- Reinforcement: Which rewards or other consequences follow the behavior?
- Intentions: Have you decided to do it?
- Goals: What outcome are you trying to achieve?
- Memory, attention and decision processes: What helps you remember, focus and choose?
- Environmental context and resources: Which working conditions or resources help or hinder?
- Social influences: How do other people affect what you do?
- Emotion: What feelings arise around the task?
- Behavioral regulation: How do you plan, monitor or adjust your actions?
These are categories for questions. For example, is the problem a missing skill, a lack of resources, or an expectation about what will happen? Naming the category begins the investigation rather than finishing it.
How is the TDF used?
Researchers can use the domains to organize interviews and other evidence about a specified behavior. Findings may suggest intervention options or help examine whether an intervention addressed the intended problem.
Start by choosing a behavior that fits the desired outcome and the people involved. The framework can help investigate that behavior, but it cannot make the choice for you. Including social influences and environmental resources also means the assessment need not be limited to individual beliefs.
For the broader capability, opportunity, and motivation structure, see the COM-B model. TDF supplies more detailed categories for investigating the behavior.
An answer-to-domain example
Suppose an employee says, “I intend to complete the equipment checklist, but interruptions make me forget.” An analyst might initially code the stated decision under intentions and the forgetting under memory, attention and decision processes. A follow-up question could reveal that interruptions come from understaffing, making environmental context and resources relevant too. If the employee instead uses a written tracking routine to manage completion, that may concern behavioral regulation.
These codes organize the account; they do not establish its cause. Keep the original answer, explain the coding choice and allow more than one domain when the evidence warrants it.
Evidence and limitations
Cane, O'Connor, and Michie's 2012 study examined how behavioral experts sorted 112 theoretical constructs. Their analysis supported the refined 14-domain grouping.
That validates an organization of concepts, rather than proving that each domain causes a particular behavior or that a TDF-selected intervention works. The framework does not supply a complete causal account of how the domains interact.
Fourteen domains can also require substantial interpretation. Use the detail that helps understand the problem, document uncertain judgments, and test the actual intervention.
Why it matters
The TDF can help a team ask questions it might otherwise miss. A well-organized assessment still needs accurate evidence and a useful next action.