Abcde Model: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Abcde Model, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
About 2 minutes
Try it here: test a belief against the evidence
Write the event, the belief you hold about it, and the evidence against that belief. Keep it short and factual.
Write the event, your belief about it, and the evidence against the belief.
Practices that may help
- The COM-B Model and Behavior Change Wheel
COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behavior) is a diagnostic framework developed by Michie and colleagues that maps the three conditions any behavior requires: you must be able to do it, have the opportunity to do it, and want to do it. Research supporting COM-B as a systematic intervention framework is largely expert-consensus and observational rather than RCT; its main value is stopping you from applying the wrong lever. - Run the ABCDE disputation
Map adversity → belief → consequence, then dispute the belief with evidence.
Learned Optimism: Seligman’s ABCDE Method - Behavioral Chain Analysis: The DBT Method for Understanding Problem Behaviors
Behavioral chain analysis (BCA), a core DBT skill developed by Marsha Linehan, maps every link in the chain of events — from the original vulnerability through the triggering event, thoughts, feelings, and actions — that led to a problem behavior. By making the chain visible, BCA reveals multiple points where the sequence could have been broken, turning a post-hoc autopsy into a concrete prevention plan. - Build branches that are MECE at every level
Ensure each set of branches is mutually exclusive (no overlap) and collectively exhaustive (nothing important missing).
Issue Tree Analysis - Constantly distinguish the map from the territory
A model is a simplification — know precisely where yours breaks down.
Mental Models: Charlie Munger’s Latticework Approach - The Big Five Personality Model
The Big Five (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism — OCEAN) is the most empirically validated personality framework in academic psychology. Knowing your trait profile is useful not as a fixed identity but as a statistical map of your behavioral tendencies under different conditions — especially as a diagnostic for where effort and environmental design can close the gap between your natural defaults and your goals. - Maintain a personal model catalog with examples
Keep a written inventory of your models, each illustrated with a real example from your own experience.
Mental Models: Charlie Munger’s Latticework Approach - Learned Optimism: Seligman’s ABCDE Method
Learned optimism, from Martin Seligman’s research program, teaches you to identify and dispute the pessimistic explanations you generate automatically after setbacks — using his ABCDE model (Adversity, Belief, Consequence, Disputation, Energization). Clinical and observational research links shifting from pessimistic to flexible explanatory style to reduced depression risk and better persistence; effects are real but modest, and the goal is accuracy, not forced positivity. - Diagnose which element — motivation, ability, or prompt — is the bottleneck
When a behavior isn’t happening, ask: Is the person motivated enough? Can they do it? Are they being prompted?
The Fogg Behavior Model, Made Practical - The Fogg Behavior Model, Made Practical
BJ Fogg’s model states that behavior happens when three elements converge at the same moment: sufficient motivation, sufficient ability, and a prompt. If a behavior isn’t happening, one of these three is the bottleneck — and diagnosing which one tells you exactly what to change. The model is practitioner-developed with strong theoretical grounding; large-scale RCT evidence is limited but the framework is widely used in product design and behavior change programs.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- When something goes wrong I spiral straight into the dark conclusion and the bad feeling, and I want an actual step-by-step way to slow that down and argue back with evidence instead of just sinking.
- I’ve broken the problem into pieces but they keep bleeding into each other and I have a nagging fear I’ve left a whole chunk out entirely
- I trust my favorite framework so completely that I apply it everywhere without checking, and lately it’s been quietly steering me wrong
- I read all these brilliant thinking tools and nod along, and then the moment I’m actually facing a hard problem not one of them comes to mind
- I keep failing at the same thing and I’ve decided I’m just lazy or weak
Related concerns
- B Model
COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behavior) is a diagnostic framework developed by Michie and colleagues that maps the three conditions any behavior requires: you must be able to do it, have the opportunity to do it, and want to do it. Research supporting COM-B as a systematic intervention framework is largely expert-consensus and observational rather than RCT; its main value is stopping you from applying the wrong lever.
- How To Use Abc Model
After a failure or rejection, write out the ABC chain and the USA disputation before bed.
USA journaling: write your way to acceptance
- Com B Model And Theoretical Domains Framework
COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behavior) is a diagnostic framework developed by Michie and colleagues that maps the three conditions any behavior requires: you must be able to do it, have the opportunity to do it, and want to do it. Research supporting COM-B as a systematic intervention framework is largely expert-consensus and observational rather than RCT; its main value is stopping you from applying the wrong lever.
- Com B Model Psychology
COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behavior) is a diagnostic framework developed by Michie and colleagues that maps the three conditions any behavior requires: you must be able to do it, have the opportunity to do it, and want to do it. Research supporting COM-B as a systematic intervention framework is largely expert-consensus and observational rather than RCT; its main value is stopping you from applying the wrong lever.
- Comb B Model
COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behavior) is a diagnostic framework developed by Michie and colleagues that maps the three conditions any behavior requires: you must be able to do it, have the opportunity to do it, and want to do it. Research supporting COM-B as a systematic intervention framework is largely expert-consensus and observational rather than RCT; its main value is stopping you from applying the wrong lever.
- Comb Model In Research
COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behavior) is a diagnostic framework developed by Michie and colleagues that maps the three conditions any behavior requires: you must be able to do it, have the opportunity to do it, and want to do it. Research supporting COM-B as a systematic intervention framework is largely expert-consensus and observational rather than RCT; its main value is stopping you from applying the wrong lever.
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