Self-Directed Behavior: Self-Modification for Personal Adjustment

by David L. Watson and Roland G. Tharp

Book Overview

This effective self-help book presents a workable set of skills that readers can use for tackling their own self-modification programs, whether it be to improve self-confidence in dating, control overeating, implement and exercise program, or give up smoking. The authors' goal is to teach the basic skills necessary for readers to modify the behavior of their own choice, (66%-84% of the students employing these methods have achieved their self-change...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0534092764
• ISBN13: 9780534092764
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Thomson Brooks/Cole
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.58 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Don't listen to the bad reviews

I first had to read this for a college class and at the time I thought the same way some of the negative reviewers did -- Its boring, its "common sense". But the more I encountered situations with friends and family where I thought "you know this is something you could easily control with a behavioral therapy plan" the more I realized that what the professor I had said was true -- If you just skim the book without trying to apply the principles, it won't mean much to you. But if you think of it practically (and try a project of some kind yourself) you'll realize the power of it. Most people get discouraged when they try to change themselves because they try to do too much at once. Taking baby steps IS common sense, but if its so easy and anyone knew how to do it, we'd all be exactly the people we want to be, now wouldn't we? I recommend this book to EVERYONE who says "I wish I could do this" or "I wish I didn't always think like that". If you want to change and you're willing to sit down, make a good plan, and follow through with it, this method will work for you. If you don't really want to change, or you don't believe you can, then you'll fail and it isn't the method's fault.

self help book that really seemed to help

This book is a step by step instruction guide of how to think before you act, which is easier said than done. It helped me to learn how to recognize when I'm starting a pattern behavior and opened up my mind up to thinking ahead of time different various ways to cope or react. I would recommend reading this book once all the way through & then going back more slowly and going through one chapter at a time while writing out your journal. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to make a change but doesn't know where or how to start.

Behavior is not Being, don't feel threatened.

This book is great for changing behaviors that are non-productive. As a former reviewer stated, it does require you to be much tougher with yourself than the usual self-help book. It also demands action, which is where most people have trouble. It is one thing to say you want to change something, but quite another to get off your bottom and do it! I do not think you need to be "science-minded" to get the drift of this book. I find the scientific method laughable in much of the research, especially in psychology, where it has supposedly found "proof". What you have to be is willing to change your behavior. In my view, behavior does not constitute character. I could do without the smoking and the anxiety. I would never define myself as a smoker or an anxious person. The suggestions in the book simply make you more efficient at being the person you were meant to be. You take care of the lower processes then you can put your higher processing to work-meaning your thoughts, ambitions, dreams, goals, etc. Take the plunge, you won't be sorry. If it seems too simple, it's because it IS simple. Some of us could use the reminder. Just do it.