Reddit reviews Self-Directed Behavior (PSY 103 Towards Self-Understanding)

Stop thinking of it as some quality that is hard-coded into you.
The truth is self discipline, like most everything else, improves with practice. It's a continuum, not "off" or "on", and it is a skill you can develop. I'm working on it and you can too. Do yourself a favor and read a book - it's worth the price. http://www.amazon.com/Self-Directed-Behavior-David-L-Watson/dp/0495093246

Ok, this book will change your life. The other books I'm sure are good but they are a completely different type of book. They have catchy names and are written in a fun way to make it easier to read. Not this book. It's an actual textbook, written for you to LEARN the info, not to read it and then put the book down.

The book is called "self directed behavior" and its an actual textbook by a psychologist. This authors work has been cited 366 times. You can get it on amazon here but with some googling you can find a cheaper copy of an earlier edition thats just as good. The one downfall is it's expensive.

Can you imagine, you learn to do math, read, but you should just "know" how to live life? That's a naive concept. This book gives you actual blueprints

From amazon: "Achieve your life goals with SELF-DIRECTED BEHAVIOR! With abundant strategies based on research, this psychology text guides you through exercises for developing skills in self-analysis and teaches you how to apply these skills in different settings. Case examples demonstrate how other students have successfully used the book's techniques, including one student who used shaping to gradually increase her ability to study, and another who learned to be more sure of himself on dates by consciously modeling a friend's confident behavior. '

Lastly, like a math textbook, if you just read without practicing the problems, you won't get through the course/pass the tests so there is work involved.

I've bought this book and given it to multiple people. It would never be in a self help section which is sad because it's one of the best tools there is.

There's a science of human behavior. See Self-directed Behavior.

In short, you're on the right track, but the trip is easier if you have a guide.

It is pretty fucking minor. Instead of hyper-analyzing some poster, consider a) focusing your analysis on yourself, b) toning down the analysis period.

Or apply it usefully: on analyzing what behaviors to apply in what situations.

On what antecedents--what situations, or thoughts or feelings you have right-before, are causing you to fail--or what behaviors you do-instead of the ones you want (like video games instead of studying). Or on what consequences follow your current actions (relief at not talking to that person?) or on building in consequences/reinforcements for actions you want. (ABCs of behavior change: antecedents, behaviors, consequences.) That is, on the 80/20 best way to self-improve: applied behavior analysis; also, see Self-Directed Behavior.

Here's a good start for learning how to learn:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-regulated_learning

For more general advice on self-regulated behavior (e.g. discipline), this is an excellent compilation and organization of scientific research on the subject:

http://www.amazon.com/Self-Directed-Behavior-David-L-Watson/dp/0495093246/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331577672&sr=8-1

edit: And a general but very useful tip for learning... test your learning by trying to explain the material. No looking at your books or notes, just explain it off the top of your head. Pretend you're trying to explain it to a newbie. Or even better, engage in a discussion with someone (in person or on the internet) where you get to explain it. This does two things for you: (1) the act of retrieving and organizing the information helps you encode the information at a deep semantic level, which helps you understand and remember it; and (2) it should become obvious what areas you don't quite yet understand, because you can't quite piece together the explanation. Study again, close all your study materials, and try again to explain it using nothing but your memory and wits. Keep doing that until you've nailed it.

Yes, with behavior modification. The college-level textbook Self-directed Behavior gives you step-by-step instruction in both learning and doing behavior modification on yourself.

Some behavior is a function of personality; it's part of who you are. (Your disorganization might be part of who you are.) Even that kind of behavior responds to behavior modification, but you might need to adjust your expectations a bit.

Depending on the behavior, you might need some additional support from family and friends. For some kinds of behavior, you need the help of a professional. (But probably not in your case.)

No problem, friend. I'm actually a computer engineering student right now, and with any luck I'll get a masters in electrical in a few years. I learned about behavioural psych when I happened to take psychology as an elective, and my professor happened to do it professionally. One of the reasons I love it so much is that before learning about it, I had gone deep into all sorts of other fields of psych in some weird attempt to change myself/find "answers"/understand others and it only truly lead me to confusion at best, and dread at worst. Then I found out about this strictly empirical and evidence based approach to it and thought "woah, this actually makes sense", and after reading about self-management it was like I finally found what I was looking for.


About that book, if you look at the 10th edition on amazon, you'll find that it's pretty pricey. Not to worry, you can find an past edition for about 10 bucks used. You can also check other used book sites like abebooks or thriftbooks. I personally bought the 9th edition for myself, but I've read the 6th edition too since it's at my uni library, and even that one is perfectly fine, you won't be missing much at all. (If I'm being totally nitpicky, I think I'd go with the 6th edition, because in the 9th edition I noticed they incorporated and emphasized some non behavioural research. It's totally minor though. I just get super particular about books.) I feel like I have to type that out as a footnote whenever I rec that book lol.

The book we used was Self directed behavior by David Watson . Lots of really good theories and information on how to change our behaviors. I’m happy to hear that you know what I was talking about.