In an opinion piece published by Psychology Today, Dartmouth’s Kathryn Lively writes about “self change,” and what helps and what doesn’t when people try to make changes in their lives.
Mentioning an exercise she does with her social psychology students, Lively says, “I begin by asking them to get really clear on what the desired change is and—in particular—how it relates to how they see themselves. I then ask them to put it in an identity statement, stated in the positive: I am a healthy person, I am a regular exerciser, I am an organized student, I am someone who loves and cares for my body.”
As the course progresses, students get to look at what their expectations were, whether they succeeded or failed in reaching their goals, and what factors affected the outcomes, writes Lively, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology.
Read the full opinion piece, published 11/17/13 by Psychology Today.
