Have you ever observed how people try to change their behavior and become increasingly frustrated while they keep on doing the same thing over and over. It’s no easy task to change an individual’s behavior. Prochaska and DiClemente prepare us for the story of change –that it can be a spiral and that there are specific processes that support an individual in moving through each stage.

Last month, in Part 1 of a Journey to Self-Regulation, the focus was on the influence of character on behavior, how people develop habits that help them control their urges. However, there is another interesting way to look at self-regulation that addresses the power of the environment, regardless of how virtuous a person might be.

Aristotle claimed that a virtue or strength is developed through action: “Brave people became brave by doing brave things.” He said there were six states of character development: brutishness, self-indulgence, weakness of will or caving into temptation, strength of will or mastering temptation, character excellence, and heroic excellence.

The use of imagery may be compared to a mental video/DVD library, a cataloged collection of thoughts that one has the power to create, recall, and consequently use to evoke a variety of psycho-physiological responses. We have amassed a great number of mental movies that have been stored in long-term memory. We have good movies, bad movies, and even horror movies.

How an adult responds to, and forgives, a child or adolescent  has lasting consequences. A constructive style of responding can foster self-forgiveness and learning in a young person, while a reactionary style can foster guilt, …

Although sports mean different things to different people, most theorists and enthusiasts would agree that physical activity and sport participation can be intrinsically valuable. We learn the joy of movement and the challenge of …

How do we help children growing up in poverty build “future stories” that give them hope and energy?
In Charles Dicken’s book, A Christmas Carol, the ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge two gaunt children – …

Schools are complex environments with many factors and relationships, as well as people with different values, purposes, and ways of making meaning. The Appreciative Inquiry process is a positive way to incorporate change in schools. It focuses on the “high moments” of people and values the complexity. AI can help people develop healthy relationships by mobilizing and building high quality connections between students and students, teachers and teachers, teachers and students, parents and students, and teachers and parents.

The new school year brings renewed hopes and aspirations for both students and teachers. It is an opportune time for teachers to appeal to the strengths of their students to help them …

Parents and teachers are the major educators of children, for ill or for good. Whether it is through modeling, the feast of dialogue, or the handling of consequences, young people pick …