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Personal behavior change

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It is a new year, a new beginning! And we wanted to impress others that we are rejuvenated or renewed to face the challenges and opportunities before us in the next twelve months.

This condition means to behave differently compared in the past, and to become more responsive or adaptive to a new period in our life.

And I am referring here only about personal behavior change (which also includes group and institutional behaviors, according to policy expert and researcher Dr. Ben Malayang III).

Like in the previous years, we engage ourselves again in the ritual of listing our new year’s resolutions–as planned behavior change– and it is always about something for the better compared to our immediate past.

It is a decision-making process of getting rid of unwanted behaviors, and of embracing new ways of doing things given specific context to achieve desired results.

Planning to change behavior means that we realize that our past practices were wrong, that we have to change them either according to what we believe is the appropriate thing to do, or what our group norms have said.

Social pressures and sanctions, as well as those circumstances beyond our control, like environmental changes, are driving forces for behavior change, and these are inevitable to us as social beings.

In a positive light, we have the urge to change because we feel we can improve whatever unwanted or limited behaviors we have, given our endowed capacity. This intrinsic mode to change behavior is more sustainable, but this does not just happen in isolation.

For change to happen, this gesture anchored on positive reinforcements increases our desire to become better people for survival. Thus, behavior change likewise manifests human adaptation.

But whose standards or rules should we abide by to direct our decision to change and achieve appropriate behavior?

As discussed by anthropologists, this question revolves around the debate between the subjectivity and objectivity of human or cultural behavior. That is, deciding between changing behavior according to own conviction of what is right and wrong versus complying as a response to imposed standards.

The first position is pursued by the promoters of cultural relativism or the social construction of reality, while the second is the argument of the adherents of cultural absolutism.

Furthermore, the former abhors to the plurality of truth, while the latter maintains that there is a monopoly of truth.

The two argue not only about which side carries what is right, but they cannot also agree for whose good–is it for all, the majority, a selected few or for self? But this is an infinite question which I cannot further pursue here.

Nonetheless, behavior change is best achieved, according to the first school of thought, by making people visualize or realize the benefits they will enjoy as results for doing what they believe is right.

Meanwhile, the second is by conditioning people about the reward or punishment they will receive for being obedient, or not even without understanding what the proper behavior is–a case of blind obedience.

So as we start to contemplate what behavior we have to change in 366 days or 12 months of 2020, let these Parsonian questions guide us. What behavior should I correct or change for the better? Why should I even do this? What would this give me and the people around in the short term and the long run? What sacrifices or challenges should I have to make or confront with? How should I do this to be successful?

As a recollection, I used to smoke a lot during college because of peer pressure, and when I was newly-married and engulfed with fieldwork. I had only internalized what I know about the harmful health effects and financial cost of smoking as I witnessed my sons growing up. I did not want them to be smokers also, but for some time, I resisted their advice for me to quit smoking.

It was ironic that finally one day, after weighing the benefits and costs of smoking, I just stopped. I never experienced that withdrawal syndrome that smokers used to justify why they cannot quit.

My past unwanted behavior may take other forms to other people, but the essence is the same. It was my usual annual new year’s resolution during my younger years to quit smoking.

Indeed, we cannot do anything about our not-so -good or dark past because it is over now but we can still shape the future by doing the right actions at present as we still have the time.

What should be done? We have to realize the negative consequences of our unacceptable behaviors toward people and the environment so we could find alternative activities which give more or less the same benefits but in different forms.

Moreover, we have to gather the needed resources to pursue such activities that include the various social supports around us to fill in the temporary gaps created due to a shift in our behavior, until the change has become part of what is normal.

_____________________________________

Author’s email: [email protected]

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