Can we effect personal change?

For those of us who’ve been watching the news, it’s obvious that change has come to Washington. The most visible sign is that we will soon have a self-described mutt (in his case half black and half white) with immediate family from 3 different continents in the White house! How did it happen? It began with the efforts of one very effective community organizer who inspired many of us to find time in our busy schedules to work for something we believed in. It took thousands of volunteers and tons of time and money. But if we want to change something in our own personal lives, does it take that much effort?

According to this month’s Scientific American Mind article “Set in Our ways”, we are constantly yearning for something new, yet we begin to loose our appetite for novelty after age 30. Why? Well the most likely explanation is that we get bogged down by the responsibilities of life. Substantial change in our lives becomes more difficult as we develop social circles (ie work, family) that we are more interdependent with. The upside is that we become more reliable and agreeable with age.

Because new experiences can bring “chaos and uncertainty”, we become creatures of habit and hold onto what is familiar. According to brain researcher Gerhard Roth at the University of Berlin, habits imbue us with “feelings of pleasure”, and “holding to the tried and true gives us a feeling of security, safety and competence while at the same time reducing our fear of the future and failure”.

A study by Kate C. McLean at the University of Toronto Mississauga found that young people were more profoundly affected by novel experiences than older people. This is in line with research from Brent W. Roberts at the University of Illinois who found that our personalities become increasingly stable till about 60, when they begin to become less stable. Interestingly, it is this time in an adult’s life where children leave home.

Some people are more open to changes than others. Psychologist Richard W. Robins of the University of CA at Davis showed in a longitudinal study that the personality trait “openness”, relative to others, is a life-long trait.

So with societal responsibilities and what appears to be an ingrained desire for stability, how can we overcome this monumental force to induce personal change?

First we need to understand that the older we get, the harder it will be to change. Second, our self-efficacy, our belief in our power to achieve a goal matters. If our self-efficacy is too high, we are more vulnerable to “false hope syndrome”, where we may fail due to overblown expectations. We may launch forward without fully appreciating the challenges we face, and thus we may fail to educate ourselves about the best way to achieve our goals. In the case of trying to change a bad habit, we need to realize that we might rebel if are feeling deprived, and that our body may be more willing to accept small and gradual changes. We also need to recognize that our brains have been wired or programmed for a long time to engage in a particular habit, and that it takes time and persistence to change that wiring. Setting more realistic goals maybe the key to success. If our self-efficacy is too low, we may be easily discouraged, and become resigned to a belief that change is out of our control. Thus for effective personal change, perhaps the first thing we should work on is self-efficacy, which can be influenced by our social interactions, having appropriate models for change, our experiences and our perceptions of our physiological responses.

There is much research that looks at factors required to influence personal behaviors, habits and addictions. Stay tune for more details in future blogs. Meanwhile, returning to the question of whether personal change takes a monumental amount of time, people and money as it did to change our leadership: I believe for our most ingrained habits, it does. But I also believe if we begin by working on our self-efficacy, as Obama did with the mantra “Yes we can”, that we are off to the right start!