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I have been critical of Sartre; but I am sympathetic to many of his ideas. He rejects an objectivist view of the self and self-knowledge and emphasizes how much of what makes a person the person he is lacks determination in the sense that it is not something that is fixed independently of his fundamental choices. These are open to revision and so any person is open to change: such change is always within the realm of possibility for him. This for Sartre is the fundamental freedom which defines human existence.

This chapter considers the role of social comparison in self change. Social comparison is relevant for change processes because individuals gain knowledge about themselves through comparison with other persons. There are ways in which comparison may serve as a trigger to self change, if social comparisons show a reason for dissatisfaction with the self and suggest a goal for improvement. Some types of social comparison are useful for reducing subjective distress, which could help persons to activate a coping or self-change effort. However, there may be conditions in which the focus is on self-protection or avoidance of social comparison, which could serve to deter the commencement of a change effort. The purpose of this chapter is to show how social comparison theory is relevant to self change and to delineate conditions under which certain kinds of comparison may occur.

Trying to self improve and self change are highly appreciated personal endeavors in current western culture (Rieff, 1966; Starker, 1988; Wilson, 1976). A variety of formal enterprises, flourishing in past decades, reflect the need for self change. These include psychotherapies (Beit-Hallahmi, 1987; Zilbergeld, 1983), encounter, self-help, and awareness training groups (Back, 1972; Finkelstein, Wenegrat & Yalom, 1982; Gottlieb, 1988; Klar et al., 1990), and dieting or physical fitness programs (Haber, 1984).

Bower & Gilbody ([2005][1]) raised questions about stepped care in psychological therapies to which I would like to provide some answers. Our treatment evaluation study of guided self-change for bulimia nervosa incorporated a self-care manual and investigated acceptability, drop-out rate, ‘extra

This study investigated the change processes that laypersons (N = 270) and psychologists (N = 158) reported using to overcome psychological distress. Eighty-nine percent of the community sample and 82% of the professional sample experienced at least one episode of distress. Interpersonal relationships and willpower strategies were employed commonly in both samples; medication was used infrequently. Gender, education, and previous treatment were related to coping processes among laypersons. A comparative analysis indicated that, relative to laypersons, psychologists exhibited a larger and more varied repertoire of coping strategies.

This study investigated the relationship between the anticipation of change, construct meaningfulness, construct differentiation, and the amount of change occurring on personal constructs over a six-week period. The anticipation of change was defined as the degree of change the subject expected to occur over the six-week time period. The anticipation of change was positively related to the amount of change that occurred in the construing of the self. Construct meaningfulness was defined as the importance of the construct for understanding the self. There was a negative relationship between construct meaningfulness and the amount of change that occurred over the six-week interval. Construct differentiation was defined in terms of the relationship between constructs. A less differentiated construct has relationships with many other constructs; a more differentiated construct is more independent of other constructs. Although self-change was more likely to occur on more differentiated constructs, this relationship decreased to near zero when the effects of anticipating change and construct meaningfulness were controlled. In summary, self-change is most likely to occur on constructs on which the person sees change as likely, which are less important to the person, and are more independent of other constructs.

The study compared 38 maintainers and 24 relapsers who had quit smoking on their own. The results suggest that successful self-changers relied more on inner-directed, experiential processes of change, while the relapsers relied more on environmental change processes. Successful changers experienced markedly higher levels of self-efficacy, while relapsers reported least confidence in coping with situations that evoke negative emotions. The maintainers experience high congruence between their basic self-concepts and their concepts of self as non-smokers. The relapsers see themselves as more anxious, dependent, and helpless in their role as smokers. The results are discussed in terms of how greater reliance on experiential processes of self-change can lead to more successful attempts at cessation of smoking than reliance on environmental processes of change.

Efficacy expectations are postulated to mediate all behavior change. This study examined the construct of self-efficacy in the self-change of smoking behavior. A 31-item measure of self-efficacy was used that included ratings of both temptation (cue strength) and confidence (efficacy). The subjects were 957 volunteers representing five stages of self change: (1) immotives, (2) contemplators, (3) recent quitters, (4) long-term quitters, and (5) relapsers. Subjects were assessed initially and at a 3- to 5-month follow-up. The self-efficacy scale proved to be an extremely reliable and coherent instrument with identifiable but not clearly interpretable subcomponents. Groups of subjects demonstrated significant differences in total self-efficacy scores. Efficacy expectations demonstrated small but significant relationships with smoking history variables and the pros and cons of smoking, but not with demographic, life stress, or persistence measures. Subject's efficacy evaluations at the initial assessment were related to changes in status for recent quitters and contemplators at the follow-up. The relationship between temptation and efficacy ratings is complex and varies for subjects in the various stages of change. Correlations between total self-efficacy and temptation scores were largest for contemplators (r = −.65) and relapsers (r = −.67) and smallest for the recent quitters (r = −.18). Finally, the magnitude of the difference between temptation and efficacy increased with length of abstinence for subjects in maintenance.

The need for psychology departments to offer course instruction in behavioral self-change is presented. Results of a random survey suggest that less than 10% of psychology programs offer such instruction, despite evidence in the literature of its effectiveness and popularity with students. My own behavioral self-change course is described and specific suggestions for implementing the course are included. The course offers students an opportunity to apply proven psychological principles to their own lives and thus meets the needs for personal relevance of education. The course also remains true to scientific rigor by introducing and integrating several important concepts from research methods and behavior modification.

The idea or indeed the possibility of self–change is rarely discussed in general terms, though many religious aims relate to it. I wish to introduce aset of concepts relevant to the understanding of the idea; and to exhibit the Buddhist path, as described in the Pali texts, as an example of radical self–change. The general concepts and the particular example will have muchto do with the senses in which, when a person acts or intends, the action or intention is truly his; and so will involve an examination of the notion of self–control.

Cigarette smokers who quit on their own (n = 29) were compared with subjects from two commercial therapy programs: Aversion Group (n = 18) and Behavior Management Group (n = 16). Subjects were administered a Change-Process Questionnaire and a demographic and smoking-history questionnaire within seven weeks of successful cessation, then interviewed again in five months. Using a transtheoretical model of change developed by Prochaska (1979) six verbal and four behavioral processes of change and three stages of change (Decision to Change; Active Change; Maintenance) were analyzed. Subjects in each treatment group were middle class, heavy-smoking adults. The change-process analysis of cessation discriminated between the self-quitters and therapy quitters and between the two groups of therapy subjects on five variables. Stages of change interacted with the processes of change in the cessation of smoking behavior. Verbal processes were seen as important in making the decision to change while action processes were critical for breaking the actual smoking habit. Maintenance of cessation was related to, but not dependent on, how subjects actively changed smoking behavior.

The purpose of this study was to validate and adapt the Self-Change Strategies in Current Smokers (SCS-CS) and the Self-Change Strategies in Former Smokers (SCS-FS) (Christie & Etter, 2005) to the Spanish population. We also wished to analyze the differences in the self-change strategies used as a function of gender. Participants were 370 subjects (190 smokers and 180 former smokers) who were recruited by means of the “snowball” method. The alpha coefficients for the SCS-CS and the SCS-FS were .86 and .87, respectively. Both scales present satisfactory psychometric properties, so they are shown to be useful instruments to use in the Spanish population. The SCS-CS score showed that male smokers used more self-change strategies than females (46.6 vs. 11.9, p < .01), specifically, more cognitive strategies. In the SCS-CS, men scored higher than women (49 vs. 12.08, p < .01), in both the group of cognitive and behavioral strategies. The psychological mechanisms used to control the smoking habit are the same in men as in women, but the men tend to use a larger number of strategies. Treatments to quit smoking do not need to be substantially different, but they should be more intensive in the case of women smokers.