v CIRCULAR EXCUSES. Common explanations for lack of change become circular arguments. People may blame their resistance to change on stubbornness, an addictive personality, or self-destructiveness. An explanation for refusing to improve a situation may go this way, “Because my situation is hopeless, I can’t change.” The behavior is then used to support the explanation, “I can’t change because my situation is hopeless.”
v REBELLION. Telling someone to change often exacerbates the situation. A highly directive approach causes a person to adamantly resist change. One study showed that the more alcoholics were directed to change the more they drank.
v INERTIA. Systems resist change. Physicists call this resistance to change “inertia.” The first law of motion indicates that people, like objects, tend to keep on moving if they are moving and remain standing still if they are still.
v BLAMING. It is easier to make excuses for our problems than it is to assume responsibility for our own behavior. The statement “If she didn’t nag me so much, I wouldn’t drink,” is an example of blaming others.
v LEARNED HELPLESSNESS. Put an animal in a cage. Apply a mild electrical shock all over the floor of the cage. When the animal discovers that escape is impossible, the animal lies down and passively in the corner of the cage and accepts the shock. Then the electrical shock is applied only to the corner where the animal is lying. The other areas of the cage are shock free. The animal continues to stay in the corner. Humans that are constantly exposed to conditions from which there appear to be no escape will eventually give-up and surrender to the situation.
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