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Sunday, January 07, 2007
Self-experimentation and self-efficacy
After reading about self-experimentation on Seth Roberts's blog, I've been thinking about the connections between self-experimentation and self-efficacy. Self-experimentation presupposes that it's possible to change one's circumstances, and before starting any self-experiment, the "subject" needs to believe that it's theoretically possible for them to change their circumstances and needs to put serious thought into the reasons for their problems and possible solutions, already more than most people do.
Take the perennial problem of the graduate student: procrastination. Nearly all graduate students and many academics procrastinate: e.g., the dead professor whose desk I used while researching quantum computing made small sculptures from paperclips and dental floss. Some view procrastination as an inevitable and discouraging part of academia, but it's also possible to try to find solutions and feel in better control. Viewing procrastination as an area of self-experimentation (as Seth Roberts discusses in his blog), that forces the subject-investigator to formulate potential solutions, try them one at a time, give them a shot at working, and assess them.
It seems to me that any reasonable intervention to improve procrastination in which a protocol is followed would improve procrastination: most of the problem with procrastination is that it's mindless, disordered, and makes people feel helpless. Following any experimental protocol is a step in the right direction, and if people start to believe that the intervention works, their feelings of self-efficacy could snowball as they begin to truly believe that they have control over a part of their life which felt disordered.
As I enter my final semester of graduate school and think about the work habits that I would like to improve, and the interventions that I would attempt, it seems that anything including watching Eretz Nehederet or dancing to a hip-hop song after writing a certain number of pages or taking a 15 minute walk first thing in the morning could work, as long as I put enough effort to increase my sense of self-efficacy.
Take the perennial problem of the graduate student: procrastination. Nearly all graduate students and many academics procrastinate: e.g., the dead professor whose desk I used while researching quantum computing made small sculptures from paperclips and dental floss. Some view procrastination as an inevitable and discouraging part of academia, but it's also possible to try to find solutions and feel in better control. Viewing procrastination as an area of self-experimentation (as Seth Roberts discusses in his blog), that forces the subject-investigator to formulate potential solutions, try them one at a time, give them a shot at working, and assess them.
It seems to me that any reasonable intervention to improve procrastination in which a protocol is followed would improve procrastination: most of the problem with procrastination is that it's mindless, disordered, and makes people feel helpless. Following any experimental protocol is a step in the right direction, and if people start to believe that the intervention works, their feelings of self-efficacy could snowball as they begin to truly believe that they have control over a part of their life which felt disordered.
As I enter my final semester of graduate school and think about the work habits that I would like to improve, and the interventions that I would attempt, it seems that anything including watching Eretz Nehederet or dancing to a hip-hop song after writing a certain number of pages or taking a 15 minute walk first thing in the morning could work, as long as I put enough effort to increase my sense of self-efficacy.
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