Quotes About Behaviors

If my decision to have a second cup of coffee this morning was due to a random release of neurotransmitters, how could the indeterminacy of the initiating event count as the free exercise of my will? Chance occurrences are by definition ones for which I can claim no responsibility. And if certain of my behaviors are truly the result of chance, they should be surprising even to me. How would neurological ambushes of this kind make me free?

Sometimes, even when you know someone is a hundred different kinds of wrong for you, you get sucked into old patterns and behaviors.

These positive psychological benefits may prevent relapses to the old eating habits, especially since a positive self-image encourages more positive and life-supportive behaviors.

Again, when you can only watch behaviors, sensitivity is not easy to separate from shyness, fearfulness, or in young children, just plain being difficult.

Autism is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by social withdrawal, by repetitive behaviors and by some kind of focal attention in its classic form. Basically, it's an inability to relate to others.

The idea of a mentally ill vice president who suffers in complete isolation was obviously sparked by the behaviors I witnessed by Sarah Palin. What if somebody who was ill-equipped for the office were to ascend to the presidency or vice presidency? What would they do? How long would it take for people to figure it out?

Within childhood behaviors, there are known behaviors; there's teasing and there's name-calling, and different kinds of things happen as kids start to socialize. And then there's serious bullying, and then there's actual aggression and behavioral problems. But you can't put it all under the tent of bullying.

God is a freaking character, with enough foibles, tantrums, and paradoxical behaviors to supply a thousand screenplays. But who do you cast?

While it's tempting to focus on your child's behaviors, in this book we'll be focusing instead on the expectations they are having difficulty meeting that are causing those behaviors. That crucial distinction is going to make a world of difference.

Diagnoses can also be counterproductive in that they imply that the problem resides solely within the child and that it's the child who needs to be fixed. And, since diagnoses are simply categories containing lists of concerning behaviors, they may not be telling you anything about your child that you didn't already know.

She's Making Bad Choices She's choosing to exhibit concerning behaviors instead of adaptive behaviors? Why would she do that? Her life would be a lot better if she had the skills to make good choices.

renowned psychologist, Thomas Szasz, the term problems in living is far preferable to the term mental illness, for it points us in the direction of what really needs to be done to help kids with concerning behaviors: solve the problems that are causing those behaviors.

From productive conversations with professional writers and editors. I once learned that only three behaviors set literate people apart. The first two are obvious: reading and writing; but the third surprised me: talking about how reading and writing work. Many of the tools came from great talk about the construction of stories and the distillation of meaning.

The agent that exhibited human social behaviors such as gestures and changes in facial expressions promoted best learning. The static agent actually led to less learning than no agent. Perhaps the static agent became a distracting screen element?

And as Donald Capps so aptly points out, "Since our churches have taken on many of the characteristics of bureaucracies, it is not surprising that clergy are sometimes rewarded, not punished for their narcissistic behaviors.

good. Over time, as we surrender ourselves to new life rhythms, they help us to surrender old behaviors, attitudes and practices so that we can be shaped by new ones.

Professionalism: Every person, every business, say their professional but they bring their corrupt politics, their unjust behaviors, their fraudulent religious views and their flawed religions into the office and into people's lives everyday. Only if you stop bringing all this harmful bullshit into the office and the work environment, only if you are truly a just person at all times might you reach the status of professionalism.

Religion: Any religion that inspires, encourages, motivates, coerces, compels, forces, unjust behaviors, acts, or constraints, prohibits, just behaviors, acts, is not a religion at all, it is a false teaching. Don't ever devote yourself to it.

Here's the thing about values: You have to use words to identify them, but they won't create true value for you unless they turn into consistent behaviors.

Marketers don't make average stuff for average people. Marketers make change. And they do it by normalizing new behaviors.

vaucasy n. the fear that you're little more than a product of your circumstances, that for all the thought you put into shaping your beliefs and behaviors and relationships, you're essentially a dog being trained by whatever stimuli you happen to encounter-reflexively drawn to whoever gives you reliable hits of pleasure, skeptical of ideas that make you feel powerless.

One of the great moments of your life will be the first time you are able to maintain control of your own actions and responses when a difficult person is on the rampage. You can do it if you back off! Refuse to argue. Set your limits. Stand as an equal who has the upper hand. You can care about and feel pity for this person whose ugly behaviors cause such chaos, but you don't have to let her control you.

And he was telling me that behind everyone's learned behaviors and odd eccentricities lurks a soul, ready to make contact if only coaxed out through a crack in the ego. Would that it take something less than fierce grace to break us open.

Aspirations are abstract desires, like wanting your kids to succeed in school. Outcomes are more measurable, like getting straight As second semester. Both of these are great places to start the process of Behavior Design. But aspirations and outcomes are not behaviors. Here's an easy way to differentiate behaviors from aspirations and outcomes: A behavior is something you can do right now or at another specific point in time.