Introduction to Self-Help through Self-Experimentation

Two books got me interested in the idea of self-help through self-experimentation. The Freakonomics column that appeared in the New York Times Magazine on Sept. 11, 2005, titled "Does the Truth Lie Within ?", about Berkeley psychology professor Seth Roberts' surprising discoveries through self-experimentation inspired me to start this blog.

Quality Is Personal : A Foundation For Total Quality Management, was authored by Harry V. Roberts and Bernard F. Sergesketter, two pillars of Total Quality Management ("TQM"). It is a quirky book, applying the concepts of TQM to personal improvement. Originally developed as a way to give managers being trained in TQM a sense of how TQM affected the psychology of the workers involved, it offers real examples of how the authors and their students have applied TQM techniques to their own lives. They selected areas they wished to improve and kept TQM-like records of the behaviors involved. The simple fact of focus brought about by record-keeping alone often led to improvement. In addition the records provided a means for them to introduce and evaluate specific techniques for improving resistant behaviors. The unconventional, fact-based rigor of the authors surprisingly makes the book a fun read.


Self-Directed Behavior: Self-Modification for Personal Adjustment, 8th ed., by David L. Watson and Roland G. Tharp, is the leading text on the psychology of self-management. This book is a bit dryer than "Quality is Personal", but offers much more detail and specific advice. It contains specific recommendations on techniques to overcome specific problems, including depression, yelling at one's children, smoking, over-eating, drinking, anxiety, stress, under-assertiveness, low self-esteem, social awkwardness, drug abuse, poor time management, family arguments, and forgetfulness. The text contains a great deal of information on behavioral modification techniques suitable for application to these and many other problems.