Welcome to the Resource Library of the

Institute of Cognitive Behavior Management

Stimulus ->    – > Response

DEFINITIONS

There is an ambiguity in the interpretations of cognitive behavior management within these pages. In order to clarify this ambiguity, we must start with an understanding of the words themselves.

Cognitive is defined as being involved with knowing. The word cognition itself derives from the word gnoscere – know. Thus in order to be cognitive there must be some mental process that occurs to enable you to know.

Behavior is defined as a way of acting. To behave is to ‘hold oneself in a particular way’. Behavior was developed by analogy through aver, meaning possession, and thus behavior is the possession of a particular way of performing, acting, operating or functioning, which, perhaps paradoxically, includes the covert act of thinking.

Management is the act of handling. Originally derived from handling horses, it is now used predominantly to mean handling people or processes in business, although it is also used to mean ‘coping’ – managing the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’.

Cognitive behavior management then can be defined as:

• handling or coping with the act of thinking in order to know
  OR it can be defined as:

• administering a program which helps people with the act of thinking.

The behavior of knowing or cognition is thinking that requires objects or tools, which are thoughts. Emotional ‘feelings’ that contribute value and generalizations of those mental representations occur when the cognitive covert behavior [‘thinking’] processes these thoughts into attitudes, beliefs or ideologies.

Habituated thoughts, like habitual actions become ‘automatic’. Over time, rigidity of thought can become ‘attitudes’ and belief systems, limiting your capacities. Training your mind to avoid automatic thoughts built up over infinite numbers of experiences allows you to create a ‘beginner’ mind’.

However, there is still another interpretation that could be drawn. Professionally, the term behavior management has been used to describe a process of intervention in such a way as to reinforce one way of acting over another. Since the process of ‘managing’ behavior [both covert thinking and overt acting] through manipulation of the internal and external contexts is a part of the cognitive process, the term behavior management provides the sense of a formal method of addressing both internal and external contexts for a particular purpose. However, it must be understood that in this context, it is not behavior in general that is the point, but ‘cognitive behavior’ or the covert processes of thinking or feeling that we hope to handle:

• by providing structure which supports one outcome over another and teaches the person with problems in living to handle,

• and by learning the skills necessary to both overcome thinking processes which interfere with their ability to reach their goals and to cope with barriers that occur in the future.

Thus, we are managers of behavior in order to teach the individuals to manage their own behavior or to ‘hold themselves in a particular way’. The essence of all wisdom and change is the thought that determines the action. Enlightenment, Gnosis, and Cognitive Malleability are all contingent on what you think. What you think determines how you feel [emotional value] about the subject and how you feel about the subject determines to a large extent the course of action, modified, of course, by your own particular circumstances [I’m not strong enough!].

If you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right!      -Henry Ford

HOW TO USE THE LIBRARY

The Resource Library of the Institute for Cognitive Behavior ManagementSM has grown sporadically over the past twenty years and does not yet have an efficient structure. However, it does have the capacity to help people learn to manage their own and/or other people’s behavior.

First, I would recommend reading the entire Introduction, as it will help you decide if you even want to accept this site as a cut of your reality. After the introduction, I would suggest reading #02 The Language of Change and #03 Biological Theory Underpinnings both of which are listed under Theory. Finally, I would recommend going to Practice Concepts and reading #17 The Problem with Psychiatric. By this time, you should have a reasonably good understanding of what the site is about. You then must understand the categories.

There are articles on theory, practice, management and training. Each has its own subcategories that may not be as clear as we would like. But if you are a teacher, you might go to Practice Concepts and go to #06, simply by the title and the abstract. Management and Practice both have Tools, which are specific to the needs.

Practice includes:

• Clinical & Educational Protocols for specific methodologies and should be relatively clear by title

• Practice Techniques that include:

  • Clinical Techniques that, incidentally, may also be helpful to school psychologist and special education teachers
  • Teacher Techniques for use in the classroom.

• Procedures break down into:

  • Group Instruction – that may also be used in the classroom
  • Games – a more fun aspect of learning

The general Techniques category is the most substantial and similar to the Protocols should be self-explanatory. The Management Tools include both general management tools and specific Social Programs that can be revised as necessary to meet your own goals.

Finally, you can click on any of the illusions to enlarge them.

I hope this is helpful for you in gaining access to the information you need from the Library. Please feel free to send suggestions that you might have to make the Library more accessible or helpful.

Searches & Tags

While a seeker can reasonably find material for welfare segments of clinical (mental health, and addiction) corrective, protective (mental retardation & autism) and educational components, the Library presently lacks sufficient tags and the names given are not always helpful, e.g., A Horse of a Different Color – an article that tries to help you make sense of the disingenuous medical model’s inclusion of cognitive and behavioral notions; or Chief Yellow Toe and the Wonderful Behavior Plan – that deals with how differences can make life difficult to live and how behavior plans often miss the point. I apologize for this difficulty and hope that we can add tags that will define the material more aptly. In addition, it should be noted that training and both parental and self-help searches should be considered within these pages.

It should be noted that the oldest materials are usually presented first – number 1’s were probably written before 1997. This does not mean that the older material is invalid, but to find the newest material – generally go to the latest entries.

Jerome Gardner – 2020