Guest speaker

During the talk with Dr. Carl W. Lejuez, who is a psychologist and provost of StonyBrook University, it was very interesting to hear what he had to say to the class. Dr. Lejuezcovered a variety of topics during class which included different conditions that peopleexperience, one of them being bipolar disorder and how that can affect an individual as well asthe traits that accommodate a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and more.One of the topics that Dr. Lejuez had discussed during his lecture was “The Stages ofChange” which included 6 parts: 1. Precontemplation; which is a stage where the individual seesthe problem but is not ready for action/change 2. Contemplation: where the individual sees theproblem and thinks about how action can be taken place 3. Preparation: where the individual hasnot made changes but is in the process of doing so 4. Action: the plans starting to pick up andstarting to change or leave behaviors behind 5. Maintenance: the upkeep of the actions taken 6.Relapse: which is falling back into behaviors in which is falling back on the actions being made.I learned that this is a cycle that can and does/can occur when an individual wants to make achange to their behavior whether it’s addiction or something else.While talking about the stages of change there was one very interesting thing that Dr.Lejuez talked about during the presentation that I found very interesting. There were song lyricsthat went with a specific stage in the cycle. Because of this I found it very interesting and easy tounderstand the “Stages of Change”