Self-Management

Self-management refers to actions individuals take to independently change or maintain their own behavior. This is in contrast to strategies and interventions directed by others, such as teachers and parents, to change an individual's behavior. Terms regularly seen in the literature related to self-management include self-regulation, self-control, and self-determination. Theoretically, self-management strategies have been described from both behavioral and cognitive viewpoints. The differences lie primarily in the focus of the intervention with a large amount of overlap in actual procedures. Specifically, behavioral self-management strategies emphasize what the individual does after the target behavior occurs (e.g., recording whether or not a task was completed); whereas cognitive [Page 495]self-management strategies emphasize what the individual says, thinks, or does before engaging in the target behavior (e.g., saying the ...