THE PROCESS OF CHANGE

Most attitudes of concern to us underlie many of our activities. For instance, if a girl dreads sexual contact with men, that dread is almost sure to be motivating more activities than more avoidance of sexual contacts. Very likely, it is playing some part in determining her choices of friends, and decisions she makes in decorating her apartment, in choosing clothing and in buying records. As we grow older, most of our attitudes come to motivate a widening sweep of activities. This is nearly always true where the attitude in question is dread of sexual contact. More generally, it is safe to say of nearly any purely personal attitude that if we have held it for a long time period, we are unknowingly reproducing it, or holding it in place, not by a single activity but by a multiplicity of them.