What is a Habit?
“Most of the time, what we do is what we do most of the time."
Habit requires frequency, automaticity and a stable context.
“In habitual behaviors, our intentional control is effectively passed over to the environment in which the behavior occurs. Hence, encountering contextual ‘cues' (be they places, times, people, other behaviors and so forth) will trigger the enacting of the habitual behavior." (Aartis et al., 1999)
Features of Habits:
- Habits explain behaviors that are not in line with our intentions
- Habits exhibit frequency, automaticity, and a stable context
- The strength of a habit can be measured, suggesting the type and force of intervention needed to modify the habit.
“Habits are situations in which the control of our behavior has been passed on to the environment."
Consider the example of dietary change: Here, the habit of eating unhealthy snacks can be most easily broken if a new, healthy, snack is used to replace the old one – even though the context around the snacking behavior remains unchanged.
What is A Routine?
Routines are made of three elements:
Materials (objects, hard infrastructure)
Competences (skills and know-how)
Images (meanings, ideas and interpretations)
Behavior vs. Practice
Behavior Practice
Individual as Origin Individual as Carrier
Caused by Drivers Co-evolving
Consequentialist Recursive
Individual Choice Shared, Social
As if for the First Time Within a Continuous Flow of Activity
Contextual Cues Emergent Rules and Resources
Values/Beliefs as Underlying Foundations Needs/Desires as Outcomes
Example - Playing a game of soccer
Behaviors - Attitude, skill-level, need to play, need to win
Practice - Equipment, Field Availability, Rules, Schedule, Teammates
Dual Path Models and Dual Process Recognition
Psychological theories posit the behavior follows two paths: deliberative path (intentions) and an automatic path (habits.) Neuroscience has now identified two distinct mental processes (Stanovich & West), known as dual modes of process recognition:
System 1 - fast and automatic
System 2 - slow and effortful
System 2 - Reflective 1 - Automatic
Characteristics Controlled Uncontrolled
Effortful Effortless
Deductive Emotional
Slow Fast
Self-aware Unconscious
Examples:
System 2:
Learning a foreign language
Planning an unfamiliar journey
Counting calories
System 1:
Speaking in your mother tongue
Taking the daily commute
Desiring cake
How To Effect Habit Change
Broadly there are two ways to affect habit-change: disrupting the person‟s automatic response, or disrupting the environment around them which cues that response. Methods for habit change include:
(i) Unfreezing/Refreezing: The unfreezing element can be seen as a jolt, or “emotional stir-up”, which breaks the shell of complacency. This kind of dramatic disruption is required to kick habitual behaviors over from the automatic to the deliberative track. The unfreezing/refreezing process must take place in the context of a group, as behaviors are generally consistent with peer-group acceptance.
(ii) Vigilant Monitoring: Shifts in the supporting environment can derail the automatic cueing and execution of old habits. Typical a habit occurs when a familiar situation or context is encountered, and that ‘meme’ triggers a mental representation of an associated behavior. Avoiding places where unwanted habits have been learnt can be an effective technique, as can avoiding peers with whom the habitual behavior has been learnt. While vigilant monitoring has been shown to be effective, researchers found that individuals could only keep it up for a limited amount of time. The cognitive load required is a finite resource and needs replenishing once expended.
(iii) Implementation Intentions: Implementation Intentions are simple 'if-then plans' which individuals adopt and rehearse, until new behavioral responses become habitual. Implementation Intentions have been shown to be particularly useful in overcoming the problem of 'getting started' with new behaviors, as they are purposely designed to bridge the gap between intentions and behavior. Implementation Intentions have been proven to be effective for learning new behaviors which are to be undertaken regularly, such as taking medication, or performing health self-examinations.
Comments