Biological and Social/Cognitive Approaches to Forming Habits Habits are routines of behavior that are repeated regularly, sometimes are compulsory, and in some people, often go unnoticed. People have experienced of attempting to change some of the habits, and find that process difficult to do. Some people get frustrated; others live with that like something normal in their lives is happened, others seek for help with a professional. Peoples daily life is characterized by repetitions of a full 47% of people’s daily activities are enacted almost daily and usually in the same location.
The consistency of everyday life establishes habits, or behavioral dispositions to repeat-well practiced actions given recurring circumstances. Not all habits are bad,
...some are necessary and adaptive. (Article Myraid, 2013). One of my habits is that I can’t study in a place that is present a lot of people, and I have to be in a quiet place by myself. I developed this habit because I can’t study in a place that is really noisy. I’m a father with three kids and a wife, and I work all day until 4:00 or 5:00pm. That’s mean that I don’t have enough time to study.
So, I have to wait until everybody fall to sleep at 8:30 or maybe 9:30PM. I used to go to a quiet place at my favorite room, and start studding. I continue it, because that is the only manner that I found to study and be successful in my studies. I consider this is the best way to do this, and I have never tried to attempt to break this habit. The effects of classical conditionin
on personality provide an interesting way to think about the habits and addictions, but patterns of behavior are maintained when they’re rewarded.
For example, when people like to drink, smoke or gambling, initially they’re elicit an unconditioned positive response, but the persistence of those behaviors in the long run, may better explained as a consequence of the rewards they provide. (Friedman & Schustrack, 2011). That’s why I have this habit, because I obtain my reward to the extent that I continue doing the same thing. And I know that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning. Advocated by famous psychologists like John Watson and B. F. Skinner, in which their theories dominated psychology during the early half of the 20th.
B. F. Skinner when he was young, he arose at the same time early each morning and sat at the same writing table to establish the habit of daily productive writing. He arranged a working and sleeping setup for himself in his basement so that he could structure his environment to reinforce the desired behaviors. When he became older, he was less and less willing to interrupt this structure. That’s the same that some students of today use this method, but they seek for a quiet place and go there every single day at the same time, obtaining improvement in their grades. Friedman & Schustrack, 2011). According to Skinner, he said that people have emotions, thoughts and internal processes, but they’re irrelevant in the explanation and understanding of behavior. Thoughts and emotions do occur, but they do not cause behavior, they are characteristics of the organism, caused by environmental events. (Friedman & Schustrack, 2011).
Social psychology is focused on helping people to understand and explain social behaviors.
Social theories are generally centered on specific social phenomena, including group behavior, prosocial behavior, social influence, love and much more. (About. com, 2013). Social-cognitive theories of personality are very interested in describing and explaining how change process work. Bandura (2001) says: “The capacity to exercise control over the nature and quality of one’s life is the essence of humanness”, that’s why social-cognitive theorist have devoted extensive effort identifying the mechanism of personality that inhibit change. Article Myriad, 2013). Like Benjamin Franklin people could do a calendar book, putting their rows of the virtues and columns of the days of the week. Then at the end of each day, he can put a black mark on the chart if people violated the virtue that day. People can see the number of black marks and people can evaluate themselves and minimized bad habits. (Friedman & Schustrack, 2011). I could do the same, but put in a calendar the days that I study in a noisy place for a period of 2 months, and later check my grades.
And to verify if is convenient to continue that habit. Looking at both social/cognitive and behavioral theories, the best one that explains my personality is the social/ cognitive theory. This one explains how I can acquire and maintain this behavior pattern. Evaluating behavior change depends on the factors of the environment, people and behavior. Behavioral theory has also long been interested in explaining how people change habits. In fact, one might argue that behavioral theory was founded in order to explain the change process.
justify">Pavlov’s and Skinner’s classical experiments demonstrate concretely how change can be motivated and negotiated by external forces, including the use of positive or negative reinforcement to provoke an adaptive response and compensate for weaknesses (Elder, 1999). Both Pavlov and Skinner concluded that the patterns of human behavior can be understood by examining the consequences of behavior. According to their theories, habits form because the repeated behavior produces a consistent and predictable response which is therefore manageable, even if it is negative.
In order to provoke behavioral change, then, the consequences of the behavior must change. (Friedman & Schustack, 2011). I think that humans receive a collective struggle to transform negatives habits into healthy and positives ones, and the purpose of personality theories is to provide a way of organizing the many characteristics the people know about themselves and other people, explain the differences among individuals and explore how people conduct their lives, and look if their life can be improved.
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