Habits are largely absent from modern social and personality psychology. This is due to outdated perspectives that placed habits in conflict with goals. In modern theorizing, habits are represented ...in memory as implicit context–response associations, and they guide responding in conjunction with goals. Habits thus have important implications for our field. Emerging research shows that habits are an important mechanism by which people self-regulate and achieve long-term goals. Also, habits change through specific interventions, such as changes in context cues. I speculate that understanding of habits also holds promise for reducing intergroup discrimination and for understanding lay theories of the causes for action. In short, by recognizing habit, the field gains understanding of a central mechanism by which actions persist in daily life.
Psychology of Habit Wood, Wendy; Rünger, Dennis
Annual review of psychology,
01/2016, Letnik:
67, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
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As the proverbial creatures of habit, people tend to repeat the same behaviors in recurring contexts. This review characterizes habits in terms of their cognitive, motivational, and neurobiological ...properties. In so doing, we identify three ways that habits interface with deliberate goal pursuit: First, habits form as people pursue goals by repeating the same responses in a given context. Second, as outlined in computational models, habits and deliberate goal pursuit guide actions synergistically, although habits are the efficient, default mode of response. Third, people tend to infer from the frequency of habit performance that the behavior must have been intended. We conclude by applying insights from habit research to understand stress and addiction as well as the design of effective interventions to change health and consumer behaviors.
The present model outlines the mechanisms underlying habitual control of responding and the ways in which habits interface with goals. Habits emerge from the gradual learning of associations between ...responses and the features of performance contexts that have historically covaried with them (e.g., physical settings, preceding actions). Once a habit is formed, perception of contexts triggers the associated response without a mediating goal. Nonetheless, habits interface with goals. Constraining this interface, habit associations accrue slowly and do not shift appreciably with current goal states or infrequent counterhabitual responses. Given these constraints, goals can (a) direct habits by motivating repetition that leads to habit formation and by promoting exposure to cues that trigger habits, (b) be inferred from habits, and (c) interact with habits in ways that preserve the learned habit associations. Finally, the authors outline the implications of the model for habit change, especially for the self-regulation of habit cuing.
Interventions to change everyday behaviors often attempt to change people's beliefs and intentions. As the authors explain, these interventions are unlikely to be an effective means to change ...behaviors that people have repeated into habits. Successful habit change interventions involve disrupting the environmental factors that automatically cue habit performance. The authors propose two potential habit change interventions. "Downstream-plus" interventions provide informational input at points when habits are vulnerable to change, such as when people are undergoing naturally occurring changes in performance environments for many everyday actions (e.g., moving households, changing jobs). "Upstream" interventions occur before habit performance and disrupt old environmental cues and establish new ones. Policy interventions can be oriented not only to the change of established habits but also to the acquisition and maintenance of new behaviors through the formation of new habits.
The habitual consumer Wood, Wendy; Neal, David T.
Journal of consumer psychology,
October 2009, Letnik:
19, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Consumers sometimes act like creatures of habit, automatically repeating past behavior with little regard to current goals and valued outcomes. To explain this phenomenon, we show that habits are a ...specific form of automaticity in which responses are directly cued by the contexts (e.g., locations, preceding actions) that consistently covaried with past performance. Habits are prepotent responses that are quick to activate in memory over alternatives and that have a slow-to-modify memory trace. In daily life, the tendency to act on habits is compounded by everyday demands, including time pressures, distraction, and self-control depletion. However, habits are not immune to deliberative processes. Habits are learned largely as people pursue goals in daily life, and habits are broken through the strategic deployment of effortful self-control. Also, habits influence the post hoc inferences that people make about their behavior.
Which should people buy to make themselves happy: experiences or material goods? The answer depends in part on the level of resources already available in their lives. Across multiple studies using a ...range of methodologies, we found that individuals of higher social class, whose abundant resources make it possible to focus on self-development and self-expression, were made happier by experiential over material purchases. No such experiential advantage emerged for individuals of lower social class, whose lesser resources engender concern with resource management and wise use of limited finances. Instead, lower-class individuals were made happier from material purchases or were equally happy from experiential and material purchases.
Comprehensively and systematically map peer-reviewed studies of hippotherapy published over 30 years, from 1980 through 2018, from the perspective of a phased scientific approach to developing ...complex interventions as a guide to future research and practice.
A systematic mapping review of research of hippotherapy was conducted. Searches of nine databases produced 3,528 unique records; 78 full-text, English-written studies were reviewed, the earliest of which was published in 1998. Data relevant to study aims were extracted electronically from these studies and analyzed using queries and pivot tables.
Children with cerebral palsy and physical therapists were most prevalent as participants and providers. Equine movement was hippotherapy's core component and mechanism. Early-phase outcomes-oriented research predominated. "Hippotherapy" was ambiguously defined as treatment strategies and comprehensive professional services, even as interventions grew more distinctive and complex. A treatment theory and proof of concept related to motor outcomes were established, and efficacy research with comparison conditions emerged.
Continuing research of complex interventions that integrate hippotherapy, equine movement as a therapy tool, is warranted. Attention to gaps in foundational scientific work concurrent with continued piloting and efficacy work will help to identify the most promising interventions worthy of replication, evaluation and widespread adoption.
IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION
To advance the evidence base of complex interventions that incorporate hippotherapy:
*Proponents of hippotherapy need to define and represent hippotherapy to the public and in practice and research contexts as a therapy tool involving the use of the movement of horses by qualified professionals, rather than simply as a generic therapy with the help of a horse or simulated horse;
*Providers of hippotherapy need to identify their professional degrees and certifications, and explicate their disciplinary perspectives that influence their selected components of intervention, related methods, and outcomes; and
*Providers and researchers need to partner to develop an enablement theory of hippotherapy that links improved body functions with improved participation in everyday life and quality of life.
What are the psychological mechanisms that trigger habits in daily life? Two studies reveal that strong habits are influenced by context cues associated with past performance (e.g., locations) but ...are relatively unaffected by current goals. Specifically, performance contexts—but not goals—automatically triggered strongly habitual behaviors in memory (Experiment 1) and triggered overt habit performance (Experiment 2). Nonetheless, habits sometimes appear to be linked to goals because people self-perceive their habits to be guided by goals. Furthermore, habits of moderate strength are automatically influenced by goals, yielding a curvilinear, U-shaped relation between habit strength and actual goal influence. Thus, research that taps self-perceptions or moderately strong habits may find habits to be linked to goals.
► Habits are automatically brought to mind by perception of performance environments. ► When a habit is brought to mind, people tend to act on it. ► Habit activation and performance are not readily influenced by people's goals. ► People believe, however, that their habits are strongly motivated by goals. ► Habits of moderate strength also are guided by goals.
This article evaluates theories of the origins of sex differences in human behavior. It reviews the cross-cultural evidence on the behavior of women and men in nonindustrial societies, especially the ...activities that contribute to the sex-typed division of labor and patriarchy. To explain the cross-cultural findings, the authors consider social constructionism, evolutionary psychology, and their own biosocial theory. Supporting the biosocial analysis, sex differences derive from the interaction between the physical specialization of the sexes, especially female reproductive capacity, and the economic and social structural aspects of societies. This biosocial approach treats the psychological attributes of women and men as emergent given the evolved characteristics of the sexes, their developmental experiences, and their situated activity in society.
Why do we act on habit even when we intend to do something else? The answer lies in habit memories, or context-response associations, that form when people repeat rewarding actions in stable ...contexts. Although habits can form as people pursue goals, once habits develop, the perception of the context directly activates the response in mind. Because habit activation does not depend strongly on motivation, changing intentions has limited impact on habit memory. Instead, successful habit-change interventions directly impact the behavior itself: Along with classic behavior therapy interventions, habits change with (a) reward systems that form new habits, (b) disruption of context cues to forestall activation of the habit in mind, and (c) friction that makes the habitual response difficult and alternatives easier. Despite the strong evidence that habits are activated by contexts, people tend to believe that their own habits are a product of goal pursuit. This subjective reality might also explain why some researchers continue to maintain that habit performance depends on goals.
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