Dawn Marie Joraan, age 15, of St. Augustine., Fla., for her question:
HOW IS A HABIT FORMED?
A habit is an act that a person learns to do over and over again without thinking about how to do it. Most habits start as actions that a person is aware of. The more he performs an action, the easier it becomes. Strong habits become automatic and require very little or no thought.
Habits include mannerisms, such as moving the hands when talking, or satisfying psychological cravings such as overeating.
Habits may start as reactions to a major event, such as a bodily injury, and then continue on other occasions that reproduce certain clues or stimuli from the original event.
Most psychologists today view habits as learned or conditioned behavior over which one has little voluntary control. Some theorists even consider more complex human activities, such as playing basketball or speaking a foreign language, as composed of "habit hierarchies."
Psychologists agree that a person must receive a certain stimulus (something that starts an action) each time the habit is carried out. For example, a red light is a stimulus to an experienced automobile driver. It triggers the habit of pressing the brake pedal. To learn this habit, each new driver must practice under actual traffic conditions, seeing traffic lights and learning to press the brake pedal when the light is red.
Many everyday actions are habits. Imagine how difficult it would be to walk down the sidewalk if you had to think of every action needed to take every step.
A habit is different from an instinct. An instinct is behavior that is inborn, instead of learned.
Psychologists can effectively help persons in breaking such habits as hair and eyebrow pulling, fingernail biting, shoulder jerking, scratching, overeating and exhibitionism.
Some habits are simple and require only movements of the muscles. As a person approaches a door, he places his hand on the doorknob. This action is called a "simple motor act." The movement seems quite natural, but the person once had to learn this habit.
A doorknob is a strange thing to a small child when he encounters it for the first time. He may toy with the knob many times before he learns that he can open the door by turning the knob.
Some habits are more than simple motor acts. They are thoughts and attitudes we have about things and people. Psychologists call them "habits of adjustment." Some of these are "good" and others are "bad," depending on how they affect other people. Neat appearance and pleasant manners are considered good habits.
With children, self destructive habits such as head banging can be eliminated using behavior modification or counter conditioning techniques.
A habit is influenced not only by elements that trigger the behavior but also by rewards or punishments that follow it.