Discussion Question 7: Habit
According to Bouton (2016), habit is a frequently repeated behavior that requires little or no thought, and it is a learning process as opposed to the innate act. He argues that a habit can be part of any activity such as reacting, thinking, eating, and sleeping, among others. It is reinforced via repetition and reinforcement based on the psychological and physiological aspects (Bouton, 430). It, therefore, depends on our nervous system, according to Hull, which occurs when there is a reputation of stimuli. Generally, psychological theories denote habit on the aspect of dispositions and that any experience or learning process gained is restored.
An automatic yet straightforward way of learning with experiences can be differentiated in three forms in the world of psychology. They include Motor habits, Intellectual habits, and Habits of Characters (Bouton, 462). American Journal of Psychology, as incorporated by Bouton in his book, “Learning and Behaviour,” defines motor behaviors coming from individual muscular activities, intellectual habits connected to psychological processes, and habits of character linked to how human beings express their actions.
A habit, according to cognitive psychologists and neurobiologists, ranges between 40% and 95% as it depends on human behavior. In my life, for instance, habit holds 80%. Because it depends on how I think, what I say in addition to my overall reaction, in other words, if I select 50%, then it means an automatic pilot who is relative to have the time. However, habits start with what we do in everyday lives. An individual is only supposed to make a start, and from henceforth, he or she can adapt the process (Bouton, 445). Bouton believes that for a human being to form a habit, he or she other than making the first step needs to keep it regular. By that, the actions of the practice turn into a character. In addition to that, an individual is expected to select a friendly environment that necessitates the habit development process.
Unlike a habit which is supported by a system in the brain and system, increasing efficiency in connection to flexibility, goal-directed action tends to fulfill individual gain, particularly to the offender. The initiated behaviors are gathered in a specific functional reason, which might include the elimination of a living witness or exclusion of a threat. They can, therefore, take a form of verbal, sexual, physical, signature, and MO behavior (Bouton, 431). Higher-Order Cognition and Executive function connected to Neuroscience, have argued that goal-directed actions hinder the ability to focus on essential information as well as ignoring distracters effectively.
Experimenters have distinguished a habit and a goal-directed action using instrumental learning. They investigate the activation of the brain in the period of learning and analyses, whether it is associated with behavioral performance and trait motivation in the phase of the post-learning phase (Bouton, 426). Goal-directed action in the training phase shows enhanced activations in posterior cingulate cortices and medial prefrontal. A habit tends to activate bilateral insula, left precentral gyrus, and bilateral dorsal caudate.
Lastly, according to theories in psychology, it only takes twenty-one consecutive days of action to turn a habit. As habits are considered as routinized activities paired from the stable contextual surrounding, the incidences are matched automatically. Frequent repletion of an act facilitates the formation of a habit. According to Bouton (2016), any human being can create a character trait. It only requires days of repeated acts and thoughts; for instance, words becoming actions which later becomes a habit. In other words, from a sense of willpower and motivation, an action can turn into a habit.
References
Bouton E Mark (2016). Learning and Behaviour; A Contemporary Synthesis; Second Edition, 412-462.