Where do habits come from? What is a habit What is a habit respect definition

Habit

An action that has acquired a ritualized or coercive character. When forming a habit due to repeated performance of an action, the pleasant emotional tone caused by the very performance of the action is very important.

Dictionary of a practical psychologist. - M.: AST, Harvest. S. Yu. Golovin. 1998.

Specificity.

An action that has acquired a ritualized or coercive character. When forming a habit by repeatedly performing an action, the pleasant emotional tone caused by the very implementation of the action is extremely important.

Psychological Dictionary. THEM. Kondakov. 2000.

HABIT

(English) habit) - automated , the implementation of which under certain conditions has become need(e.g., do exercises in the morning, walk quickly, etc.). A shift is associated with P.’s formation motive actions. If at first an action is prompted by a motive that lies outside of it, then with the emergence of P. the action itself becomes a motive, and the need to carry it out arises.

P. is formed in the process of repeated execution of an action at that stage of its development when, during its execution, a qualifier no longer arises. difficulties of a volitional or cognitive nature. In this case, the physical and mental well-being caused by the functioning of the action itself, colored by the positive emotional tone of “pleasant pleasure,” acquires decisive importance. The education of many P. begins in early childhood, and a major role is played by senior Their behavior largely determines which P. will be formed in the child.

P. can arise in any field of activity and cover various aspects of human behavior. It is necessary to distinguish between P. useful(P. to work, P. to help comrades, to walk before bedtime, etc.) and harmful(incontinence, P. interrupting the speaker, etc.). Vital, socially valuable P. facilitate the formation of positive personality traits, compliance with the rules of behavior in public and personal life, deny. - disorganize behavior. The formation of useful P. and the fight against harmful ones are the most important tasks of education.

Large psychological dictionary. - M.: Prime-EVROZNAK. Ed. B.G. Meshcheryakova, acad. V.P. Zinchenko. 2003 .

Habit

   HABIT (With. 465) is an automated action, the execution of which has become a necessity under certain conditions. It is formed in the process of repeated performance of an action at the stage of its development when no difficulties of a volitional or cognitive nature arise during its execution. In this case, the physical and mental well-being caused by the functioning of the action itself, colored by a positive emotional tone, acquires decisive importance.

Habits can arise in any field of activity and cover various aspects of human behavior. It is necessary to distinguish between good and bad habits. Forming useful habits and combating harmful ones are the most important tasks of education and self-education.

The physiological basis of habit is the dynamic stereotype of nervous processes in the cerebral cortex. Activities arising on the basis of a dynamic stereotype proceed easily, freely, automatically and evoke a positive emotional tone. Thus, when forming a habit, not only the organization of the action is important, but also its repeated execution under constant circumstances, exercises, which, in fact, turns the formed action into a habit.

Popular psychological encyclopedia. - M.: Eksmo. S.S. Stepanov. 2005.

Habit

A behavior that has been developed through life experience and is now performed almost automatically. An example of a habit is the satisfaction of a psychological addiction (gluttony or smoking). There are different views on the origin of habits. Psychoanalysts explain habits as the manifestation of repressed impulses in the form of habitual behavior. Learning theorists view habits as learned behaviors that are poorly under conscious control. A habit can be learned as a result of the consequences of a particular behavior; Once a habit takes root, it becomes self-sufficient and difficult to break.

Psychology. AND I. Dictionary reference / Transl. from English K. S. Tkachenko. - M.: FAIR PRESS. Mike Cordwell. 2000.

Synonyms:

Antonyms:

See what “habit” is in other dictionaries:

HABIT- second nature. Aristotle Habit, this second nature, turns out to be for most people their only nature. Romain Rolland Habit is the mind of fools. Pierre Buast The more habits, the less freedom. Immanuel Kant You can get used to everything... Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms

Habit- Habit ♦ Habitude Ease resulting from repetition. Aristotle also noted that an action performed frequently becomes almost instinctive (“Rhetoric”, I, 11). That's why we say: habit is second nature. This is really... Sponville's Philosophical Dictionary

habit- Skill, habit, habit, habit, manner, technique, pattern, routine; spirit, dexterity. Habit is second nature. Gentility. Out of habit, as usual. .. Wed… Synonym dictionary

HABIT- in psychology, any regularly repeated type of behavior that does not require reflection and is acquired rather than innate. A habit that can concern any area of ​​activity - from eating and sleeping to thinking and reacting; is being formed... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

HABIT- HABIT, an established way of behavior, the implementation of which in a certain situation acquires the character of a need for an individual. Habits can develop spontaneously, be the product of directed education, or develop into stable traits... ... Modern encyclopedia

HABIT- an established way of behavior, the implementation of which in a certain situation acquires the character of a need for an individual. Habits can develop spontaneously, be the product of directed upbringing, develop into stable character traits,... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Habit- an action that has acquired a ritualized or coercive character. When forming a habit by repeatedly performing an action, the pleasantness caused by the very implementation of the action is extremely important... ... Psychological Dictionary

HABIT- HABIT, and, female. 1. Behavior, course of action, inclination that has become n. in life are ordinary, constant. Good, bad habits. It became a habit to do gymnastics. The power of habit. It’s not my habit to be late (i.e. I don’t like... ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

HABIT- English habit; German Gewohnheit. Automated action, a special form of individual behavior in certain conditions, acquiring the nature of a need. P. can develop spontaneously, be the result of upbringing and develop into stable traits... ... Encyclopedia of Sociology

habit- About the duration, degree of assimilation of the habit. Automatic, age-old, innate, everlasting (colloquial), deep, long-standing (colloquial), long-standing, grandfatherly, long-term, long-term, long-term, inveterate, hardened (colloquial), long-standing, lingering... Dictionary of epithets

Books

• The habit of creativity. Make creativity a part of your life, Tharp Twyla. Inspiring and practical, The Creativity Habit teaches you how to infuse creativity into your every day. The book contains 32 exercises developed by famous choreographer Twyla Tharp based on her…

Habits determine our lifestyle. The bad ones pester us themselves, but the good ones need to be developed. How and why to do this? What are the healthiest habits? We will talk about interesting research, tell you about 10 good habits that make life brighter and us healthier.

What is a habit?

A habit is a repeated form of behavior that does not require volitional effort. If our consciousness reacts positively to a certain action and feels discomfort in its absence, then addiction has begun. The process is accompanied by a physiological reaction - a combination of nerve connections that determine the algorithm of actions.

An addiction is formed after repeated repetition - the brain remembers what to do and goes into an unconscious mode.

Habit is a good way save internal resources, because the brain “does not turn on”. According to the established scenario, the action occurs much faster than during conscious behavior.

For example, when we return home, the first thing we do is turn on the light in the hallway. But if we move the switch, our hand will not touch it. We don’t think like this: “It’s dark, we need to turn on the light, and to do this we need to find a switch,” but we simply press the button. There are countless such little things in everyday life, and everyone has their own established thousand habits.

People's habits.

Psychologists view all human emotions as habits. Enthusiasm, melancholy, pedantry - we choose all this from ourselves, becoming prisoners of emotion, and then a behavioral formula.

How does the addiction mechanism work?

Researcher I.P. Pavlov claims that a person gets used to absolutely everything. There is a certain vicious circle - we receive an emotion, get used to it, and become captive of it. Emotions experienced once give us a ticket to the risk zone to feel them again. Our consciousness already has a template, knows how to react to such events or circumstances. And the brain, having managed to accept the behavior model, will prevent overcoming the habit through anxiety and internal discomfort.

For example, we were scared of a dog. The brain remembered our reaction and prepared the appropriate formula for it. Now the consciousness is ready to be frightened at the sight of any dog. The dominant principle works - the excited center of the brain stops the work of other nerve connections, so we are unable to quickly get out of depression or overcome fear.

Where do habits come from?

• They are taught in childhood to wash their hands before eating, brush their teeth in the morning, put their shoes in order in the evening, and so on.
• They arise spontaneously during interaction with society - avoid elevators, drink coffee in the morning.
• We form them ourselves - drink warm water on an empty stomach.

Types of habits:

• Professional language teachers automatically correct mistakes they see or hear in their minds.
• Household – wash your hands after using the toilet.
• Social – respond to greetings: “Happy New Year!”
• Individual – take initiative.

Depending on the form of manifestation of the habit, there are:

• Physical – shuffling your feet.
• Emotional - end the conversation with wishes for a good day.
• Behavioral – clean the room according to the usual plan.

All habits are either useful or harmful. The difference between them is that the former are led by us, and the latter are led by us. Bad habits usually find us on their own, but to develop good ones we have to work hard.

Why do you need to form good habits?

1. We are improving.

Harmful activities steal our time, money, emotions, while useful ones help us achieve our goals and improve our efficiency. To feel good, confident and energetic, you need to get used to useful actions.

2. We stop forcing ourselves.

Willpower is an effective way to force yourself to do something, but it requires effort. Every time we force ourselves to take some action, we unconsciously become upset and lose enthusiasm. But if the action is turned into a habitual thing, we will soon cross it off the list of “forced actions”.

3. Good overcomes bad.

It’s difficult to just stop eating at night - all your thoughts will be about the food in the refrigerator. And if you make a substitution, for example, drinking a cup of green tea with lemon before bed, then the ritual of filling the stomach will remain, but its meaning will change.

How to develop good habits?

1. Define the goal.

To get used to something, especially good things, you need to make an effort. When there is a clear understanding of what I am doing and why, the process will go smoothly. For example, the goal is to improve the condition of the skin, saving on a cosmetologist. To achieve this, you need to regularly massage your face, use special products, and get more rest. Thoughts about the upcoming photo shoot in a new image will give you strength.

2. Start simple.

You cannot become an adherent of a healthy lifestyle in one day, but you can in a month. If we decide to start a new life on Monday, we will remain in the same place for a very long time.

If we gradually remove junk food from the table, walk more, sleep longer, we will develop a whole range of good actions. The main thing is to take small steps to harmoniously and firmly consolidate new formulas.

How long does it take to develop a habit?

Scientists at University College London conducted an experiment to find out how long it takes a person to form a simple habit.

96 volunteers kept a diary, recording actions under the sections “I force myself” and “I do without thinking.” As a result, psychologists have found that addiction occurs on average after 60 days of repetition.

At the same time, a one-day pause did not affect the result in any way.

Top 10 healthy habits.

• Drink a glass of warm water on an empty stomach. This way you can gently start important processes in the body.
• Make a shopping list. Saving money and time.
• Don't walk down the street with your head in your gadget. There is a risk of injuring yourself or others, or getting into an accident.
• Start your morning with a smile. Having received the joy hormone immediately after sleep, the whole day will be more positive.
• Watch your posture. If you keep your posture straight while walking down the street or standing at home near the stove, you can get rid of slouching.
• Hug your loved ones more often. Hugs are a way to quickly get the joy hormone, strengthen your immune system, relieve tension and feel loved and loving.
• Ventilate the room before going to bed. Fresh air helps you relax and fall asleep faster. It makes the atmosphere of the room lighter, healthier.
• Relax before bed. According to statistics, 8 out of 10 young people look at gadgets before going to bed. The screen has a hypnotic effect - it’s hard to tear yourself away from it, although your eyes already want to rest and your brain wants to relax.
• Eat healthy food. If a few walnuts, a handful of berries or fresh juice become a “must have for every day”, your well-being will noticeably improve.
• Throw away unnecessary things. Almost everyone has things in the “too bad to throw away, let them sit around for a while” category. Unclaimed shoes, written notebooks, chipped dishes store negative information and litter the house. A great habit is to throw out everything old, unnecessary, and used every week.

You have just learned what a habit is, what its mechanism of action is and how long it takes to form it. Maybe it's worth conducting an experiment to find out if 60 days is enough for you to get used to something useful?

Doing exercises in the morning, going to bed exactly at eleven in the evening, having dinner in front of the TV or sitting at the computer until late... Every person has them - good and bad habits.

How does a habit form? How long does this take? And how to unlearn bad habits?

As usual, first a definition. Habits are well-learned actions that have become automatic, the implementation of which has become a need..

These actions need to be repeated more than once, until their implementation no longer requires volitional or cognitive efforts - this is how a habit is developed. It is based not on the result, but on the enjoyment of the process itself: that is why it is so difficult to get rid of the habit.

Probably many have heard that habits are formed in 21 days. Where did this statement come from? In the middle of the last century, American plastic surgeon Maxwell Maltz noticed that patients get used to a new look in at least three weeks.

Let us pay attention to an important word, the temptation to forget which is so great - “minimum”. The idea that good habits will come and bad habits will go away in less than a month is certainly incredibly attractive, but, unfortunately, it is not entirely true.

In 2009, a team of London researchers led by Philippa Lally conducted an experiment to find out how long it actually takes to form a habit. And here are his results: from 18 to 254 days, on average - 66. This is exactly how much time, according to the experiment participants’ own assessment (there were just under a hundred of them), it was necessary for the action to begin to be perceived as automatic.

The wide variation in the numbers is explained by the individual characteristics of the experimental subjects and the fact that they had to get used to different things (for some, doing physical exercise, for others eating a piece of fruit at lunch - healthy habits that require different levels of willpower). Thus, when setting up to acquire healthy habits for every day, it is important to be prepared for several things:

• After 20-30 days, only the simplest habit that does not require much effort will be developed.
• You need to focus on approximately 2–3 months.
• Everyone is different and you may need more time than others.

Get rid of the bad

How to give up bad habits and how to accustom yourself to healthy ones are closely interrelated questions. It is not for nothing that it is believed that the best way to overcome an addiction is to replace it with a useful one. Such replacement creates the illusion that the addiction has been preserved and minimizes the negative experiences associated with giving up a pleasant but harmful pastime.

To understand how to quit bad habits, you first need to understand why they appeared in the first place. The psychology of bad habits is such that they usually arise when the body needs to find a source of calm and positive emotions in something.

Have you started biting your nails due to stress at work? Do you eat a painful breakup in the evenings? Get rid of the cause and your bad habits will soon disappear. Once you have realized the reason, the mechanism for saying goodbye to unwanted tendencies may look something like this:

• Awareness of the problem is a clear understanding that the action is harmful and must be abandoned.
• Decision-making. If you decide to get rid of it, get rid of it without delay. Write your goal on paper, tell your friends - let everything remind you of your firm intention to eradicate harmful addiction.
• Finding motivation. Build a system of punishments and rewards for yourself and strictly follow it. Particularly gambling people can make a bet.
• Avoidance of unfavorable conditions, that is, unfavorable for you, but for addiction it is just the opposite. If you quit smoking, try not to spend your lunch break in the company of smokers, and so on.

Learn good things

And what will help in the opposite situation, when you need to reinforce good habits? For example, get used to having a full breakfast or form other healthy habits? And not only for health, but for improving relationships with people, for one’s own development - improving the quality of life in general.

The basis of the algorithm is the same. You need to set yourself a clear goal and constantly remind yourself of it in every possible way; It’s even better to develop a useful tendency in the company of like-minded people (they will be both a reminder and motivation). Act consistently and gradually, praise yourself for your successes and don’t give up if everything is not going as quickly as you would like (the results will come, you just have to wait!).

There are also two psychological tricks that will help you achieve your goal faster. The first is the so-called preliminary rituals. Before you start performing habit-related actions, perform a certain ritual. It can be relatively complex or completely simple, even frivolous. For example, clap your hands five times and then go for a run. It sounds funny, but how does it work!

The second trick will help when it seems that you no longer have the strength to work on yourself. Write down on a piece of paper the arguments that force you to abandon your goal, and re-read them after a few minutes. As a rule, they will all be unconvincing, if not funny.

What can I say in conclusion? Whether you are thinking about how to get rid of a bad habit or how to develop a good habit, in any case, the best solution is to finally move from simple thoughts to actions, and then you will succeed in both. Author: Evgenia Bessonova

Aristotle

A habit is a form of behavior characteristic of all people without exception, which does not require much volitional and mental effort from a person. We all get used to something in our lives and then habits become part of our nature and, to a certain extent, begin to control us. This has its pros and cons, which must be correctly assessed, so that, on the one hand, you do not be a slave to your habits and do not close yourself off from everything new, and on the other, you make habitual for yourself such things that it makes no sense to do with the help of strong-willed effort. We must also always remember that many of our habits can be imposed on us by other people and therefore, following these habits, we will act not so much in our own interests as in theirs. In this article I will tell you how to treat your habits correctly and, if necessary, give them up.

What is a habit?

A habit is behavior, a tendency to do something that has become commonplace for a person, constant in his life. We can also say that a habit is, on the one hand, an unconscious skill, when you can do something almost without thinking about it, and on the other, it is laziness of the mind, when you don’t want to think about anything. And we can also say that a habit is an unconscious, automatic pattern of behavior that allows a person to save his intellectual and mental resources. Also, habit, unlike conscious volitional behavior, allows people to do something several times faster. It takes time to get used to something. A habit appears after repeating the same actions a certain number of times. After this, the brain will remember them, a kind of map with the necessary algorithm of actions will appear in it, according to which it will begin to work in an unconscious mode. There are things that people get used to quickly and there are things that take a long time to get used to, and some things are even difficult to get used to. In any case, people do not get used to something immediately, but over a certain period of time.

Bad habits

People pay special attention to bad habits. Because people experience the most problems from them. These habits are not unreasonably considered a manifestation of the weakness and, to some extent, limitations of a person who is not able to manage his behavior for his own good and allows bad habits to harm him. Here we are talking about a person’s tendency to receive pleasure in a certain way, in which he closes himself off from many other types of pleasure that do not harm his health. For example, if a person is addicted to drinking alcohol, then this addiction deprives him of the opportunity to experience pleasure in many other things, such as, for example, playing sports, a healthy, sober lifestyle, mental clarity that helps to achieve success in various matters, the ability to be confident in yourself without additional psychostimulants, successful communication with women and the like. There is a lot that can be listed here. So a bad habit is always a person’s choice of one type of pleasure to the detriment of another. Bad habits can limit a person in many ways. This should always be remembered by those people who cannot get rid of bad habits only because they consider getting rid of them an unnecessary limitation for themselves. In reality, there are no restrictions here, there is simply a choice of what you can enjoy.

The benefits of habits

Habits can be beneficial in themselves. There is nothing superfluous, incorrect or unnecessary in nature. And the task of habits is to simplify our lives. As I wrote above, habits allow us to transfer various types of activities into an automatic mode, in which, firstly, the speed of our performance of these types of activities to which we are accustomed increases, and secondly, we do not waste unnecessary resources of our body for their implementation. Take, for example, a person’s psycho-emotional state - it will turn out to be much more stable if he deals with things that are familiar to him than with new, unknown, incomprehensible ones. Everything new, unusual, unstudied can be fraught with a potential threat, so a person needs to understand it properly, which will require certain efforts and, consequently, resources from him. But everything familiar and familiar allows you to do without any fear and use what a person knows well and what does not need to be re-learned, researched, tested. We all have some habits; it’s impossible to live without them.

It is also important to understand that by doing familiar things and using familiar things, and in general dealing primarily with everything familiar and familiar, a person can free up time for himself, either for rest, if he needs it, or for learning something new. If we had to constantly deal with everything new, we simply would not be able to withstand such a load on our psyche and intellect - we would have to constantly re-learn everything. And so, we can get used to, say, familiar products and use them without any fear of running into something harmful and of poor quality. True, this is used by those who manipulate people with the help of habits, so let’s now talk about their harm.

Harmful habits

Every medal has two sides. And harm can come from anything, including habits. Personally, I consider any habits, first of all, a weakness that is easy to take advantage of. Although we can do a lot of things automatically with their help, for example, drive a car without thinking about our actions or doing our work, but at the same time, by abusing everything familiar, we become very predictable and do not develop our adaptive skills. Succumbing to habits, people begin to close themselves off from everything new, to the detriment of their interests. Even worse, they begin to fear everything new, becoming vulnerable in the face of any changes and progress. A person’s brain becomes ossified and his psyche becomes weak when he deals with everything familiar, avoiding everything new. And therefore, those who are open to the new will be able to surpass it in many ways.

It is also impossible not to say about the ways of manipulating people with the help of habits. Many people do not notice this or do not want to notice that they are very often manipulated using their habits. In the same business this happens all the time. For example, very often customers are lured to some new store with various promotions, discounts, low prices and the like. And then, when people get used to this store, the prices in it gradually rise, but people, out of habit, still continue to buy various goods in it, even at very unprofitable prices. This does not always work and not with everyone, but some of the clients can be lured and retained in this way. Or goods that people are already accustomed to may lose a lot in quality over time, but they will still buy them out of habit, without noticing any difference or not attaching much importance to this point. So there may be many options for hidden influence on people who, due to their habits, become predictable and do not perceive various information critically enough, especially partially familiar ones.

Habits prevent us from expanding our internal picture of the world; because of them, we do not notice or do not attach importance to what does not coincide with our already formed internal images, and we are thus deprived of a colossal amount of valuable information that we could use for our own benefit. Instead, we use outdated maps of reality in our heads, which often fail us. After all, focusing on the wrong map, which has become such because it is outdated, a person will inevitably come to mistakes and dead ends. He will make a mistake in one case, in another, third, and thus his whole life can go downhill. For example, a person is used to some kind of work, but it is no longer relevant, society no longer needs it, so there is no point in doing it. And you won’t earn money, and you won’t build a career, and there will be no respect for you. This means it needs to be replaced with a new one. But a person can sit at this job until the end, because he is used to it. This is how people drive themselves into dead-end situations with their habits.

So no matter how tempting it may be to do familiar things and not stress yourself out again, thinking about something new and questioning everything that you are used to, you need to remember that getting used to something can greatly limit yourself by closing your mind to many new things. This does not mean that you need to fight all your habits; it is still impossible to do this, even if you really want to. This suggests the need to abandon them in situations where they are openly harmful to you or simply useless. And there are a lot of useless habits in our lives. Many traditions, rituals, and customs have long since become obsolete. There is no need for them. Therefore, you need to abandon them in order to behave more effectively and adequately. Something new, better, more useful and effective is constantly appearing in the world, so holding on to the old, familiar, familiar, but outdated and therefore absolutely unnecessary, is sometimes simply stupid. But habit, as we know, is second nature, so people often find it very difficult to give it up. However, it is possible. Let's see what needs to be done for this.

How to get rid of the habit?

Getting rid of a habit or habits can be either a very simple or a very complex task, depending on which person and which habits need to be eliminated. This task will be simple due to the fact that a person can be switched from his old habit to something else, which can subsequently become a new habit for him if he is very interested in something - some kind of profitable, some kind of encouragement, the opportunity to achieve success in a business that is important to him. People are, in principle, ready to give up the good for the sake of the better. You just need to competently demonstrate this best to them, so that they clearly and clearly understand what benefits they can get by going towards something new. Let's say a person is used to his job, and then he is offered a new one - a more interesting, high-status and highly paid job, which is simply impossible to refuse. There are no additional demands placed on him that could seriously strain him, so he only needs to make a decision and take a minimum number of actions to start a new business. Well, who would refuse such an offer? In other words, when something new is clearly more profitable than the old one, a person will forget about his old habits and begin to get used to something better, and will form new habits. People love everything new when they are not afraid of it. But they are not afraid of him when they understand.

But this task becomes difficult precisely when, firstly, a person does not realize all the benefits that he can get by giving up his old habits, and secondly, when he does not have the necessary willpower to give up them . The second reason is especially serious and much more difficult to deal with. Some people can run their lives so hard that they no longer care how it turns out. They are ready to put up with everything. As I wrote above, habits make our psyche weak and our thinking inert. This is because they relax a person. And a person must constantly overcome some kind of resistance, make efforts to achieve some goals, adapt to something new in order to maintain vital energy and vitality. And if, thanks to his habits, he lives in constant comfort, then many functions of his body, both physical and mental, simply atrophy. So some people cannot be forced by any carrots to give up what they are used to, simply because they no longer have those abilities, thanks to which they can become addicted to something new - these abilities have fallen asleep in them. So this, I repeat, is a fairly common and very serious problem that is not so easy to solve.

I have worked with people who have reduced their entire lives to rather primitive and often harmful habits. For example, this is gambling addiction, including gambling addiction, this is a terrible job in which a person simply wastes his life, this is a lack of communication with people and, as a result, isolation and limitation, and so on and so forth. A person accustomed to these things plunges his mind into a prison in which he slowly dies. Such people have to be pulled out step by step from their very limited and gloomy world. And in this work, their agreement that they need to give up their habits is of great importance. If they do not want this, then without radical measures their problem cannot be solved at all. And of course, they cannot help themselves, because they do not have the necessary strength for this.

You can cope with habits with the help of your mind and with the help of your emotions. Most people use emotions, it's easier this way. Habit is directly related to such innate feelings as laziness and fear. They, in turn, evoke a certain emotional state in a person, which prompts him to take certain actions. There are other feelings and qualities in the structure of habits, but the main ones are laziness and fear. Consequently, it is these feelings that must be influenced first of all in order to rid a person, including himself, of this or that habit. There can be many combinations here. For example, by freeing a person from the fear of something new, you can simultaneously awaken in him both interest in something and the desire to receive something, achieve something, and succeed in something. As a result, one emotion fades, another blossoms. And if a person does not respond to the bait - he does not want anything and is not interested in anything, then his old fear can be replaced with a new, even stronger fear, which will force him to give up the habit. This is how, in particular, they treat some alcoholics and drug addicts by instilling in them certain attitudes. Well, everyone has probably heard about the so-called coding, which in some cases is nothing more than suggestion. And by influencing the feeling of laziness, you can promise a person quick and easy results in some matter in order to get him off the ground and when he gets involved in the process, it will be more difficult for him to refuse it, after all, he already has some resources spent to start doing something. This is how people are encouraged, for example, to study. It’s not so easy to get used to, but once you start doing it, it will be easier to continue. A person values ​​his resources, so he often tries to be consistent so as not to think that he has wasted them. Let’s say, if you sell a person an expensive book, he will be more willing to study it and take it more seriously than if he got it cheaply or even for free. People are designed in such a way that they value more highly what they have earned with difficulty and for which they have given some of their resources. This can be used by ridding them of old habits through such a feeling as laziness. You just need to force them [or yourself] to start doing something new, unusual, preferably using some resources, for example, money. And then the person will be drawn into this process and gradually get rid of the old habit or at least acquire a new one.

So we can fight habits using different methods to get rid of those that we don’t need. This can be done using simple methods and using rather sophisticated multi-step combinations that allow you to deceive a person’s mind so that he is not afraid of new things and is not lazy. Naturally, we don’t need to get rid of all our habits, especially since this is impossible to do anyway. The main thing is to leave those that help us and not harm us. Therefore, friends, try, experiment, test different approaches to yourself and to those whom you want to wean from some harmful or useless habit, habits, in general, find the key to your and other people's minds. And then, sooner or later, a person will be able to get away from everything old and ineffective to which he is accustomed, in order to look at life in a new way.

ABSTRACT

Psychology

Psychology of habit. The role of habits in people's lives

Introduction 3

1. Psychology of habit 4

2. The role of habits in people’s lives 7

3. How to get rid of bad habits 12

Conclusion 15

Literature 16

Introduction

A habit in psychology is any regularly repeated type of behavior that does not require thinking and is acquired rather than innate. It can concern any area of ​​activity (from eating and sleeping to thinking and reacting) and is formed through reinforcement and repetition. Reinforcement encourages the repetition of a behavior or response each time the stimulus that originally elicited the response occurs. With each repetition, the action becomes more and more automatic (as they say, a little more, a little more).

Some habits, however, can arise as a result of a single event, especially in the case of emotional involvement.

Habits are useful for freeing higher mental processes for creative activity, but they contribute to inflexibility of behavior, and negative habits can even negatively affect all factors of life. Psychologists say that you cannot get rid of a habit - it can be changed or replaced. This does not apply to habits that are positive, but only to those that really interfere with our lives.

The relevance of the study of the psychology of habit and the role of habits in people’s lives, undoubtedly, will allow us to consider the negative and positive aspects of habits in people’s lives.

Purpose of the study: to consider the psychology of habit and the role of habits in people’s lives.

Research objectives:

1. Get acquainted with the psychology of habit.

2. Consider the role of habits in people’s lives.

3. Determine how to get rid of bad habits.

Object of study: various aspects of the psychology of habit.

The subject is the role of habits in people's lives.

1. Psychology of habit

A habit is a well-learned action that a person repeats, guided by instincts and attitudes. This is the definition of habit given by psychologists. Simply put, these are actions that we do without thinking.

The process of acquiring a habit is very simple. One day, a person does something. Initially, he has to consciously perform and control not only the action as a whole, but also the individual movements or operations through which he carries it out. However, repeating it several times, it becomes easier to do it, and later you completely stop noticing how, when you come home, you habitually put on slippers, etc.

As a result of constant repetition, a person begins to perform many actions without thinking. This is called a habit. This is where the complexity of the habit mechanism lies. What makes us do habitual actions lives deep inside.

A habit is a subconscious program following which a person acts. Contrary to popular belief, this program is not at all an enemy of the individual, but on the contrary, it is an excellent assistant.

It is a means of saving energy in our internal system.

By becoming automated, habitual actions or reactions cease to take up our time and energy to think about them, prepare for them, experience them, and perform them. They happen by themselves, leaving us with energy to solve more complex problems.

Unfortunately, there are bad habits that ruin our health, push people away from us, put us in hopeless situations, etc. I want to get rid of them, but it is very difficult to do this, but I am glad that, after all, it is possible.

There are positive and negative habits.

Positive habits (for example, habits of rational work at the machine, sanitary and hygienic habits, habits of cultural behavior in everyday life, etc.) are an important condition for labor productivity, compliance of behavior with social norms, and a condition for protecting health. By making it easier to comply with certain rules, habits provide great assistance in organizing a person’s personal and social life.

Negative habits (disorderly and careless performance of work, violation of cultural norms, etc.) have the opposite effect.

There are large individual differences between people in the formation of habits.

The formation of habits begins in early childhood, as the child learns self-care, careful dressing and undressing, careful handling of toys, and storing them in a certain order.

A major role in the formation of habits in children is played by imitation of older family members and feasible participation in the working life of the family.

In kindergarten, a child gets used to participating in the work of a children's team, taking a responsible attitude towards his work, his responsibilities in the game, overcoming the difficulties he encounters in his activities, helping his comrades, etc.

At school, students get used to working carefully and hard during class, to be responsible for doing homework, to observe a certain schedule of work, rest, sleep, nutrition, to patiently overcome difficulties, to plan work, determining its content in advance and correctly distributing it in time. By observing school rules, the student masters the habits of cultural behavior.

The main conditions for the formation of habits during school are the leadership and example of the teacher. , systematic assessment of student work and behavior by teachers, public opinion of the classroom

collective, pioneer and Komsomol organizations. An important condition for the formation of habits is an irreconcilable fight against negative habits (on the part of parents, teachers, class staff, pioneer and Komsomol organizations), categorical condemnation of every manifestation of a bad habit.

It is important to replace a negative action with a positive one, as well as prevent the occurrence and possibility of developing bad habits.

Work on developing habits in the family, kindergarten, and school must be systematic and continuous, since any violation of a habit destroys the children’s need to perform the actions necessary to form or consolidate this habit.

Habits play an important role in the formation of stable forms of behavior that characterize personality traits. The formation of useful habits and the fight against harmful, negative habits is one of the most important tasks of education.

2. The role of habits in people’s lives

Habits are of great importance in people's lives and activities. Habits are actions that become fixed in a person’s behavior and become his needs. (Fig.1)

Satisfaction of a need is associated with a feeling of pleasure, and dissatisfaction entails unpleasant experiences.

Therefore, performing habitual actions causes us positive emotions, and the inability to do what we are used to is accompanied by unpleasant feelings.

Fig.1. Human needs

Needless to say, our whole life consists of habits. The way we master a new direction of activity, a new area of ​​knowledge, the way we talk with other people and how we perceive them, the way we react to life circumstances, solve the difficulties that arise in life, and, in the end, the way we eat is all the result of habits ingrained in us.

One could even say even more, the circumstances that arise in our lives are the result of our habits.

Therefore, in his book “Seasons of Life” Jim Rohn said: “If we want to change our circumstances, we must change our habits, our attitude, our opinion...”.

The only difference between bad habits and good ones is that bad habits arise without any effort on our part, while good habits do not arise on their own, unless they are instilled by wise parents from childhood.

Any habit is, in fact, an unconscious automatic action that is formed from repeated repetition.

From here we can draw a simple conclusion: in order to change a bad habit, you must first become aware of it, i.e. bring it out of the state of automatism, and transfer it to a state of control over the action being performed.

Then we need to formulate as a goal exactly the positive habit that we want to acquire and try to take an action (or abstain from action) that corresponds to the formulation.

Repeating this action many times will form a positive habit.

Of course, forming positive habits already requires significant effort from us, because... Our existing habits have created a certain comfort zone, and new things always cause discomfort.

But let us quote here the words of Bill Newman, author of the best-selling book Soar with the Eagles: “Remember: every intelligent person tries to turn his intentions into skills and habits.”

Whatever area of ​​life we ​​touch on: sports, science, study, work, business, health, etc., success requires the formation of appropriate positive habits and the abandonment of bad ones.

We are well aware of the presence of bad habits such as alcoholism, drug addiction, and smoking.

We can condemn or justify such habits, but everyone

a sane person knows that they are detrimental to life.

Other habits are less striking, and their consequences are completely different, but just like the above, a person is most often attached to them, and thinking that he himself controls his actions, in fact becomes a slave to his habits, and they lead him through life, often without his knowledge and not always safe for life.

Firstly, as often happens, we go to bed because we are used to lying down after eating, or after work, or in general we are used to lounging in bed longer in the morning. We also eat more often out of habit, not because

whatever we want, but because lunch time has come, and someone is used to doing without breakfast, or lunch, or dinner.

After work or on weekends, we also have our own stereotype of behavior: someone goes to the cinema and loves entertainment (he is used to “relaxing” after work), someone continues to work until the night (doing work taken home, doing homework , country house). Such a person is used to working.

Some people understand relaxation (used to think) as changing activities, switching from one thing to another, while others prefer to relax in bed with or without a book, with or without a friend, or just take a walk in the fresh air, admire nature, or listen to beautiful music.

And for some, the best relaxation is to get drunk like a pig. Habits that determine lifestyle are different for everyone.

Let’s observe who sits or stands, how they sit, and what pose they choose.

This is also a habit. As a rule, we choose the same position, using the same muscles, which leads to their overstrain, and this in turn leads to narrowing of the lumen of blood vessels and compression of the nerves passing through these muscles, which over time can cause the disease organs that receive nutrition and innervation (i.e. control from the nervous system) from compressed vessels and nerves.

It is also very important for life how we move. We even

We don’t suspect that our range of movements that we use every day is very limited. We choose only those movements that we are accustomed to since childhood. In this case, the muscle mass is almost not used, therefore, they atrophy, therefore, again, the vessels and nerves suffer, and the disease develops.

We are accustomed to swallowing food without chewing it, and thus disrupt the digestion process. We got used to breathing without noticing our breathing, using, as a rule, one or two types of breathing: normal everyday breathing (and everyone has their own normal breathing) and deeper (depth and frequency depend on physical activity). But there are many types of breathing: abdominal, chest, mixed, with different lengths of the inhalation and exhalation phases, with pauses after inhalation and exhalation, etc. We are used to not noticing pain if it does not interfere with work, we are used to not noticing our body, not paying attention to it, when we run to work in the morning, when we talk and laugh, when... You never know when else - almost always.

Each of us has very different habits. Useful, harmful, necessary and not always necessary. Some of them help us in life, others spoil it.

Habits are fixed, as a rule, by life stereotypes and social foundations.

Many habits are ingrained in us from childhood and turn into reflexes. Our habits are also influenced by the people around us.

Most habits are instilled by our parents. Our habits shape our character and worldview.

And if some changes are coming in life, then we have to break our habits and established way of life. If everything is stable, calm and even, then we see no reason to change our habits.

We behave the way we are used to, and sometimes we don’t even realize how much our habits spoil our lives and affect our feelings, thoughts and relationships with loved ones.

Our habits tell us how to live, how to behave and how to relate to certain life factors or people. In other words, our actions, deeds and motives are mostly tied to pleasing our habits and not disturbing our usual way of life.

At times we are struck by the thought of changing something, starting a “new life” on Monday, and the like. Yes, we sometimes get tired of our habits and realize that they are “harmful” or “wrong”.

The very phrase “change yourself” implies, first of all, a breakdown of our consciousness. Agree, it is difficult to part with something that was so dear to us for many years, was with us everywhere, woke up in the morning with us, lived with us every day and went to bed tired. There is a statement - “if a person doesn’t want to, no one can force him.”

3. How to get rid of bad habits

In order to get rid of a bad habit, it is necessary, first of all, to realize that the habit really exists.

Until we are aware of the problem, we do not feel it and it controls us. This applies not only to bad habits, but also to useful ones.

Justifying your bad habits and shortcomings prevents you from getting rid of them.

Getting rid of old and bad habits helps by acquiring new useful and positive ones. We are designed in such a way that if we are deprived of something, we must receive some kind of compensation. And here it is important not to make a mistake in choosing. Instead of an old bad habit, we need to choose one that would become our faithful companion for the rest of our lives, and which we would not have to painfully part with later.

Healthy and useful habits are enough. Sports, hygiene, adherence to a regime, healthy and proper nutrition, discipline and self-education, pay attention to family and friends, read useful books, learn something new, find a hobby or start collecting something. You can choose an activity to your liking.

A few simple rules will help you easily survive changes in life. Changing habits should not be negative.

There is no need to deprive yourself of pleasure or torture yourself. This will make you go back to your bad habits. You need to want the pleasant and good things that your new habit will bring you. If we forcibly suppress negative habits, their strength will only increase.

Bad habits will be eliminated if it is no longer possible to derive pleasure from them, and the source of pleasure will be found in something else, for example, in a new good habit. It is necessary not to force yourself, but to create a situation where a bad habit fades into the background, and subsequently completely goes beyond the horizon.

Both good and bad habits begin and appear in the same way

The same reasons – getting pleasure and compensating for negative situations. You need to praise and encourage yourself when the first successes appear.

This is a great incentive not to go back to the old ways.

The first step to overcoming a negative habit is to realize that this habit already exists.

A new good habit should bring pleasure and fully compensate for everything that is lost when the old negative habit goes away. We must also remember that habits are deeply embedded in our heads and can return at any moment and we will never allow this to happen again.

Habit is the ability to remember and reproduce, every time and at the right time for us, what we have learned.

Habits play an important role in a person's life, and in many cases, habits are very useful.

Thanks to this ability, many skills that we just have to learn can then be automatically used by us without any changes, unless something changes in the external situation or our attitude towards these skills.

However, throughout our lives, we also accumulate skills that are difficult for us to give up, although we realize that they are not effective and that they even sometimes interfere with us or harm us.

Bad habits that seem difficult or even impossible to change include some of our characteristics, such as lack of confidence, straightforwardness and tactlessness. There is even such an expression as “stiffness in habits,” as if we are talking about something that was previously mobile and could still be influenced, but is now frozen and cannot be influenced by any influence.

However, any person can change if he wants to and if he knows how to do it. The main essence of the solution to the problem is that no one has to be a victim of their habits.

Isn't it better to replace them with new ones that bring real benefits?

Any habit is formed in the process of conscious repetition of any action, but the more we repeat an action, the less conscious we are of the process of its reproduction.

Thus, a new habit is formed that will either complement or replace the old habit.

The bottom line is that if we want to achieve success in life, we need to analyze our habits more often, and if we discover that there are those that create serious obstacles for us, we should not think that it is impossible to get rid of them. You need to take decisive action to replace old and unhelpful habits with new ones that will lead to success.

Conclusion

Habits are of great importance for the formation of a person’s moral character, since, once established, they will already contribute to the appearance of certain character traits in him. Habits are varied.

There are professional habits associated with the type of work that a person does. So, the doctor is used to paying attention to how a person looks, whether he looks healthy or sick, etc. There are moral habits (to be honest, truthful), hygienic, aesthetic, educational, habits of cultural behavior and others. The habit of work occupies a very important place among habits. This habit must be cultivated from an early age and especially at school age.

If the skills developed are useful or indifferent, then habits can also be harmful. Useful, or positive, habits include, for example, the habit of concentrated work, cleanliness, politeness, and attentive attitude towards people. Harmful, or negative, habits can be called habits of idleness, rudeness, and smoking. Good habits help people a lot. On the contrary, a person who has many negative habits is forced to constantly fight them, and sometimes becomes a slave to his bad habits.

We must understand that the entire totality of a person’s actions, abilities, skills and habits is part of his character.

Therefore, every person should try to acquire useful habits. To acquire them, you should, perhaps, repeat more often those useful actions that need to be made habitual, and in order to free yourself from a bad habit, you should not repeat the corresponding actions.

Because repeated performance of the same act leads to the formation of the habit of acting in such conditions exactly this way and not otherwise.

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