The Psychology of Habit

On why habit is about your dependence on habit rather than dependence on the object of habit

When we consider habits, we usually think of activity that is repeated by us and the psychology of habit would tell us why we repeat our activities and develop habits as we grow up. Habits are thus repeated patterns of behaviour and activities that we are conditioned to carry out and could develop over many years and habits that have developed over many years are more likely to be stronger than those developed recently or in a few years. So habits that we develop as children are more likely to remain with us all our lives than habits that we develop as adults. So the strength or potency of such habits would be directly related to how long we have been having these patterns of behaviour.

So when we wake up in the morning and brush our teeth, this is behaviour we all developed as children. Now we have to think, what happens when we try to stop these habits? What happens if we wake up and don't brush our teeth? Apart from the fact that we could end up with bad breath, there are actual psychological effects of physical and emotional or social discomfort when we don't follow one of our regular habits. Brushing your teeth is an example, another could be when you enter your apartment and switch the TV or computer on immediately after reaching home. If you stop doing that, you suddenly feel uncomfortable about your immediate ambience, even if it's your own home, as if something is missing from your life. Suppose your TV or your laptop has broken down, you cannot exercise your habit and you feel depressed. We humans are slaves of these patterns of behaviour and that is why habits are an absolutely central part of our existence. This depression that we feel, when we cannot exercise our habit could be considered as a consequence of 'habit obstruction'. Thus the habit obstruction effect could have a serious impact on our emotional, social and personal lives.

When habit obstruction effect is long term, that is when your laptop is broken for weeks or months, so you can't switch it on when you enter your house or apartment, the habit obstruction effect will extend to habit starvation and after a few weeks of habit obstruction, when you set into the habit starvation effect, you might as well begin to subconsciously forget your habit. So habit starvation could trigger some kind of amnesia of your habitual behaviour and you forget the habit. It's all very nice but then not so simple, because you might in this case have some sort of habit displacement and develop some other kind of habit. Means what? It means instead of switching on your laptop when you enter your apartment, you start cuddling your dog or your spouse or whoever lives with you. So you develop a new habit of giving a cuddle to someone once you enter your apartment. But this could have a negative effect if this object of cuddle is not around. So you again go back to habit obstruction-habit starvation effects by the time you get your new laptop and redevelop your old habit. So habit development (also known as habit formation), habit obstruction, habit starvation, habit displacement works as a cycle and in some cases we just keep continuing with our habits when there is no obstruction or starvation effect.

So what does habit do? Habits make us dependent on these patterns of behaviour. So, psychologically, we are not exactly tied to the objects of habit but rather to the habits. You see, when you enter your house and hug your dog, it is not so much about loving your spouse, but more about your habit and your dependence on your habit. Of course, your spouse doesn't realise this and of course this is good for you. We are emotionally and psychologically attached to our habits. Habits give us short term pleasure, but nevertheless these short term pleasures are important for our existence. Thus we humans could be considered as habit dependent individuals. In our daily lives, we overlook how habit underlies almost every aspect of our activities and all activities our programmed mentally to be performed or carried out in a certain way and this is our habit.

So, how do psychological theories fit in to explain the psychology of habit? Habit can be explained with conditioning and could explain human behaviour. Whereas behaviourists could explain habit with conditioning theories and suggest that habit is generally behaviour that is conditioned in a certain way, so a dog would develop a habit of eating or feel hungry when we hears a bell because he has developed that habit to associate the bell and the food.

So are habits about associating things or activities? Habits are usually about association, which means it involves two or more factors when it is manifested. So you wake up in the morning and as a habit wash your face, so the two factors here are waking up and washing your face. So waking up in the morning a habit? Yes and it again involves the internal perception of the time of day and waking up and thus there are two factors here as well. Usually habits will be about association of two or more factors and this is what psychological theories of conditioning have explained with stimulus-response equations. So in this case, habit works as a response to certain stimulus. Behaviourism could almost habit but would not be able to explain the effects of developing habits and effects of habit obstruction or habit starvation. This is because behaviourism does not consider mind or our emotional nature but only considers human behaviour sans the human mind.

So behaviouristic theories would not adequately explain habit and cannot explain why habits are difficult to abandon and what emotional impact habit obstruction or habit starvation could have on us. For this we need to understand that our mind is prone to some sort of mental conditioning.

In order to understand habit and its impact, we need to go beyond behaviourism. We have to understand why when we cannot engage in one of our habits, we feel discomfort and depressed. You have a glass of warm milk every night and suddenly you stop having this milk and then your body feels discomfort and emotionally or mentally you might also feel uncomfortable. If like me, you are into classical music and go to sleep with Beethoven or Schubert every night, you will probably stay wide awake if someone plays hard rock. We humans are creatures of habit, we are attuned to certain physical and emotional routines and when there is a change in routine, our body and mind are equally affected, whether it's a glass of milk, a kiss, a laptop, a dog, a partner or the toothpaste in the morning.

When you feel emotionally dependent on someone or something, you tend to think that you are dependent on that object or that person, but you are not. You are only dependent on your own habit. It is not a bad thing at all, it is the very foundation of society and family as we all back home at night after a day's work and that is our habit.

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