PSY2001 S2 W5 Habits Flashcards
(28 cards)
What are habits?
Strong associations (in memory) between contexts and responses that have developed through repetition. And by consequence: Relatively automatic responses to contexts that are insensitive to changes in the value or contingency of response outcomes.
Habit should not be equated with frequency of occurrence.
Are habits represented by strong associations between context and responses?
Yes. Adriaanse et al. 2011 is evidence of this.
Identify habits: habitual response and alternative response
Primed lexical decision task: decide i a letter sering is a word or non-word. Prime: home, target: responses that the participants has generated + filter items (e.G. stairs, clock etc.)
Results: Habitual responses had a faster response latency than alternative response.
Did these associations (context-response) develop through repetition?
Wood, Quinn, and Kashy (2002)
Experience sampling
PTT recorded what they were doing at the moment of the watch chime. the frequency with whih they had performed the behaviour in the past month. The extend to which they performed the behaviour in the same psychical location each time. The involved of other people in behaviour.
Results: ~43% of actions were performed almost daily and usually in the same context.
What are some criteria for establishing automaticy?
Do not require deliberation, occur outsie conscious awareness, insensitive to change in the value of the response, are difficult to control.
What is the “do not require deliberation” criteria for establishing automaticity?
Aarts et al. 1997
efficient
Do strong habits removed the need for deliberation?
Measure strength of cycling habits: decide as quickly as poosible how to travel for nine trips. The frequency of mentioning the bicycle served as a measure of habit.
16 descriptions of travel situation each with 4 atttributies (weather condition, weight of luggage, departure time, distance to the destination.
Scale 1-10 favourability of using the bicycle in each travel condition
NB of attributes used to make decision = operationalised as how predict attribute were of decision.
Reuslts:
They take into account less the features of the environment than the people with weaker habits. Stronger habits make decision based on habits not on environmental features.
What is the “occur outside conscious awareness” criteria for establishing automaticity?
Do Habitual responses occur without people being aware of them?
Wood, Quinn, and Kashy (2002)
Experience sampling
PTT recorded what they were doing at the moment of the watch chime. Also: What were you thinking about during this activity? And: Whether they considered each behavior to be a habit (yes / no)
If it’s a habitual behaviour you are less likely to think about that behaviour.
What is the “Insensitive to changes in the value of the response” criteria for establishing automaticity?
I.e., are not dependent on people’s goals
Are habits insensitive to changes in the value of the response?
Neal et al. (2011)
Habit strength: How frequently do you eat popcorn in movie theaters?
Context: Cinema or meeting room
Value of the response: Popcorn was either fresh or stale
Results:
Context: Meeting room
All habit strengths increased in % consumed when fresh but high habit consumed more than moderate habit which consumed more than low habit.
However
Context: Cinema
Stale: High habit consumed most then moderate, then low but in Fresh: low most, moderate then high.
Are habits just about behaviour?
No, are habits go beyound behaviot and can be in our thinking - negative self talk habits
What are some Habit Measures?
Habit index of negative thinking (HINT) - thinking negatively about myself is something …
Self-report habit index (Verplanken & Orbeel, 2003) doing x is something that is typically me.
Are habits part of who we are? - what are some studis investigate this?
Murtagh et al. 2012 - drivers
Albini et al. 2018 - vegetables
Verplanken and sui 2019 - activity
What did Murtagh et al. 2012
study?
“Being a driver is an important part of defining who I am”, “In general, how often do you do the following for local journeys?” Cycle/Use local bus/Walk/Take a train, tube or tram?’
Results: rs vary between 0.02 and 0.07 - weak correlation
Driving habits aren’t part of who we are.
What did Albini et al. 2018
study?
“How important is it to you to eat two or more portions of fruit a day / vegetables a day?” “Eating fruit every day is something…” (e.g., I do frequently - SRHI) “Eating vegetables every day is something…” (e.g., I do frequently - SRHI)
Results: Correlation for vegetables (r = 0.49), but not fruit (r = 0.06)
PTT who find it important to eat vegetables are more likely to eat them frequently.
Perceived importance of eating fruit doesn’t strongly predict how often someone actually eats it.
What did
Verplanken and sui 2019
study?
How much does this activity reflects who you really are as a person (i.e., your “true self”)? How frequently do you do this activity?
Results: The median correlation between these two measures was r = 0.46.
General tendency for people to engage more often in activities that they feel are central to their identity.
Is it possible to change or break habits?
Yes but Motivation alone is unlikely to be enough
Can intention change/break habits?
Webb & Sheeran (2006)
Meta-analysis of 47 studies that changed participants’ intentions to do things.
Changes in intentions led to larger changes in behaviours that participants performed sporadically (d+ = 0.74) than in behaviors that could be repeated into habits (d+ = 0.22).
Not really.
Why do people fail to act on their intentions?
Intention viability
Counter-intentional habits
Lack of resources / Outside personal control
What is Intention viability?
It is impossible for some decisions to find expression in the absence of particular abilities, resources or opportunities.
What is counter-intentional habits?
Intentions have smaller effects on behaviours performed frequently in similar situations (Ouellette & Wood, 1998)
What is meant by lack of research / outside personal control?
There is a need for a supportive environment to act on intention. The lack of it is an explanation for the failre to act on their intentions
Why is it so hard to break habits?
People may not be aware: that habits drive behaviour, of the cues that trigger habits, of the habitual responses themselve
What are habits also?
Insensitive to changes in the value of the response - Neal et al. (2011)
And may come to define us - Verplanken & Orbell (2003)
What are some strategies to break habits?
Change circumstance
Vigilant monitoring
Make a plan
What is the change circumstances strategy?
If habits are cued by recurring stimuli, then changes in circumstances that remove these stimuli should disrupt habits.
Evidence: People with weak habits are less disrupted with change in location/cue. Wood, Tam, & Guerrero Witt (2005)
What did Wood, Tam, & Guerrero Witt (2005) find?
Change circumstance
Results:
People with weak exercise habits were less disrupted with change in location/cue. Because their behaviour is not tied to location the change doesn’t affect them.
TV watching: People with weaker habits are less disrupted from change.
Strong news paper reading habits are more disrupted by change.
