Habits are professional and domestic, social and individual, useful and harmful, arising gradually or almost instantly. According to another division, habits are physical, emotional and behavioral. Cm. →

Habit Formation: Habituation

A habit is the result of repetition and is usually formed after 21 days (when repeated daily). Will the habit become a character trait? Cm. →

How to unlearn bad habits?

Bad habit can be smoking, and the habit of stomping your foot in displeasure when something doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out, and the habit Revenge. Weaning methods bad habits:

The choice depends on many factors, where age also influences (the ability to turn to the mind), and the ability to work on oneself, and whether the bad habit is strong. Until the habit is fixed, it is possible (and even better) to ignore it, switching yourself or another to others. Affairs, activities, hobbies. If the habit is already entrenched, distraction does not help.

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In human life habits play a very important role: useful - favorable, harmful - unfavorable. How useful of them relate to harmful ones depends largely on happiness and well-being of the individual.

As noted by K.D. Ushinsky, “upbringing, which has fully appreciated the importance of habits and skills and builds its knowledge on them, builds it firmly. Only habit opens the educator the opportunity to introduce one or another of his principles into the most character pupil, into his nervous system, into his nature.

In the life of each of us, much is determined precisely by the nature of our habits: personality orientation, character and inclinations, taste preferences, demeanor, etc. . As already mentioned, behavior is made up of action and action - from separate movements that have a certain sequence (combination) and are directed at some object, always with the aim of mastering it.

Movement control involves its arbitrary beginning and end, changes in tempo, the amount of effort expended. The movement itself is carried out thanks to an automatic mechanism given by nature in the form of a certain structure and properties of the motor apparatus. As a result of the repeated repetition of individual movements, their implementation no longer requires special control, and they are carried out automatically, that is, without the participation of consciousness. These automated systems of subject-directed actions are called skills.

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Through the acquisition of skills individual becomes capable of performing more and more complex actions, solving more and more complex motor tasks, and interacting with the objects of the environment at an ever higher level. At the same time, control over the "flow" of actions is gradually replaced by their planning. Without the acquisition of skills, it would be impossible to learn, work, or serve oneself in everyday life. This is explained by the fact that the skill unloads consciousness from the need to control each individual movement or simple action and allows you to operate with more and more complex and perfect complexes.

The skill-building process is a daily, continuous, and largely self-sustaining process.

Any adult individual has many motor skills, and all of them are acquired in the process of individual development - by selecting the necessary, expedient movements from the total number of movements possible for a person, as well as their subsequent improvement and consolidation.

The development of the system of movements is closely connected with the development of the psyche. Images of the elements of the surrounding world, their comparison and interrelationships are the basis of thinking. Formed in the brain, they become elements of thought. Transfer attention individual from one image to another, from the images themselves to the connections between them is the essence of the elementary movement of thought, and it is an elementary mental action. Automating this process means developing thinking skills.

A skill is a skill or a set of skills, clearly correlated with the solution of some motor task, more often by making changes in the objects of the surrounding world. If for the development of a skill repetition of actions is necessary, then for the manifestation of skill it is not always necessary: ​​the skill sometimes arises situationally, when some significant goal appears, due to a combination of skills that the individual already has. Skill is also the ability of an individual to combine skills, subordinating a certain number of effective actions (skills) to the solution of any large-scale problem.

Habits are formed in the same way as skills, by repeating certain movements and actions, but they are a special phenomenon of the psyche and behavior. A habit is an action that becomes obligatory for an individual, and not from the point of view of his obligations to anyone, but, as it were, his obligation to himself. Just like a living being who has developed conditioned reflex, cannot fail to perform the corresponding action under the appropriate conditions, so is habit: the individual cannot fail to perform this or that action when a certain situation (a set of conditions or a single significant factor).

If the individual has not performed the usual action, he feels a certain anxiety and psychological discomfort.

The concept of habit implies not only the ability of an individual to perform a certain action, but also need to do this. And the formation of a habit means not so much the emergence of a new skill, but the emergence of an impulse to constantly implement the appropriate sequence of movements or actions.

Observations show that a habit can form before the skill is fully formed, and then the improvement of the skill becomes difficult: if the development of a skill is a rather flexible process, then the habit is formed by the type of fixation, hardening of a certain sequence of movements; and its main property (along with obligation) is conservatism: habits are able to “defend” themselves in the psyche and, precisely because of this, turn into the “second nature” of the individual. And skills can be improved for as long as you like, until they become a stable habit.

Thus, the concept of habit means: - obligatory action (in this or that situation); - the priority of this action over others (in this situation); - a clear definiteness of this or that action (in this or that situation).

There is a characteristic difference between skill and habit: although both the first and the second are developed by repeating certain movements (actions), the skills of the individual are, as it were, in reserve, forming his motor potential. The habit actively reminds of itself as soon as the corresponding situation arises, and sometimes even out of situation. A habit, unlike a habit, has a motivating power, and this does not always lead to good.

To turn an action into a habit, the regularity of its implementation, its inclusion as a permanent element in the system of actions of the individual, is important. An action in itself can rarely become habitual if it is carried out outside the system of actions in which it is included as an element. Or if its implementation is not based on any need, originally laid down by nature. For example, eating habits are easily formed: the very need for food induces a person to constantly implement the necessary system of actions. And therefore, in this case, the habit of eating in a certain way is a way of realizing an initially existing impulse. In other words, the habit of eating in a certain way becomes a secondary need based on needs primary - in food.

So, a habit is a sequence of interconnected conditioned reflex movements that form a certain action, which is also activated conditioned reflex in a certain situation and serves to solve one or another standard task.

A habit can also be a sequence of elementary actions that form a more complex action capable of solving a more complex, but also standard task - this is a more complex habit. A habit is always developed for a certain situation.

Because a conditioned reflex is simpler than a habit, it is said to be "learned" while a habit is "formed" or "composed" (of several parts).

Both in the case of a conditioned reflex and in the case of habit, the repetition of the combination of some factors is important: the conditioned reflex, as the most important basis of behavior and life support, cannot and should not be developed for random, insignificant factors, nature, as it were, tests itself. The repetition of a combination means (for nature itself!) its non-randomness, and, consequently, its possible vital importance. But, since a habit is a combination of several conditioned reflexes, it takes longer to develop than an ordinary conditioned reflex. In addition, a conditioned reflex is developed in response to one unconditionally significant factor, while a habit is developed in response to a situation plus a certain impulse to action, which, when forming a child’s habits, is given to him by adults. If for a conditioned reflex the reinforcer is a vital benefit, directly embedded in the unconditional reinforcer - instinct, then for a habit this benefit can be a mediated situation, the behavior of others, their approval or disapproval.

Habits can be situational (more common) or out-of-situation (less common). Situational habits find a place for themselves under certain conditions, manifest themselves in certain situations, but at the same time they can become a reflection and expression of a person's individual traits, forming his inalienable features. It is the combination of habitual actions that determines such a property of an individual as his manners: manner of speaking, manner of bearing, manner of communicating, character of gait.

Speaking about the awareness or unconsciousness of conditioned reflexes and habits, it must be borne in mind that the individual does not control their development if those around him do not specifically pay attention to this. He can learn about the presence or absence of this or that conditioned reflex or habit either from the words of others who see him from the outside, or from the results of his actions. If they satisfy him, the individual continues to use them unconsciously; if they do not satisfy him, then, finding out the reasons for this dissatisfaction, he gradually comes to an analysis of the features of his behavior. And such a clarification of the causes of failure is akin to objectification, but is carried out not along the way, but after its completion. At the same time, the mastery of a skill often occurs under the control of consciousness, and the individual is able to track the stages of this development.

Manner is a combination of habits that form the behavioral appearance of an individual.

Another aspect of habits is preferences, they depend both on the individual characteristics of the organism and on the availability of certain items.

So, a habit is a phenomenon of a conditioned reflex nature, but more complex, since it combines a certain number of conditioned reflex actions (movements) and is also activated by a conditioned reflex. The habit also has the most important properties of a conditioned reflex: the obligatory nature (or increased probability) of this or that action in a given situation, the preference (choice) of this particular action (or movement) out of all the number that the individual has, the signal nature of the beginning of the action - namely in response to some trigger in the environment.

The habit has the properties of a dominant and a conditioned reflex. But, unlike a developed extra-situational dominant, a habit is a situational dominant; a habit is tied to a situation and only gradually (and by no means all habits) acquires the property of out-of-situation.

Habit- this is a kind installation psyche for a certain action: as soon as this situation arises, the action is performed. In other words, habit, like attitude, has the ability to wait for the right moment. But a developed attitude subjugates a multitude of situations, just as a habit subjugates a multitude of conditioned reflexes: an analogy can be traced here. An individual who has a habit is, as it were, aimed at a certain action and will definitely perform it as soon as the opportunity presents itself. But, as a rule, habit does not subjugate various situations to itself, as the attitude does, but obeys their flow and change.

The essential difference between habits and attitudes and dominants is the external manifestation (of habits): they are initially demonstrative, while the attitudes and dominants of the individual remain hidden not only for others, but also for himself.

The presence of habits gives rise to the individual's confidence in his behavior, since he even unconsciously "knows" what to do in a given situation, without painful (sometimes) reflections. Having already developed a habit, it carries the experience of an activity that is subjectively successful for the individual: if it were not for this, it would not have been fixed. Therefore, a habit is a form of accumulation of life experience by an individual.

The set of habits forms the motor stereotype of the individual - a constant and stable combination of actions that occupies a significant place in the structure of his activity.

Habits unload Attention and consciousness of the individual, allowing him to direct them to more essential, less elementary, more significant objects, processes, phenomena of the environment.

The totality and quality of habits determines the cultural appearance of the individual and the degree of his civilization. This is especially true for the habits of self-service and the nature of his preferences in a particular area of ​​the environment.

A combination of habits can form "behavioral modules". For example, the behavioral module "leave the house" includes: turn off the lights, check the windows, lock the door. The individual usually does this automatically. But, if he has any anxiety, he begins to decompose this module into separate actions and checks each of them separately, and more than once. Anxiety manifests itself precisely in this action related to objectification - to check all the components of the behavioral module.

The habit is closely connected with the ritual - a special overvalued sequence of actions carried out in a given situation.

The performance of habitual actions allows the individual to constantly receive satisfaction from what has been achieved: small, but reliable, because other activity does not always bring it, and this causes mental stress.

Habits allow you to find meaning in the accessible and everyday and facilitate the problem of finding the “meaning of life”: in habitual actions, the meaning is automatically laid down. And although this is not such an exalted meaning, it is a vital and reliable meaning. After all, a habit is a mechanism for giving significance to previously indifferent, unmotivated actions, a way of channeling the vital activity of an individual.

In the course of a child's development, habits are formed earlier than such mental neoplasms as level of claims, the overestimation of which often brings the individual a lot of trouble. A habit is our constant connection with childhood, with the period when it was formed. It is carried by an individual through his entire life, serving as one of the essential mechanisms for the continuity of generations.

A habit is a reliable way of an individual's adaptation to the conditions of existence: it makes life easier by reducing the level of stress, both physical (due to the "perfection" of actions) and mental, due to the absence of the need to carry out the processes of motivation, goal-setting and meaning formation for each action.

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If you analyze your typical day, you will surely find dozens of habits that make life difficult. For example, checking the phone immediately after waking up, sitting in front of the TV or on the Internet, heavy meals at night. All these things, which can be hundreds, not only eat up time, but also have a negative impact on life. But in this article, we will focus on good habits, consider their nature, tips for forming, and also present a list of habits that every person needs to cultivate.

Any habit consists of psychological and physiological aspects. In the case of the psychological, with repeated repetition, there are no longer any difficulties of a volitional or cognitive nature. Whatever your attitude to the skill being formed, after a while you stop experiencing strong positive or negative emotions about it. So it might work for reverse side if the habit is bad for you. If we talk about physiology, then we mean the formation of stable neural connections.

If you seriously want to instill a few habits in yourself, they should ideally affect different areas of your life. Thus, after some time there will be a very tangible positive change in your personality. That is why we have compiled a list of habits from completely different areas of self-development.

Science has not yet found a clear answer to the question of how long it takes to form a habit. Yes, and will not be able to find, because everything is individual and depends on the complexity of the habit itself. An action becomes a habit when it is performed without opposition from the body. Therefore, there is a difference between drinking a glass of water every morning or jogging for several kilometers. The range can vary greatly - from 18 to 254 days. But the number 66 is considered canonical - it is this number of days that you will need to stop motivating yourself and showing willpower. After this period, you will perform actions on the machine and you will not need additional efforts. During this time, the brain ceases to resist and finally forms stable neural connections.

Contrary to popular belief, it's not that hard to start forming a habit. All it takes is a little motivation. Difficulties arise when a person ceases to motivate himself with the onset of regression. Primary euphoria disappears and weekdays come. This moment is the most difficult and most people give up their plans.

What you need to know about habits in the first place?

1. For any missed day, you will have to pay several.
2. The more complex the habit, the more days it will take to form it.
3. Habits associated with physical activity require more time.
4. Two important skills contribute to the formation of a habit of any complexity - the ability to motivate yourself and developed willpower.
5. Ideally, the habit should be formed immediately after waking up or before going to bed. In these cases, the resistance of the brain is partially absent, and the subconscious mind is an active participant.

Below we present you a list of extremely useful habits for a person who wants to develop in all areas of his life. You may not be able to implement all of them due to the short amount of time, so you can focus on a few. Engage in the formation of the rest from time to time, because even in this case they will have positive influence on your brain and body.

Reading

This skill is in the first place for a reason. Reading almost any literature helps to concentrate and form creative and imaginative thinking. In the age of the Internet, our attention is constantly switching from one object to another, which leads to the fact that we cannot focus even during a conversation. Read every day and remember that reading news feeds in social networks and price tags are not considered.

Jogging

If you are thinking about health and exercise, and time is extremely short, practice jogging. They help to lose weight, are one of the most available species exercises and involve the maximum number of muscles. Running improves your mood and automatically makes you think about proper nutrition.

Walk

It's not the same as running. While walking, you can focus on thoughts or notice things that you didn’t notice before. Many geniuses liked to take a walk during creative crises, and they knew almost everything about the ways of inspiration.

Meditation

Daily meditation practice will allow you to increase your emotional intelligence and awareness. You will be able to deal with stress much faster and more effectively and learn to keep your emotions under control. also teaches patience and concentration. Thus, by forming one habit, you cultivate many others.

brain exercises

Now there are many ways to improve. If you make it a habit to study, after a while you will see how much better they began to remember information, make decisions and concentrate. Choose the most uncomfortable games and puzzles for you. Only in this case you will achieve excellent results. Remember that the brain will resist very strongly, but only at first.

Eating fruits and nuts

We are accustomed not to think about the diet and eat what is at hand. Get in the habit of buying and having fruits and nuts on the table. Most available in financial plan apples, peanuts, walnuts and pumpkin seeds. They contain incredibly important and useful substances. Make sure that when you run into the kitchen for a quick bite, these products are in your line of sight. They will not bring harm, but the benefits will be enough for the brain and to satisfy hunger.

Self-confidence

Oddly enough, but this is also a habit. We are what we do all the time. And if we make decisions and take actions in all situations, then we will become self-confident. Read books on the subject and immediately move on to practice. Self-confidence increases only when you receive confirmation of its presence. Keep the correct posture, do not mumble, and always clearly know what you want.

Planning

Planning is considered by many to be a boring process that also makes life predictable. This is true if it's okay for you to constantly leave your projects or goals halfway through. The beauty of planning is that it allows you to instantly clear your thoughts and focus on what's important. You will never again realize that you have been surfing the Internet aimlessly for an hour. Planning allows you to see, feel and appreciate time.

Lack of criticism

Hundreds of psychologists after him wrote about this. Any criticism leads at best only to a short-term result. And at worst, it leads to failure and the collapse of relationships. Criticism causes a person to feel resentment and a desire to defend himself. Everyone can criticize, for this you do not even need to be any reasonable person. Therefore, if you, for example, do not like the results of another person’s work, learn to indirectly and unobtrusively point out his mistakes and not cause a negative reaction in him. With this method, a person will draw conclusions himself and do everything as it should. Therefore, train yourself to suppress the first desire to criticize and think about how to get around the protection of a person.

A diary

The benefits of journaling are underestimated. But this way you can find an interlocutor who understands you - yourself. The opportunity to reflect and stay with thoughts one on one is a very useful pastime, because most of our time we do not think, but simply absorb information.

All these habits will allow you to bring your life, body and mind to life in a relatively short time, which will invariably have a positive effect on work or study. Good luck in forming good habits!

We are what we constantly do. Perfection, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.
Aristotle.

Habit takes in our Everyday life a leading role - we do a lot of things automatically only because these actions have been developed by us as a result of repeated repetition. In other words, these are conditioned reflexes that are formed in the process of life.

How habits are acquired

1. Constancy. As you know, a journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step. Daily, constant actions gradually form into a habit. We walk the same route to work, we eat the same foods, we buy clothes from the same shops, and so on.
2. Positive emotions. A habit is easier to form if the actions cause the person to experience positive emotions. Conditions must be comfortable. It doesn't matter if the habit is good or bad. The habit of exercising in the morning is caused by pleasure from exercise. And a person explains the habit of smoking with pleasure from the very process of smoking, although later he may want to get rid of it. One might object, but what about the fact that a person is used to going to a job he hates for years without experiencing joy? Isn't that also a habit? The answer is no, it is a forced necessity.

Myths about habits

It takes 21 days to form a habit

Perhaps this is the most common myth. You have repeatedly heard that any habit is formed in 3 weeks. This is not entirely true.
In the middle of the last century, the plastic surgeon Maxwell Maltz deduced a curious pattern - in order to get used to his new face, the patient needed about 3 weeks.
In his book Psychocybernetics, he described his experience as follows: “As a result of numerous observations, it was established that it would take at least 21 days for a new mental image to fully form and replace the old one.” Not surprisingly, the book soon became a bestseller. The idea of ​​changing your life in less than a month seemed attractive to many.
But the followers completely missed the fact that the surgeon meant "at least 21 days", which in itself meant the possibility of a much longer period. This is why some habits take months or even years to form.

Habit is forever

Any habit can be broken by forming a new one. For example, even a heavy smoker who smokes 3 packs of cigarettes a day can easily give up. To do this, you need to replace the negative habit of smoking with a positive one, say, the habit of driving. healthy lifestyle life. Do you understand what we are talking about? Do not stick strictly to willpower, looking with envy at people who smoke, but to displace thoughts about smoking with the habit of taking care of your health.

It takes effort to get used to.

You can train willpower as much as you like, forcing yourself to go for a run every morning - one day you will break. You will look for excuses and you will definitely find them: either it’s raining outside the window, or you didn’t get enough sleep, or some other reason. And all because you do not have the most important thing - motivation. Without it, even the most titanic efforts are doomed, but motivation + efforts work wonders!
A simple truth follows from this: before you set the goal of acquiring a habit, figure out why you need it. You must have a clear motivation, a clear idea of ​​​​the final result, otherwise all efforts will be in vain.

What most often prevents a person from becoming successful and rich? Brown University experts are sure that these are bad habits. This conclusion was made after their 5-year study. No, this is not about addiction to tobacco, alcohol and junk food, but about habits that harm personal effectiveness.

According to the findings of scientists, these include:

• Various kinds of side jobs (the habit of not investing money, but looking for additional income is the lot of poor people).
• Playing on the sweepstakes and other gambling (thirst for "easy" money that "falls out of nowhere").
• Reading exclusively fiction (rich and successful people read manuals and monographs that help to improve their professional level).
• The habit of taking loans (wealthy people are used to relying on the resources they have, refusing to buy or purchasing things at a more relaxed price).
• Lack of budget planning (84% of rich people systematize their financial affairs, and among the poor this figure is 20%).
• Lack of a “financial cushion” (the rich regularly save at least a small amount of money, unlike the poor, who are used to living “paycheck to paycheck”).

Our whole life consists of habits - certain well-formed actions, established ways of behaving in certain circumstances. Every little habit, even if it seems insignificant, can bring a person closer to his dream or, on the contrary, move him away from it.

By developing the habit of not smoking in the morning on an empty stomach or after a meal, you will be a little closer to achieving the goal of "become healthy"; buying products not spontaneously, but according to a pre-compiled list, you take the first steps towards the goal of “learning to save”.

By the way, psychologists advise not to wage an uncompromising fight against bad habits, but to focus on the development of new ways of behavior that are useful for you. By forming and reinforcing new habits, you will be able to achieve your goals more easily.

Forming Healthy Habits: Six Important Factors

The formation of a new way of behavior does not happen immediately. To do this, you need to go through six steps, each of which is important in its own way.

1. Analyze existing habits and understand what exactly needs to be changed in your behavior.
2. Make sure that the new way of behavior will help to cope with the tasks.
3. Clearly and clearly articulate what kind of habit it is desirable to acquire.
4. Determine which existing ways of behavior will contribute to the formation of a new one, and which ones will interfere.
5. Publicly announce your intention to form a new habit.
6. Find a suitable company for yourself: several or at least one like-minded person.

Let's dwell on each stage in a little more detail.

Stage 1

For several days (3-5 will be enough), observe yourself and analyze your own habits, both useful and not very good. Ask yourself questions:

Why do I do it this way?

- Can it be done differently?

For example, when you are going to have lunch, sitting comfortably in front of the monitor, stop and separate these actions. If you are hungry, eat in the kitchen and then start browsing the sites.

Stage 2

Think about how your new habit will help you achieve your goal. Stopped eating flour and sweets? Started doing morning runs and gave up cigarettes? This will help you become healthier and more beautiful.

As you begin to shape a new way of behaving, always remember to end result you want to achieve. Ask yourself, “How will my new habit help me get what I want?” Users who set goals on the SmartProgress resource work on forming a wide variety of habits: they write at least 10 pages of a new book every day, regularly perform a set of exercises, devote half an hour a day to studying foreign language or Java programming. And they write reports about their successes, which is also a very useful habit in itself.

Stage 3

The exact wording helps to clearly understand what exactly you want to achieve, what skill to form. For example, the phrase "Exercise daily" is too vague. It is better to formulate it this way: “Every day from 7.00 to 7.30, perform a set of exercises

for stretching / strengthening a specific muscle group / general developmental.

It is believed that in order to form new habit 21 days are needed, but this is an average. The more complex and unusual the new way of behaving, the longer it will take for it to become natural and necessary. So, it takes 21 days to train yourself to start the morning with a glass of warm water with lemon, and it can take two or three months to form the habit of proper nutrition or daily training.

Stage 4

Each mode of behavior does not exist in isolation, but in interconnection with others. Determine what already well-formed habits will help to organically include new order actions into the overall picture of your behavior. For example, you decide to make a menu for the week. This healthy habit is a reinforcer for many others:

• save money on groceries
• cook your own healthy and tasty food;
• follow the principles of proper nutrition;
• rational use of available products;
• calculate the budget for the week, etc.

Stage 5

By publicly declaring your intention to form a good habit, you gain an additional incentive that will not allow you to retreat at the first difficulties and inconveniences. Take over public obligation you can simply tell your numerous friends and acquaintances about it, publish a post on a page on a social network, on your favorite forum.

Or you can use the SmartProgress service, which provides special function- "the price of the word." By making a commitment, you risk a certain amount, which is deposited in your account and “frozen”. Did not fulfill this promise - lost money! Such a kind of "whip", extremely effective.

Stage 6

Like-minded people who are ready to enthusiastically support your idea and engage in the formation of a new habit “for the company” is great. You want to miss a workout, and a friend is already calling you and making an appointment to go to the gym. I want to eat a piece of cake, and my friend has already surpassed you in terms of the number of kilograms shed. Together, developing new habits is both more fun, faster, and more effective: mutual support, responsibility to each other, and a healthy spirit of competition help.

A new way of behaving will firmly enter your life if

- you clearly understand why you need it;

- it does not contradict the usual way of life, is approved and supported by the environment;

- the results from its “implementation” quickly become noticeable and tangible (you become slimmer, feel better after quitting smoking, began to work faster and manage to do more).

Remember that every new healthy habit is a stepping stone on the way to your success.

ESSAY

Psychology

The psychology of habit. The role of habits in human life

Introduction 3

1. Psychology of habit 4

2. The role of habits in the life of people 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 reflection and is acquired rather than innate. It can concern any area of ​​activity (from eating and sleeping to thinking and responding) 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 develop as a result of a single event, especially in the case of emotional involvement.

Habits are useful for liberating higher mental processes for creative activity, but they contribute to the inflexibility of behavior, and negative habits can even negatively affect all life factors. 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 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 life, no doubt, will allow us to consider the negative and positive aspects of habits in people's life.

The purpose of the study: to consider the psychology of habit and the role of habits in people's life.

Research objectives:

1. Familiarize yourself 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 life.

1. Psychology of habit

A habit is a well-learned action that a person repeats, guided by instincts and attitudes. This definition of habit is given by psychologists. In other words, these are the things 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 individual movements or operations through which he performs it. However, by repeating it several times, it becomes easier to do it, and in the future 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 habit. This is where the whole complexity of the mechanism of habit lies. What makes us do habitual actions lives deep inside.

A habit is a subconscious program that a person follows. Contrary to popular belief, this program is not at all an enemy of the individual, but on the contrary, it is a great helper.

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

Becoming automated, habitual actions or reactions cease to take us time and energy to think about them, prepare for them, experience them and perform them. They happen by themselves, leaving us 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, and so on. 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, the habits of a rational work regime 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. Facilitating the observance of certain rules, habits are of great help in organizing the personal and social life of a person.

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

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

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

Big role in the formation of habits in children, imitation of older family members and feasible participation in the working life of the family play.

IN kindergarten the child gets used to participating in the work of the children's team, to be responsible for his work, his duties in the game, to overcome the difficulties that he encounters in his activities, to help his comrades, etc.

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

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

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

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

Work on the development of habits in the family, kindergarten, and school must be systematic and continuous, since any violation of a habit destroys in children the need to perform the actions necessary for the formation or consolidation of this habit.

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

2. The role of habits in people's life

In the life and activity of people, habits are of great importance. Habits are actions that are 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, the performance of 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 is made up of habits. The way we master a new direction of activity, a new field 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 have arisen in life, and, in the end, the way we eat is all the result of ingrained habits in us.

You can even say even more, the circumstances that arise in our life are the result of our habits.

Therefore, in his book The Seasons of Life, Jim Rohn said: "If we want to change circumstances, we must change our habits, our attitude, our opinions ...".

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

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

From this we can draw a simple conclusion: in order to change a bad habit, you must first realize 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 in the form of a goal exactly the positive habit that we want to acquire and already try to perform the action corresponding to the formulation (or refraining from action).

Repeating this action many times will form a positive habit in us.

Of course, the formation of positive habits already requires considerable effort from us, because. Our existing habits have created a certain comfort zone, and a new one always causes discomfort.

But to quote here the words of Bill Newman, best-selling author of Soar with the Eagles: "Remember, every intelligent person tries to turn their intentions into skills and habits."

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

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

We can condemn or justify such habits, but each

a sane person knows that they are detrimental to life.

Other habits are less conspicuous, and their consequences are quite different, but just as with 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 is not always safe for life.

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

what we want, but because the time for lunch has come, and someone is used to doing without breakfast, or lunch, or dinner at all.

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 night (doing work taken at home, homework, country house). Such a person is used to work.

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

And for someone, the best relaxation is to get drunk to a swine state. Lifestyle habits are different for everyone.

Let's observe who, how he sits or stands, what position he chooses.

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

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

we do not suspect that our set of movements that we use every day is very limited. We choose only those movements that we are accustomed to since childhood. At the same time, the mass of the muscles is almost not used, therefore, they atrophy, therefore, again, the vessels and nerves suffer, and the disease develops.

We are accustomed to swallowing food, almost without chewing it, and thus disrupt the processes of digestion. They are accustomed to breathing without noticing their own breathing, using, as a rule, one or two types of breathing: normal everyday (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 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 ... But you never know when else - almost always.

Each of us has a variety of 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 built into us from childhood and turn into reflexes. Our habits are influenced by the people around us.

Most of the habits are instilled by our parents. Our habits shape our character and outlook.

And if some changes are coming in life, then we have to break our habits and an 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 factors in life or people. In other words, our actions, deeds and motives are tied for the most part to please our habits and not violate our usual way of life.

At times, we are visited by the thought of taking and changing something, starting a “new life” from Monday and the like. Yes, we sometimes get tired of our habits, we are aware of their "harmfulness" or "wrongness".

The very phrase “to change oneself” implies, first of all, the breaking of our consciousness. Agree, it is difficult to part with something that has been so dear to us for many years, was with us everywhere and everywhere, woke up in the morning with us, lived with us every day and tired went to bed. There is a statement - "if a person does not 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 has a place to be.

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

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

Getting rid of old and bad habits helps to acquire new useful and positive ones. We are arranged in such a way that if we lose something, we must receive some kind of compensation. And here it is important not to make a mistake in the choice. Instead of the old bad habit it is necessary 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 the 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 your favorite activity.

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

No need to deprive yourself of pleasure or torturing yourself. This will force you to return to your bad habits. You need to want that pleasant and good that your new habit will bring you. If we forcibly suppress negative habits, then their strength will only increase.

Bad habits will be eliminated if they cannot be enjoyed, and the source of pleasure will be found in something else, for example, in a new good habit. It is necessary not to do violence to yourself, but to create a situation where a bad habit fades into the background, and later completely goes beyond the horizon.

Both good and bad habits start, appear on the same topics.

for 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.

The first step to overcoming a negative habit is to realize that the habit is already there.

A new good habit should bring pleasure and fully compensate for everything that is lost when the old negative habit leaves. It must also be remembered that habits are deeply embedded in our heads and can return at any moment and never again allow this.

Habit is the ability to remember and reproduce every time and at the time necessary 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 only need 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 such skills that we find it difficult to give up, although we realize that they are not effective and that they even sometimes interfere or harm us.

Bad habits that seem difficult or even impossible to change include some of our qualities, such as lack of confidence, directness, and tactlessness. There is even such an expression - "stiffness in habits", as if we are talking about something that was formerly mobile and that could still be influenced, but now it is frozen and does not lend itself to any influence.

However, anyone can change if they want to and if they know how to do it. The main point of solving the problem is that no one has to be a victim of their habits.

Wouldn't it be better to replace them with new ones that bring real benefits.

Any habit is formed in the process of conscious repetition of any actions, but the more we repeat some action, the less we are aware 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 find that there are those that create serious obstacles for us, we should not think that it is impossible to get rid of them. Decisive action must be taken to replace old and useless 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, having gained a foothold, they will already contribute to the appearance of certain character traits in him. Habits are varied.

Distinguish professional habits associated with the type of work that a person is engaged in. So, a 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, cultural behavior habits and others. A very important place among the habits is occupied by the habit of work. This habit must be cultivated early years and especially at school age.

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

It must be understood that the totality of actions, abilities, skills and habits of a person is included in his character.

Therefore, every person should try to acquire useful habits. In order to acquire them, it is necessary, perhaps, to repeat more often those useful actions that need to be made habitual, and in order to get rid of a bad habit, one must not repeat the corresponding actions.

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

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