It’s Monday morning. Your alarm rings.
You get up, head to the bathroom. Brush your teeth. Shower. Dress up for work.
Get annoyed at the morning traffic jam.
Reach work & Dread the fact that to your is boss giving you a new week of work to do.
Get really bummed out & couldn’t be bothered to head to the gym you signed up for.
Back home. Sigh. “How am I gonna survive this week”.
“Habits & behaviors – how they can make or break you”
Everyone has good & bad habits/behaviors. However, if you were to think more critically, is it really bad? Or could it be just another blessing in disguise?
A common example: Many of us like to watch youtube videos on our phone before we fall asleep – it becomes a habit. Most of us may see it as a “bad” habit.
What if this habit helps someone fall asleep? De-stresses them? Helps them forgot about their worries?
On the other hand, what if this brings up a lack of sleep? Vision / Postural issues? The videos you watched brought your nightmares?
The small things you do in your life (habits) you start with could affect your what you do over a larger scale (behavior) indirectly.
Going back to the example of watching phone videos – if it helps you fall asleep earlier, de-stresses you etc. your behavior the following day may be in a positive mood, you’ll be full of energy, causing you to do better at work, better conversations with your peers, love ones etc.
On the other hand, if the watching of phone videos causes you stress, lack of sleep etc. that would likely be the negative/opposite of the few examples I wrote above.
The small changes when built together, forms a bigger system as whole (this is how habit can guide your behavior). It’s about building a better collection of these small (habits) changes over time to elicit a large-scale (behavior) change.
As with human behavior & habit formations, there are many schools of thought and theories. Such as one of newest theories (that I know of) from James Clear who wrote a really amazing book called “Atomic Habits” - which follows this theory called the “Habit loop”
1. Cue (I see it)
2. Craving (I like it)
3. Reward (I got it)
4. Response (I want it)
Whereas in my studies in both psychology as well as sports & exercise science there as theories and models all influencing habit formation & behavior change, such as:
Health Belief model (Rosenstock, 1974).
Self-Efficacy models (Bandura, 1977).
Theory of planned behavior (Azjen, 1985).
Socio-ecological model (Heise, et al., 1999).
There are also a few other interesting blog posts from a couple of really smart friends (Lyndon & Catherine) from my JPS Health & Fitness family (who Ive learnt so much & will always be learning from them) covering topics such as environment & evolutionary perspectives, which I will link below:
https://www.jpshealthandfitness.com.au/behaviour-change-what-you-need-to-know-do/
https://www.jpshealthandfitness.com.au/will-power-vs-environmental-triggers/
https://www.jpshealthandfitness.com.au/will-power-vs-changing-environmental-triggers-practical-advice-for-cutting-bad-habits-making-long-term-change-part-2/
As you will probably realize by now, the answer to everything (not just to habit and behavior) you would ask me 99% of the time it will be – it depends. Not sexy. Fact is there will be something better as time advances.
We should all be critical thinkers; willing to accept everyone’s opinion. Take a pinch from everyone & you create your own masterpiece. Accept critism, gather more information, rinse, repeat, we learn, we share, we advance; the world becomes a better place.
Therefore, I have my own perspective of how habits & behaviors should be based own a couple of evidence-based models/theories:
1. The Biopsychosocial model
The first theory that I personally believe could guide an individual into having an idea if the small change they wish to make (habit) is a good OR bad one to start with, which will eventually lead to your long term change (behavior) would be the biopsychosocial model (Engel, 1977).
As shown in the image above, there are three main components that build the biopsychosocial model.
Now, lets go back to example of watching videos on the phone before bed.
1. Biological – You see terms like physical health, disability etc. How would that even relate to watch videos before bed you may ask?? Think of it this way – it could potentially negatively affect you physical health in as you may get a lack of sleep. On the other hand, if it helps you fall asleep, it could actually be a good thing.
2. Socially – Carrying on from the two outcomes you may get, it could then affect you social life. You may have more topics to talk about with your peers, family members, etc. regarding the videos you watched – good outcome. Or it could affect your mood, energy levels due to the lack of sleep – bad outcome.
3. Psychologically – does watching the video affect your coping skills with the indirect sleep outcomes you unconsciously received? Once again, there could a thousand examples I can give.
With the 3 components, you could roughly make an educated guess if the habit is likely to cause a positive or negative outcome (it may change over time, once again, due to these 3 components & their underlying factors).
By now, you will sort of realize that there is no one-size-fix-all for basically anything in life. Life is unpredictable…..its worse than the weather in Melbourne.
Now that you understand the fundamentals to determining if the first step will be a positive or negative step depending on your individual needs, we actually need to make it a “real habit”; practiced over time, until it becomes a behavior over the long run.
2. Transtheorectical model of behavior change
This is where the Transtheorectical model (Prochanska & DiClemente, 1983) comes into play.
Take an example from the image about from Ferron et al., 2013 - The Transtheoretical model of behavior change was for promoting physical activity.
I shall breakdown each stage briefly (using exercise/physical activity) as an example:
1. Precontemplation: This is where an individual skepticism is high i.e why should I exercise, what’s in for me?
The goal is to achieve awareness, concern & confidence via education. i.e inform the benefits of physical activity (we could use the 3 components of the biopsychosocial model) , the risks & implications of not exercising etc.
2. Contemplation: This is where an individual is bought in; but still has some doubts. Risk-reward analysis and decision tends to take place during this phase.
The goal is to further increase awareness, employing elements of gamification & extrinsic sources of motivation such as rewards.
3. Preparation: The individual has bought in tot the idea of exercising/partaking in physical activity.
Commitment has been shown towards a SMART habit (refer to my previous blog post if you haven’t already know what SMART is – lotsa my stuff are gonna relatable :D)
4. Action: This is where an individual begins exercising/partaking in physical activity.
Adequate implementation of the habit is shown.
5. Maintainence: The individual has integrated exercise/physical activity into a lifestyle; it has developed into a behavior.
With these two theories, this is my personal school of thought toward habits & behaviors. Good or bad, that has many underlying factors that not many would think about.
Sometimes I wonder as well, is it even “healthy” to be thinking that much? Once again, I don’t know. It depends. Blah blah.
Conclusions (Not really)
- Habits and behaviors may prove to be elicit a positive or negative impact depending on the individual (which may change over time)
- Using the Biopsychosocial model to weigh the pros & cons can prove useful to determine the first step to begin with
- Using the Transtheoretical model of behavior change is one of the most useful methods of integrating small (habits) changes over time to elicit a large-scale (behavior) change.
- There are many school of thoughts, everyone has their believes, nothing is wrong nor right; the most important thing is to willingly accept information. Think critically, with an open mind.
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