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After reading this article you will learn about Habit:- 1. Nature of Habit 2. Characteristics of Habit 3. Relationship between Habit and Actions 4. Laws 5. Functions 6. Rules of Breaking Bad Habits .
Essay # Nature of Habit:
A habit is the product of repeated voluntary actions. When a voluntary action is repeated very often, it is turned into a habit. Voluntary actions involve an effort of will or volition. But when they become habitual, they dispense with the guidance of attention and volition, and become automatic. Habitual actions are acquired.
They are sometimes called secondarily automatic actions, because they are uniform and mechanical, and are performed with ease and facility. Running, reading, writing, type-writing, swimming, etc., are habitual actions. They are the results of repeated voluntary actions. They are learned actions as distinguished from unlearned actions. Instinctive acts also may by repeated and fixed as habits.
Essay # Characteristics of Habit:
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(a) Habitual actions are uniform actions. Voluntary actions vary in their nature in order to adjust the organism to new situations. But habitual actions performed in the same way. A person talks or writes in the same way.
(b) Habitual actions are performed promptly. The stronger is the habit, the quicker is the motor response to the situation. The soldiers who parade every day perform the required movements quickly as soon as they hear the commands of an officer.
(c) Habitual actions are performed not only promptly, but also accurately. The stronger is the habit the more precise is the motor response. The soldiers perform the precise movements in a parade in execution of the officer’s commands.
(d) Habitual actions are performed automatically without the guidance of attention and consciousness. If they are attended to, they are hindered. When we attend to buttoning our coats or tying the laces of our shoes, the normally habitual actions are thwarted and lose their automatic nature. But habitual actions are started by attention, and carried on automatically without attention.
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(v) Habitual actions are performed with ease and facility. As habits are firmly established, they diminish fatigue. The miners do not feel fatigue when they are accustomed to their work. The chief difference between the skilled and the unskilled workman is that the former trains his brain and the letters trains his muscles.
(f) The stronger is the habit, the greater is the difficulty of breaking it. An inveterate drunkard finds it extremely difficult to break the habit of drinking. Habits leave mental dispositions and physiological dispositions which compel the individual to perform them.
A habitual opium-eater feels an irresistible impulse to take doses of opium regularly. Habits resists modification. They are characterised by resistance to modification.
Essay # Relationship between Habit and Actions:
(a) Habit and Instinct:
Habits and instincts are alike marked by uniformity and facility. They are both mechanical and accurate. They both give rise to periodic cravings, as in smoking, drinking, etc. They both dispense with the guidance of volition. They are non-voluntary in their nature.
But there is an important difference between them. Instincts are innate, while habits are learned by repeated voluntary actions. Sometimes instincts are said to be racial habits while habits are said to be individual habits.
(b) Habit and Reflex Action:
A habit and a reflex action are alike prompt and uniform in character. Both are automatic and mechanical. Both are without the guidance of consciousness, attention, and volition. But the reflex action is native, while the habitual action is acquired.
The former is simple, while the latter is complex. For example, swimming is a very complex action, while sneezing is a simple action. Swimming is a habitual action, while sneezing is a sensation-reflex.
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(c) Habit and Voluntary Action:
A habit is the product of repeated voluntary actions. It is mechanical and uniform in nature. But a voluntary action is the new response to a novel situation. The new response is exploratory and tentative, while habit is fixed and definite. The new response is slow and uncertain, while habit is fairly quick and accurate. The new response is variable, while habit is regular.
The new response is attended by effort and strained attention, while habit is easy and often, only half-conscious. The new response is apt to be unsatisfying to the one who makes it, whole habit is comfortable and a source of satisfaction. To break a habit is most uncomfortable. To do it we must form a counter-habit, or opposite habit.
(d) Habit, Character and Conduct:
Habits are results of repeated voluntary actions. They are the foundation of character. Good habits build good character. Bad (habits build bad character. Character is the permanent bent of the mind, constituted by settled habits of will. It is a system of permanent tendencies or dispositions to thought, emotions and actions voluntarily acquired.
Character is the result of habits of thought, emotion and will. Ethical writers lay stress on habits of the will in the formation of character.
But habits of thought and emotional habits are equally important factors in the formation of character McDougall emphasize the importance of sentiments, especially the sentiment or self-regard, as the foundation of character. The sentiment of self-regard is the highest sentiment under which all other sentiments are organized.
Character is different from nature. Nature is innate, but character is acquired. Character is acquired by an individual who has voluntary actions. It is built up by a person out of his natural impulses by controlling and regulating them by reason.
Natural impulses are converted into desires by self-consciousness. The desires are turned by the self into volitions. These volitions are converted into habits by repetition. Habits produce a permanent disposition which we call character. Natural impulses are the given elements which supply the self with raw materials for the formation of character.
Character, on the other hand, is the acquired habit of controlling and regulating these impulsive tendencies by will or volition in conformity with consciously conceived ends. Character is the habitual mode in which the will regulates natural impulses and desires.
It is the result of volitions, which, are, in their turn, regulated by it. The self-acquired character is the result of volitions. Volitions are determined by the character of the self.
Character is expressed in conduct. Conduct is the outer expression of character. It includes voluntary and habitual actions. They are overt or outward actions. They are determined by character of the self. Character is not absolutely fixed and permanent.
It grows and develops. Free acts of will alter the character already formed. These volitions are partly determined by past character. But they are free volitions of the self, though they are influenced by past character. Thus, neither character nor conduct is fixed and unalterable. They are plastic and modifiable. They are modified by each other.
Essay # Laws of Habit-Formation of Habit:
William James gives four laws of formation of habits.
They are the following:
(a) Begin a new habit with a firm resolution. If you make a start with a firm determination, it often carries you along and fixes the habit. If you want to rise early in the morning, first make a firm resolve to do it.
(b) Seize the first opportunity to put the new resolve into practice. When you have made a firm resolve to rise early, begin it the very next day. Do not wait for the first day of the next months or the New Year’s Day to start to work. If you do so, your resolution will become weak and inspiration will vanish.
(c) Never allow an exception to occur till the new habit is well-learned. Once you have started rising early, continue the action from day to day and never allow an exception on any pretext. If you break it once, the pathway that is formed in the nervous system will become faint, your resolve will become weak, and you may revert to your old habit. But do not permit an exception to occur, and the new habit will be formed.
(d) Keep yourself young by a little free practice every day. In order to cultivate the strength of mind, you should perform a difficult action every day which requires a great effort of will. Habits make us conservative. We move in fixed grooves of thought and action.
But we must be open to new ideas, to new methods. We can best do this according to James, by a little practice of doing something new and difficult every day.
Essay # Functions of Habits:
Many bodily habits e.g., habits of personal cleanliness are fixed during childhood. Habits of dressing, behaving with others, moral and religious habits, are fixed during adolescence. Professional habits are naturally acquired later. The people belonging to different professions have their characteristic gestures, attitudes, and habits of thought and action. These habits help mental development.
Habits play an important role in mental development. They set the mind free to acquire knowledge of new things and perform new actions in new situations. The mind can pass from victory to victory on account of habits which are handed over to the body. Without habits we can never make any progress.
But habits are also a drag to mental progress. They keep the mind within the fixed grooves of thought and action. They make the mind conservative. So the mind should be on the alert to respond to new ideas and new ways, of life in novel situations.
The mind should be alive to broader and truer ideas of life and cultivate wider and wider interests. It should not be a slave of habits. When Harvey discovered circulation of blood in the body, men above forty shook their heads, but younger men readily accepted the truth of his new discovery.
Essay # Rules of Breaking Bad Habits:
Habits may be either good or bad. Good habits should be cultivated. Bad habits should be broken.
We should observe the following rules to break bad habits:
(a) Stop the bad habit at once; do not wait for a suitable opportunity. Do not gradually break a bad habit, if the result be not physically injurious. Stop the habit of smoking or drinking or rising late at once.
(b) Cultivate a positive counter-habit. Do not try merely to stop the bad habit. Try, if possible, to from a good habit in place of it. If you are in the habit of going to the cinema every evening, try to form the habit of listening to radio music at that time.
A drunkard may cultivate the habit of taking hot milk instead of wine at stated times. He should continue the habit until he feels sure that the grip of the old habit is loosened.
(c) Live in an environment, which is favourable to the formation of a good habit and the breaking of a bad habit, and which offers the least possible temptation. Try to have a congenial environment. Give up the company of the habitual cinema-goers if you want to break the habit of cinema-going. A drunkard must give up the company of drunkards and keep the company of sober people.
(d) Make your body an ally instead of your enemy. The nervous system is the physiological basis of habits. Nervous path-ways are formed in the nervous system by habitual actions. There must be effected by steady, persistent and continuous formation of positive counter-habits. Mere penitent mood will not be enough to break old habits. Form good habits in place of bad habits.