BEHAVIORAL COGNITIVE APPROACHES

Analyzing the formation of habits using behavioral and social/cognitive approaches

Analyzing the formation of habits using behavioral and social/cognitive approaches

Introduction

People are very strange creature given that how different they can be living so closely. It makes sense by noting that identical twins may have a number of similar habits, but their personality can vary greatly, making one think of the effect of different factor in a person's personality. Although there is a major debate on what influences personality more, nature or nurture, it is easier to focus on the nurture side which can be controlled.

One very effective theory or a theory to judge a person's personality is the “Big five - Personality model” including the five major triads including, openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and Neuroticism, and the psychodynamic theory according to which it is the childhood experiences which shapes a person's personality (McCrae, 1987).

Behavioral Habits

I am a 32 year old-parent, having three beautiful children, aged 17(boy), 13(boy) and a girl (7), it is not difficult for me to identify that my smoking habit is something that does not reflect properly on me, typically having children at their tender age. This is a serious concern to me as I developed this habit from my mother, who was a smoker. I do not want my children to be influenced by me, and adapt unhealthy habits. I was young and open to different experience at the time, being careless and impulsive I started smoking approximately twenty years from ago.

Reason for continuing

I have no official reason to defend this habit of mine as I have been trying to stop, and smoking on and off for quite some time now. I have tried many times to break this habit, but start again for one reason or another, for no justifiable reason.

Behavioral personality theory to explain the habit

According to Sigmund Freud's “Psychodynamic theory” child hood experiences and the unconscious mind have great influences on personality, and its development. Keeping this in mind, my childhood experience in witnessing my mother smoke is what influenced me into adopting this disgusting habit. It is the same fear that persist me to drop the habit to avoid my children from picking it from me (Santrock, 2008).

Psychodynamic theory

The Sigmund Freud's “Psychodynamic theory” explains that it are the child hood experiences and the unconscious mind have great influences on personality, hence making it quite clear why I so easily adopted smoking, given than my mother was a smoker. Sigmund Freud states, that during the psychosexual development stages, the child receives pleasure from different erogenous areas throughout the different stages of his or her development. If the child moves through the stages normally, he develops a distinct personality, but if the child face a fixation during the conflict which he face during the stage, his personality is greatly affected. The first stage is the oral stage, where the main conflict the child faces is to become a bit less dependent on their parents or ...