Behavioral_and_Social_Cognitive_Approaches_to_Forming_Habits

Behavioral and Social/Cognitive Approaches to Forming Habits Behavioral and Social/Cognitive Approaches to Forming Habits In this paper I have been asked to analyze one of my habits. I have many habits, some habits that I have are destructive and some are not. Some habits would shock people (nothing illegal of course) and some that would make people laugh. One habit that I have I will not discuss due to the sensitivity and nature (like I earlier stated nothing illegal) of the root cause of why I have this habit. I will discuss my habit of why I smoke cigarettes. To give you a little family history, my mother and step father both smoked when I was a child. I have been surrounded by smokers my entire life. By statistics I am a part of the high percentage of people that end of smoking due to my environment. However, I was completely against smoking my entire life until I was assigned to my unit and saw that they got breaks on an almost hourly basis. The first time I smoked was in 2000; I smoked a cigar in celebration of completing and passing aviation mechanics school with the highest grade in class. To give you an idea of the intense training we receive, normal aviation school is four years long for one aircraft. In the Marine Corps, we get the same exact training, but in one year. I went to school for two aircraft platforms at the same time. After that I was assigned to my unit, I was then introduced into the world of what ordinary people would call hell. No breaks, 15 minute lunches if that, people constantly being yelling at everyone, additional training, a flight schedule to deal with, troubleshooting aircraft that are supposed to be flying, and to top it all off perform maintenance on other aircraft. This just a normal day for everyone, this is what you are introduced into. You can imagine the daily stress that comes with working being in the aviation side of being in the Marine Corps. Not to mention the fact you wake up at 4am to do physical training for an hour and a half and then you get 20 min to shower and get breakfast, and get to work. I did not smoke on a regular basis until I got fed up working anywhere from 14 to 17 hours a day and only getting 15 minutes for lunch and 15 minutes for dinner. While the other marines that smoked got to smoke anytime they wanted and taking 15 minutes to smoke and hangout on an almost hourly basis. I started smoking so I could get more than 30 minutes for a break in a 14 to 17 hour work day. I continue to smoke for a few reasons. I mainly smoke out of boredom, like the old saying goes “idle hands are the devil's playground”. I do smoke more when I enjoy an occasional drink; I also smoke more when I work on cars. I have tried to quit smoking on numerous occasions. I believe due to the times and places that I have tried to quit are the reason why I am still smoking. I have tried to quit in two of the three deployments to Iraq. Iraq is a stressful place to be but compared to my normal level of stress that I dealt with; it only seemed like a little bit more than I was already used to. For the normal person, if they were put into Iraq with our schedule and situations; they could not have been able to handle the stress that we would call normal. According to the behavioral personality theory because I was surrounded by family and their friends who also smoked, I was preconditioned to be a smoker. According to John Watson we are products of our environment. According to the social/cognitive theory; I chose to become a smoker to fit in with the other people around me. Its meaning to me is that I started to smoke so I could fit in with the other people that have already been there and become accepted. An easy way to change a habit is to develop a plan to change it. You can use operant conditioning to assist you in the process. Using rewards and punishments to change a habit has been around since human existence started, until recently (relative to human existence) we have put a title to it. The most obvious reward for quitting smoking is a longer life and better health. The obvious punishment is death or a prolonged health conditions. The immediate reward is saving money that you would spend on cigarettes, and clothes will not smell like an ashtray. Also since I have a six month old child they would not be around smokers growing up, which according to behavioral personality theory she would not be conditioned to be a smoker herself. I would honestly say that both social/cognitive theory and behavioral personality theory would explain my personality. As far as the social/cognitive theory is concerned, I have learned that by observing others you can see what you can get away with and what you cannot. Now that does not have to do with the legality of things, I was referring to a social setting, if you are new to that group of people whether it is new friends or coworkers. As far as behavioral personality theory is concerned, we do learn from our environment whether it is positive or negative. It is up to us to determine which why we go. I was surrounded by people that worked on classic muscle cars on an every weekend basis, so by learning from my environment I gained a passion to work on cars, so I learned to work on cars. I have discussed behavioral personality theory and social/cognitive theory and how they have had an impact on my habit. I also discussed which theory has the most explanation of my personality. I have also discussed the rewards and punishments of my habit and how my habit would affect my daughter and not just myself by continuing to smoke. I also explained the reason why I have this habit using both theories. This paper has given me the sight to see how and why people act the way that they do. I have seen it before, but not to the level that this paper has opened my eyes.