A BEHAVIOURIST’S GUIDE TO NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

A BEHAVIOURIST'S GUIDE TO NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

EVERY YEAR YOU SET OUT DETERMINED TO STICK TO YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS. BUT YEAR AFTER YEAR YOU STRAY OFF TRACK AND QUICKLY ABANDON THEM. SO WHY ARE RESOLUTIONS SO HARD TO KEEP?

NewYear’s resolutions are about trying to break habits – which is hard, but not impossible to do.

That’s because habitual behaviour is automatic, easy and rewarding.To change a habit, you need to disrupt your behaviour to make way for a new, more desirable one. But as the number of broken New Year’s resolutions indicates, disrupting old habits and forming new healthy ones can be difficult. But what if you’re motivated to change old habits? Unfortunately, it isn’t that simple.

Behaviourism is a theoretical perspective in psychology that tries to understand human and animal behaviour by studying observable behaviour and events. According to behaviourism, habits are initially motivated by the outcomes or consequences of behaviour, like eating food or earning money. Habits are triggered by contextual cues, like the time of day, your location, or objects around you.

This contrasts with other ways of looking at how we form habits that focus on internal and subjective experiences, such as moods, thoughts and feelings. Behaviourism is more concerned with what we can objectively observe.

Behaviourists disrupt habitual behaviour patterns and develop plans to form new habits by what’s known as the ABCs of behaviour change:

• Understanding the Antecedents or triggers that

precede behaviour

• Clearly defining the Behaviour you want to change

• Manipulating the Consequences or outcomes that

follow behaviour

DEFINE WHAT YOU WANT TO CHANGE

First, it’s important to clearly define the behaviour you want to change. If you don’t, what constitutes the “behaviour” becomes open to interpretation and creates loopholes you’ll try to wriggle through when there are more attractive options on offer.

State the behaviour and quantify your goal. For instance, “I would like to walk five kilometres three times a week” is clearly defined, but “I would like to exercise more” is not.

UNDERSTAND THE TRIGGERS

Certain contexts or environmental cues often trigger habitual behaviour. These are what behaviourists refer to as antecedents, and are a large part of why we perform habitual behaviours.

When are you more likely to crave an ice-cold beer? Is it Friday afternoon at the pub? Or Sunday morning on the way to church?

Because we have previously enjoyed drinking at the pub at the end of the working week, when we visit again, we are more likely to have a beer or two. This rarely happens in a church where, while there may be some wine, you’re not going to get a lot of it.The pub environment sets the scene for drinking behaviour.The church does not.