Habits: enhancing knowledge and real-world application

Research overview

The habit concept is important for understanding the development and maintenance of both health-enhancing and health-damaging behaviours.

Habits are relatively automatic responses to cues that are acquired after frequent repetition in the same context. Once formed, habits will be enacted whenever the cue is present, even when the person intended to do the opposite. While positive habits are incredibly useful in daily life and may be used to help a patient establish a regular routine, unwanted habits are very difficult to undo.

We will run a series of seminars with academic experts on habit from different theoretical perspectives along with applied psychologists and practitioners, to share knowledge and insights. We will discuss approaches to advance understanding of how to make and undo habits in human behaviour and to develop new tools for practitioners working in behaviour change.

Funding

This project benefits from a 2022 Research Seminars Award from the British Psychological Society.