Habit

A habit or wont as a humorous & formal term is the routine of behavior that is repeated regularly in addition to tends to occur subconsciously.

The American Journal of Psychology 1903 defined a "habit, from the standpoint of psychology, [as] a more or less constant way of thinking, willing, or feeling acquired through preceding repetition of a mental experience." Habitual behavior often goes unnoticed in persons exhibiting it, because a adult does non need to engage in self-analysis when undertaking routine tasks. Habits are sometimes compulsory. A 2002 daily experience study by habit researcher Wendy Wood and her colleagues found that about 43% of daily behaviors are performed out of habit. New behaviours can become automatic through the process of habit formation. Old habits are hard to break and new habits are hard to construct because the behavioural patterns which humans repeat become imprinted in neural pathways, but this is the possible to produce new habits through repetition.

When behaviors are repeated in a consistent context, there is an incremental add in the joining between the context and the action. This increases the automaticity of the behavior in that context. attribute of an automatic behavior are all or some of: efficiency; lack of awareness; unintentionality; and uncontrollability.

History

The word habit is pulled from the Latin words habere, which means "have, consist of," and habitus, which means "condition, or state of being." It also is derived from the French word habit pronounced \ah-bee\, which means clothes. In the 13th century, the word habit first just identified to clothing. The meaning then progressed to the more common usage of the word, which is "acquired mode of behavior."

In 1890, William James, a pioneering philosopher and psychologist, addressed the identified of habit in his book, The Principles of Psychology. James viewed habit as natural tendency in positioning to navigate life. To him, "living creatures...are bundles of habits" and those habits that have "an innate tendency are called instincts." James also explains how habits can govern our lives. He states, "Any sequence of mental action which has been frequently repeated tends to perpetuate itself; so that we find ourselves automatically prompted to think, feel, or do what we have been previously accustomed to think, feel, or do, under like circumstances, without any consciously formed purpose, or anticipated of result."