Making and breaking real-world habits!
Habits can be understood as a balance between a stimulus-driven system based on stimulus–response (S–R) associations, and a goal-directed system based on action–outcome (A–O) expectancies (beliefs) and valued outcomes (goals).
Habit expression is thought to occur when the influence of the stimulus-driven system outweighs the engagement of the goal-directed system, which can also explain suboptimal behaviors where people do not act in line with current beliefs and goals, such as action slips, impulsive behaviors, and compulsions.
Making habits is facilitated by repetition, reinforcement, disengagement of goaldirected processes, and stable contexts. Breaking habits is promoted by weakening of S–R links, avoidance of habit stimuli, goal-directed inhibition, and formation of competing S–R associations.
Beliefs and goals can also become habitual, which we refer to as habits of thought. Habits might therefore also result from goal-directed processes that automatically represent A–O expectancies and valued outcomes when presented with familiar stimuli.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder, substance use disorder, and eating disorders are linked to deficits in goal-directed control, potentially explained by a transdiagnostic compulsivity dimension.
https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S1364-6613(24)00266-3
