Bad Habits

5 Commentsby   |  10.11.10  |  The Beginnings of Scientific Psychology (Part III-B)

As I read over William James’ “maxims to follow in order to develop good habits and develop good ones” I found myself thinking that they seemed like common sense and wondering how they applied to addictions. James believed that instinctive behavior is modifiable by experience and thus habits are formed. The five ways to form good habit/ break the bad are as follows: surround yourself in a good environment, do not lapse, go all out- do not start slowly, do not talk about it- be about it, and make yourself keep at forming good habits/ breaking bad habits even when it is hard.
To me these seemed like they would go hand in hand with breaking addictions. However when I looked further into 12-step programs, they were not as similar as I would have thought. The APA says that there are 6 basic elements to all 12-step programs: admitting that one cannot control one’s addiction, recognizing a greater power that can give strength, examining past errors with the help of a sponsor, making amends for these errors, learning to live a new life with a new code of behavior, and helping others that suffer from the same addictions or compulsions.
The steps that James was lacking had much to do with the emotional side of altering ones behavior while the 12-step programs focused more on emotion and less on behavioral steps to quitting. It would be interesting to me to know how effective James’ method was in regard to battling addiction in comparison to 12-step programs. It is my opinion that without the focus on behavioral modifications, at least in the beginning, the program would not be as successful.

Comment

5 Comments

  1. Rebekah Hernandez
    12:52 pm, 10.11.10

    Unfortunately, I do not know the research statistics for the effectiveness of James’s steps. However, when I read your post and you made the link of how the 12 step program included emotions and James’s program did not include them I was reminded of how important it is to connect emotions cognitively. It was previously thought that simple catharsis was effective. For example, someone could go into a padded room and wail on the walls and it was thought that that person would be better off for the experience. However, later it was shown that unless catharsis is connected cognitively it actually has negative effects. Therefore, after someone wails on padded walls it is important to talk to the person about what he or she thought about in the experience. To link all this information back to your post, it seems to me that if the emotions of the 12-step program are linked cognitively (like it should be in catharsis) it makes sense that the 12-step program would be more effective than James program even without knowing the research statistics.

  2. Megan Novelli
    1:37 pm, 10.11.10

    I agree with you that if a person doesnt modify their behavior then they wont be able to change overall, that there would definitely be something residual there. I would also like to see those two programs side by side to see which is more effective in altering the person it is applied to because i believe the 12 step program would be a highly more effective program because it does stress behavioral change.

  3. Alyssa Bowyer
    1:41 pm, 10.11.10

    I agree, behavior modification should be a big part of breaking habits/addictions. His steps seem to be more of a preventative system. It is almost as if these steps are made to be followed after one has dealt with the behavior modification side.

  4. Jonathan Sanders
    2:32 pm, 10.11.10

    I think that the first step listed to break bad habits, “surround yourself in a good environment,” is probably the hardest rule to follow and the cornerstone of the process. More than likely, the bad habit that one is trying to get rid of started because of influences from a bad environment, and the subject is more than likely emotionally invested within this environment. If one was to strictly follow this rule by the book, then one would lose friends. Furthermore, what happens when the environment that one is supposed to escape is the only environment that he can live in? (such as ghettos, districts of poverty, etc…) How can one follow the rules then?

  5. Austin Fontaine
    3:22 pm, 10.11.10

    Well, the first step to recovery is admittance, so behavioral shifts are no tthe abslute first priority. However, as far as James’ theory simply being common sense, you have to realize that something such as an addiction is blinding. This blinding effect requires an outside party to bring to light many things that had simply been going unnoticed, or had purposefully been ignored. These common sense steps work wonders for an initial revelatory bost that jumpstarts progress and removes the defensive stance that many might otherwise take toward treatment.

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