Navin Kaushal, Donya Nemati, Darko Jekauc, Aleksandra Luszczynska, Martin S Hagger
{"title":"Maintaining habitual physical activity by overcoming disruptive competing actions: mechanisms and interventions.","authors":"Navin Kaushal, Donya Nemati, Darko Jekauc, Aleksandra Luszczynska, Martin S Hagger","doi":"10.1007/s10865-024-00541-y","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Habits are mental representations of associations between actions and contextual contingencies. Habit formation can be efficacious in promoting health behavior maintenance, including for highly complex behaviors such as physical activity. Changes in circumstances (e.g., job transitions, moving home) or the advent of disruptive events (e.g., work-related or personal responsibilities) can lead to habit discontinuity by eliminating the contextual contingencies associated with the behavior. Recently, habit theorists have distinguished between preparation or instigation and execution habits, with preparation or instigation habits proposed as central to the development and maintenance of complex habitual behaviors. Discontinuity for complex habitual behaviors may entail disruption of preparation, instigation, or execution habits making such behaviors highly vulnerable to disruption and discontinuity. We propose that the advent of events such as increased work demands or personal responsibilities (e.g., job demands or personal circumstances such as caregiving) and competing highly rewarding activities (e.g., technology-mediated screen activities such as using smartphone apps and games) have high potential to disrupt preparation and instigation habits for complex behaviors. We outline the mechanisms involved and propose several strategies that may be employed to minimize disruption and discontinuity of complex habitual behaviors using physical activity as an illustration. We identify reaffirming original goals, self-monitoring, and planning strategies as potentially efficacious means to minimize the potential for events and competing activities to disrupt physical activity preparation and instigation habits. We call for future research to investigate the efficacy of these strategies in managing disruptive events and promote maintenance of habitual physical activity habit maintenance.</p>","PeriodicalId":48329,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Behavioral Medicine","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Behavioral Medicine","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-024-00541-y","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Habits are mental representations of associations between actions and contextual contingencies. Habit formation can be efficacious in promoting health behavior maintenance, including for highly complex behaviors such as physical activity. Changes in circumstances (e.g., job transitions, moving home) or the advent of disruptive events (e.g., work-related or personal responsibilities) can lead to habit discontinuity by eliminating the contextual contingencies associated with the behavior. Recently, habit theorists have distinguished between preparation or instigation and execution habits, with preparation or instigation habits proposed as central to the development and maintenance of complex habitual behaviors. Discontinuity for complex habitual behaviors may entail disruption of preparation, instigation, or execution habits making such behaviors highly vulnerable to disruption and discontinuity. We propose that the advent of events such as increased work demands or personal responsibilities (e.g., job demands or personal circumstances such as caregiving) and competing highly rewarding activities (e.g., technology-mediated screen activities such as using smartphone apps and games) have high potential to disrupt preparation and instigation habits for complex behaviors. We outline the mechanisms involved and propose several strategies that may be employed to minimize disruption and discontinuity of complex habitual behaviors using physical activity as an illustration. We identify reaffirming original goals, self-monitoring, and planning strategies as potentially efficacious means to minimize the potential for events and competing activities to disrupt physical activity preparation and instigation habits. We call for future research to investigate the efficacy of these strategies in managing disruptive events and promote maintenance of habitual physical activity habit maintenance.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Behavioral Medicine is a broadly conceived interdisciplinary publication devoted to furthering understanding of physical health and illness through the knowledge, methods, and techniques of behavioral science. A significant function of the journal is the application of this knowledge to prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation and to the promotion of health at the individual, community, and population levels.The content of the journal spans all areas of basic and applied behavioral medicine research, conducted in and informed by all related disciplines including but not limited to: psychology, medicine, the public health sciences, sociology, anthropology, health economics, nursing, and biostatistics. Topics welcomed include but are not limited to: prevention of disease and health promotion; the effects of psychological stress on physical and psychological functioning; sociocultural influences on health and illness; adherence to medical regimens; the study of health related behaviors including tobacco use, substance use, sexual behavior, physical activity, and obesity; health services research; and behavioral factors in the prevention and treatment of somatic disorders. Reports of interdisciplinary approaches to research are particularly welcomed.