How habitual is everyday life? An ecological momentary assessment study.

IF 1.9 3区心理学 Q2 PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Psychology & Health Pub Date : 2025-09-18 DOI:10.1080/08870446.2025.2561149

Amanda L Rebar, Grace Vincent, Katya Kovac Le Cornu, Benjamin Gardner

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objective: Establishing to what extent everyday behaviors are habitual will help intervention developers understand whether and which specific behaviors can become habitual or may require habit disruption to enable adoption of desired behaviors. Previous estimates of the prevalence of habit in everyday life have not distinguished between habitual instigation, whereby habit triggers action selection of a target action, and habitual execution, whereby habit facilitates smooth performance of action.

Methods and measures: Participants (N = 105) from the UK and Australia completed an ecological momentary assessment study, in which they self-reported their current behavior, and to what extent that behavior was habitually instigated, habitually executed and intentional, 6 times daily over 7 days.

Results: Most observed behaviors were habitually instigated (65%), habitually executed (88%), and aligned with intention (76%). Whether a person's behavior was generally habitual or aligned with intention did not vary as a function of demographics. Exercise behaviors were more commonly habitually instigated, and less habitually executed, than other action types.

Conclusion: Our findings illustrate the pervasive influence of habit on everyday life. We recommend that techniques conducive to forming new habits and disrupting old habits be built into behavior change interventions to maximize effectiveness.

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日常生活有多习惯？生态瞬时评价研究。

目的：确定日常行为在多大程度上是习惯性的，将有助于干预开发人员了解哪些特定行为是否以及哪些行为可以成为习惯性的，或者可能需要习惯中断才能采用期望的行为。以前对习惯在日常生活中普遍存在的估计并没有区分习惯激发（习惯触发目标行动的行动选择）和习惯执行（习惯促进行动的顺利执行）。方法和措施：来自英国和澳大利亚的参与者（N = 105）完成了一项生态瞬间评估研究，在这项研究中，他们自我报告了他们目前的行为，以及这种行为在多大程度上是习惯性的煽动，习惯性的执行和故意的，每天6次，持续7天。结果：大多数观察到的行为是习惯性唆使的（65%），习惯性执行的（88%），与意图一致的（76%）。一个人的行为通常是习惯性的还是与意图一致的，并不会随着人口统计学的变化而变化。与其他类型的行动相比，锻炼行为更常被习惯性地鼓动，而较少被习惯性地执行。结论：我们的发现说明了习惯对日常生活的普遍影响。我们建议将有助于形成新习惯和打破旧习惯的技术纳入行为改变干预措施中，以最大限度地提高效果。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Psychology & Health Multiple-

CiteScore

7.30

自引率

3.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Psychology & Health promotes the study and application of psychological approaches to health and illness. The contents include work on psychological aspects of physical illness, treatment processes and recovery; psychosocial factors in the aetiology of physical illnesses; health attitudes and behaviour, including prevention; the individual-health care system interface particularly communication and psychologically-based interventions. The journal publishes original research, and accepts not only papers describing rigorous empirical work, including meta-analyses, but also those outlining new psychological approaches and interventions in health-related fields.