#Henry And The Habits

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Habits

Habit - a well-learned behavior or automatic sequence of behaviors that is relatively situation specific and over time has become motorically reflexive and independent of motivational or cognitive influence—that is, it is performed with little or no conscious intent.

For example, the act of hair twirling may eventually occur without the individual’s conscious awareness.

How Habits are Formed

The question of habit formation can be approached from a scientific perspective or a more subjective and experiential one.

The Subjective Experience of Habit Formation

Bergson was a French philosopher who took cues from Ravaisson’s discussion of habits and their formation. Bergson (1911) wrote of both active and passive habits.

Passive habits arise from exposure to things we eventually get used to. High-altitude climbers gradually adapt their bodies to the lower levels of oxygen available as they climb above 7,000 feet.

Active habits are those we develop by repeated intention and effort, crystalizing as skills we perform with little or no thought. A gymnast practices walking, jumping, and flipping on a narrow beam until she can do all these maneuvers smoothly without falling.

Habits as skills can also be seen as a springboard to creativity.

Based on what we can habitually do, we reach new heights, as when a jazz musician ingrains the playing of a basic melody, then improvises new and adventurous notes on top of the underlying theme.

The scientific perspective on habit formation is exemplified today by neuroscience research. This research has highlighted crucial brain pathways involved in forming habits.

The Neuroscience of Habit Formation

When you first learn to tie your shoes, the attempts are quite conscious and effortful. As you practice this skill, it becomes a habit, something you can do easily and automatically, even while thinking of other things.

Neuroscience has asked how conscious and goal-directed actions are converted into a habit (Yin & Knowlton, 2006).

Clues to the mystery of habit formation can be found in an ancient area of the brain called the basal ganglia (Yin & Knowlton, 2006).

The basal ganglia are deep structures near the base of the brain that developed early in the evolution of our nervous system.

These structures play a major role in coordinating all kinds of voluntary movements, including the complex motions involved in walking, running, eating, talking, and grasping and manipulating with the hands, etc.

The basal ganglia, in conjunction with the brain’s frontal or “executive” lobe, also help perform the crucial task of rapidly selecting which type of movement should be made, out of the many options available in a given situation.

When faced with a tiger suddenly springing from the bushes, what should you do? Stand still, run to climb a tree, or make a dash for the river and hope the tiger can’t swim? The movement program chosen at this point might determine whether you get to pass your genes along to any offspring.

Since movements are most effective when well learned or habitual, the basal ganglia are also very involved in habit formation. Certain habits appear to be formed through the interplay between two distinct basal ganglia pathways (Yin & Knowlton, 2006).

One of these pathways is associative. It consciously collects information needed for reaching goals such as staying warm, finding food, finding a mate, and expressing oneself artistically.

A second pathway is more automatic. This route takes those lessons learned from the first pathway and includes them in a repertoire of stored habits.

These habits are then available to be called upon, when cued by a given situation.

Another key aspect to habit formation is positive reinforcement or reward.

For an activity to become a habit, it helps if it’s not only repeated often, but also positively reinforced.

We can trigger positive reinforcement through an external reward, like money, food, or praise. Such experiences release dopamine, one of the brain’s favorite “feel good” neurochemicals. A rewarding dopamine release can also occur through internal triggers, like visualizing yourself reaching a cherished goal (Neuroscience News, 2015).

Dopamine release has been shown to depend on neurons within the limbic system, another ancient brain circuit that processes emotions and the experience of reward. The limbic system is deeply connected with the basal ganglia and can stamp our memories and habits with emotional and reward value (Trafton, 2012).

Psychological Theories on Habit Formation

The American philosopher William James made early contributions to habit theory that still resonate today.

James (1914) thought of habit as the result of repeating the same action over and over, in similar circumstances, until it is ingrained in our brain circuitry.

He also believed that ingrained habits would automatically arise in the face of strong cues associated with their formation. When walking into your darkened room, the room and darkness cue the automatic habit of reaching for the light switch.

Behaviorists such as B. F. Skinner would expand on James’s insights into habit, with animal studies that emphasized how habit formation is fueled by rewards.

Skinner (1953) created cages for pigeons with buttons that dropped a food pellet when pushed.

In exploring the cage, the hungry pigeons would eventually peck the button on the wall. They soon came to realize that pecking the button would produce a food pellet.

This experimental scenario included what for Skinner were the primary factors in producing a habit:

Stimulus, like the button to be pecked

Behavior, like pecking the button

Reward, like the food pellet

Skinner (1953) believed that behaviors repeatedly engaged in for the sake of a reward will become habits. This hypothesis was borne out by his pigeons repeatedly pressing the button, even when that action was no longer followed by a food pellet.

Other theories sought to go beyond behaviorism’s focus on observed behavior alone, to include a mental or cognitive component in habit.

Edward Tolman (1948, 1954) believed that repeated or habitual responses involved the use of internal ideas, or “maps,” as cognitive components that helped navigate mazes, etc.

Neuroscience has further explored certain questions about habit, with the help of nerve conduction and brain scan studies.

Sources: 1 2 ⚜ More: References ⚜ On Habits ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[gcballet]

Mischief Movie Night In 2020-21 as Headlines

<- | MMNI | ->

[beaulesbian]

THE TERROR (2018) S01E07 "Horrible From Supper"

They also told us lemon juice would ward off the scurvy. I heard, when it gets bad, your gums pull back. Scars dissolve and open back up.

[coolguyontheblock]

How about platonic Roseprice? Just Ellie and Rupert hanging out as friends.

Smoke buddies

[largepeachicedtea]

"so cock-struck it's like a curse"

i may as well share these here. movie!firstprince in the style of the new mary and george posters, 1000% influenced by @orchidscripts fic 'noble blood' enough that id even go so far as to call it fan art (despite alex having not even appeared in the fic yet. so. this might not even be accurate)

[chic-a-gigot]

L'Art et la mode, no. 9, vol. 35, 28 février 1914, Paris. Baronne du Bourdieu. Equipage de Champchevrier. (D'après un portrait de Henry Jacquier). Bibliothèque nationale de France

[cosmicdenro]

[zoegotmods]

Force of Habit

Pages 1-3

[trashpidgeon48]

If Harry Kershaw is the father and Henry Shields is the son, who is the Holy Spirit?

[rockingtheorange]

They're so bffs😭❤

Might be wrong but I think Nick was rehearsing the sentence "In here, at night, no one else is around to gawk at you or try and take your picture"

THEYRE SO UNSERIOUS 😭

[philosophybits]

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden

[mynamesnotdahlia]

made a blorbo bingo, can you get a bingo?

[welcometololaland]

A fic about Alex Claremont-Diaz's chaotic coffee habits for @rmd-writes, brought to you by the extremely rogue and inadvisable duo of @dustratcentral (ifyoustay) and me (Lolaland).

(updating every couple of days).

NOW COMPLETE

CURSED IS A STATE OF MIND | E | 6/6 | RWRB

Alex Claremont-Diaz is well aware that he’s an absolute catch. He’s intelligent and quick witted, has an ass that absolutely refuses to quit and was once voted ‘most attractive law student’ in a slightly irresponsible and probably unethical NYU student magazine poll. Which is why he finds it super fucking weird that his new roommate, Henry, thinks his caffeine consumption habits are a bit off-putting. So what if he has some unconventional drink choices? It’s not like Alex can’t vehemently defend all of them. OR 5 times Henry has something to say about Alex’s coffee choices and 1 time he says nothing at all.

Chapter 1 - a wake-me-up and a pick-me-up

Chapter 2 - cereal coffee

Chapter 3 - lukecold

Chapter 4 - pre-made, post-warmed

Chapter 5 - dip it

Chapter 6 - the fat hasn't separated

[smile-files]

I have a little piece so far

AAAAAAAAUGH EXPLODES!!!!

also i've been thinking about that series of drawings you made of henry being kissed and reacting to it... like there's all the henry angst there of course but oh my goddd the dalston angst? he kisses henry only for henry to seem repulsed by it?? oh that would break his heart... i'm sure you've thought about that yourself though

[hon3yra1nbowz]

i had a thought and immediately went for it

[ganseyenthusiast]

you know how gansey functionally went deranged after his first death? what if it's the same after his second one? what if henry, with at least some psychic background, knew to expect it, knew to nudge gansey away from the rest of them because gansey would never want to be seen like that by adam, by ronan, by noah... what if the 'road trip' is a thinly veiled excuse for gansey to go full HarrowTM, curled up on the floors and barely stopped from clawing his own eyes out.

he has good days sometimes -- they look at the woods, at silly attractions, let gansey feel better until the weight of rebirth hits him again. and then its damage control, holding him, forcing him to eat, accepting him as he effectively goes through death-withdrawals. it's at one of henry's properties, wild swath of grass for the good days, isolated enough to muffle screams. people try to reach them during td3, definitely, desperate employees of seondeok insisting that it is a matter of the entire world, of all the Roads, we need you in Boston--and it's henry saying he doesn't give a damn about the world right now, he will not let his friend suffer. it's blue shrugging off the pleading look she's given, following henry out of the foyer, because if the choice is gansey or the world, it's really no choice at all.

it's the both of them gently nudging gansey into the most cramped room in the house when everything gets too loud for him, its them letting gansey crush their hands in a painful grip as his body trudges through the ischemia, adjusts, adjusts. it's taking turns so gansey doesn't get overwhelmed. it's putting aside everything for love, for friendship.

he may have come back wrong, because there is no resurrection without consequence, but he has support, and that love is there to nurture without condition