John Page

I think that the gene combination for "And now for something completely different..." finally resurfaced. It must have been there in the first place otherwise how would they have become catholics in the second place? I think your titling of this thread is 100% accurate!

Cheers.

[ March 27, 2002: Message edited by: John Page ]</p>

Kim o' the Concrete Jungle

I'm not so sure. A habit is something you do because you have always done it, either because it works reasonably well, because you've never really consciously looked at it, or because you don't know any better.

Once a habit is formed -- however that occurs -- you will tend to repeat the behavior, even if the environmental stimuli change, and even if that behavior is no longer appropriate or effective. Regardless of the environmental or genetic influences upon you, at the end of the day, you can only behave in that limited number of ways that would actually occur to you; which, most of the time, will simply be what you've done in similar circumstances in the past.

The most effective therapeutic model to date simply involves teaching people how to think in different ways about their problems, and to break those old habitual responses. I can't see how this would work if habit did not constitute a separate and self-reinforcing influence on people's behavior, over and above genes and environment. If habit played no role, and genes and environment were the only determinants of behavior, then presumably behavior would constantly shift to track changes in environment, and everyone would be perfectly adapted to accomodate their drives and circumstances. I don't see that happening. On the other hand, I have frequently seen people get onto a downward spiral of habitual, self-reinforcing behavior. I think habit is sufficiently separate from genes and environment to list as a determining factor of behavior in its own right.