Habits and Social Approaches

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Habits Behavioral and Social Approaches Habits, we all have them. Some habits are good and some are bad. There are theories on what causes individuals to develop a habit. This paper will analyze a habit that my son has and the behavioral and social/cognitive approach to the formation of this habit. My son Forrest, who is 19, has a habit of when he is sleeping on his stomach he bounces his head and hums. Forrest has been bouncing his head ever since he was small. Often times, we used to tell him when he got older he would scare his girlfriend’s away by waking up in the middle of the night and banging his head sometimes rather hard. When he first starting doing this we were kind of alarmed but we have done some research and realized that it was nothing to serious. Forrest does not consciously continue to do this any longer. As a matter of fact he often times focuses on making sure he does not sleep on his stomach even if it means not being as comfortable as he could be. As he was not showing any other problems of development or anything like this. There is actually a name for this habit and it is called Rhythmic Movement Disorder (RMD). “Children with rhythmic movement disorder may develop the condition before the age of three. In most cases, symptoms fade away as the child becomes older” (Peters M.D., Marc). This habit usually occurs during light sleep or non-rem sleep. Most of the time it diminishes when and individual gets to stage two of sleep. With my child he has never completely outgrown this disorder. Therefore, I think it is kind of habit for him now. As a young adult he focuses on not sleeping on his stomach for fear of scaring away someone with his head bouncing. According to behavioral theorist, B.F. Skinner and John B Watson suggest that this habit is a reaction between Forrest and his environment, meaning that he would have
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