Year: 2026
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Habits are widely recognized as socially significant to daily life, such as habits related to health, fitness, and productivity. While applied behaviour analysis addresses many behaviours commonly known as habits, the contribution of behaviour-analytic literature to the colloquial understanding of habit formation appears limited. The growing popularity of habit formation books, podcasts, and other media forums demonstrates societal interest in developing and maintaining adaptive habits. Thus, a greater understanding of behaviour-analytic habit research appeared to be warranted. The present scoping review examined the use of the term “habit” across behaviour-analytic journals to describe how the term is studied, applied, and defined in behaviour analysis. Overall, “habit” was infrequently used across the included articles. When used, the term was most often applied to studies implementing habit reversal training to reduce maladaptive repetitive behaviours (e.g., body-focused repetitive behaviours, tic-related behaviours, speech disfluencies). Very few studies used the term to describe common habits (e.g., staying physically active, eating healthy, smoking, studying, etc.). These findings suggest that the term “habit” may be conceptualized and applied differently in behaviour-analytic research compared to broader habit discussions. Implications for dissemination, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.
Author: Roy, Aparajita
Institution: Brock University
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7215007732