Identified habit:
Smoking
Behavioral Perspective
I started smoking due to the stress I was dealing with when going to school and my family situation. Smoking helps relieve my stress levels and helps control my emotions. At very stressful times I tend to smoke more than usual. Some ways to use the behavioral perspective to help me quit smoking is by learning ways of coping with stress and urges to smoke. A fear of trying to quit smoking of mine is that I will not succeed, so going to a behavioral therapy would help increase my confidence in my ability to quit smoking. Another way to help myself quit smoking is by using a reward system to encourage myself to continue forth towards my goal.
Humanistic Perspective
When I started smoking I was friends with a lot of people that already smoked, and this was a way for me to feel like part of the group. I felt like I belonged with this group of people, since we were all smokers. To stop smoking under the humanistic perspective I could start by hanging around more people that did not smoke, therefore when I wasn’t smoking I would feel like I belonged to that group instead of being an outcast being the only smoker in the group. If I were to try to quit smoking while being around a bunch of other smokers I would not succeed since I wouldn’t feel like I belonged there without joining them while smoking.
Psychodynamic Perspective
My smoking can be related to the oral stage of the psychosexual stage where the sources of pleasure would be in the mouth. Smoking for me is a fixation through the psychodynamic perspective. Instead of having a cigarette in my mouth I could try to quit smoking by having a straw or toothpick in my mouth instead. This would still give me the pleasure of having something in my mouth. Chewing gum would be another way to help stop myself smoking through the psychodynamic perspective.
Neuroscience Perspective
My father and three uncles are also smokers in my family, and while I was growing up I was around them more than the females in my family. My smoking could be from growing up watching the men around me smoke and wanting to be just like them. I could associate myself more with the females in my family to stop smoking. I could also try to get the males in my family quit smoking with me so it would feel more like a family trait with all of us quitting at the same time, plus we would have the support of each other to lean on.
Cognitive Perspective
As a smoker I have focused more on the smokers who have smoked all their lives and did not have any ill effects from the results of smoking. I ignore the fact that smoking could affect me with serous smoking related diseases. To help me stop smoking I would focus more on the people in my lives who have died at a young age and those who have suffered with serious smoking related diseases. Focusing on the people I care about who have died from this habit would benefit me a lot more and would give me more motivation to quit smoking myself, so I am here for my children as long as I live and hopefully that being a long life.