Bas Verplanken,University of Bath, 29th February 2012

Bas Verplanken from University of Bath will be giving the seminar talk this week entitled 'Habit: From Overt Action to Mental Events'

Habits are almost "unseen" elements of everyday life. In spite of the fact that many behaviours which social and health psychologists are interested in are highly repetitive, habit has not received the attention it deserves. I will focus on questions such as why habits are important to study, address some issues in the area of attitude-behaviour relations, and discuss implications for interventions to change behaviours. I then move on to our habits of thinking, and demonstrate how such habits relate to a range of issues, varying from body image and eating disorder problems, job stress, worry and anxiety, to implicit self-esteem. I will end with mindfulness, and a flavour of Bhuddism.