Smoking, this is a very common habit for most people and just happens to be my most common habit currently. There are people that smoke and there are those who don’t, sadly I am one of those who does. Now keep in mind I haven’t always smoked, just apparently whenever I feel it to be necessary.
I have off and on smoked since I was about 18, and I believe it to be a combination of both behavioral and social. The behavioral half of this coin coming from watching family members and friends of the family smoking all around me as a child, the social side being all my high school, then college buddies doing it so I felt like I wanted to fit in and be cool like everyone else. “Yes, social friend, I love thee well, In learned doctor’s spite; Thy clouds all other clouds dispel, And lap me in delight” (Charles Sprague, To My Cigar). So where to begin, how about at the beginning; as a child, I grew up around all my family and their friends as they all puffed away. I was constantly surrounded by people who smoked.
So naturally I believe that they are my biggest influence for the reason I started smoking. I started smoking at the age of eighteen. My friends and I had entered into the world of college life. We all wanted to fit into what we preserved as the “college life. ” My friends from high school, as well as those from college, have played a significant part in my decision to smoke cigarettes. From a behavioral standpoint, I honestly believe that all the growing up around constant smokers played an adamant part in my growing up to eventually smoke.
So as I mentioned in the beginning I haven’t always been a smoker, obviously I wasn’t a smoker as a child, but once I was at legal age and knew that I had full accessibility to smoke, followed with the help of my college buddies, I began my journey into the world of smoking. I currently smoke and question myself almost on a daily basis, why’so from the age of eighteen thru twenty I was at least a pack a day smoker. In the year 1999, my son was born into this world. This was the point in my life that I decided that I needed to quit smoking, for his sake. I was successful in not smoking for close to ten years.
I landed a job on the west side of Fresno, California and as soon as I knew it, I was once in a while smoking again. Most of the guys I worked with were smokers, and of course one thing lead to another. I stopped and started a few times after that, all roads lead to where I am at currently, which is a smoker. “Most personality theories can be classified in terms of two broad categories, depending on their underlying assumptions about human nature. Category 2: “There are a group of theories that see human nature as plastic, flexible, and always capable of growth, change, and development. Human nature is basically benevolent; therefore bad societies are the source of personal misery.
Social reform will produce human happiness if not actual perfection. These theories emphasize self-expression and self-actualization ”in the cases of Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, they reflect a distinctly optimistic and romantic view of life” (McGraw Hill 2002). Based off what Rogers and Maslow stated above, I have to agree and say that my habit is a “socially caused habit. ” I still believe that there is a flipside to this smoking habit coin, and that other side is the behavioral aspect. “Behavioral Theories: Behavioral theories suggest that personality is a result of interaction between the individual and the environment. Behavioral theorists study observable and measurable behaviors, rejecting theories that take internal thoughts and feelings into account” (Kendra Cherry).
That is the exact reason that I believe that there is to two sides to my habit. Since growing up as a child I was constantly surrounded by family and friends of the family that smoked, I believe that led me to believe that once I was of age that it would be okay for me to do the same. “Operant conditioning: A process of behavior modification in which a subject is encouraged to behave in a desired manner through positive or negative reinforcement, so that the subject comes to associate the pleasure or displeasure of the reinforcement with the behavior” (The American Heritage Stedman’s Medical Dictionary 2002). Since I honestly didn’t know what operant conditioning was, I looked it up and found that this definition would guide me to creating a good plan on how I can change my current habit. I believe, that is I had solid positive reinforcements to help guide me through the quitting process that I could stop smoking. With that said, I am also the type of person that is very self motivated and believe that I control the power within me to just stop.
I have done it in the past. The first time I made the decision to just flat out quit was when my son was born. This is my example of how a positive reinforcement helped me break my habit at that point in my life. If I had to choose between behavioral or social/cognitive, I would pick both.
I say this because I honestly believe that half of my current personality comes from the things I learned as I grew up. The other half of my current personality comes from all the things I have soaked up from the time I turned eighteen and started my life as a college student, to now. Plus there have been a lot of events in my life that I can honestly say has made me the man I am today. In conclusion, all in all I have to admit that I would love to break this bad habit as most would define it.
Whether it was a family trait or something I just decided to do once my buddies and I knew we could, the fact of the matter is I smoke. Maybe one day I am sure I will get to that point in my life where I am just not feeling the smoking thing, but until then, smoking is the habit I will have to live with.
Bibliography:
No Smoking Quotes and one liners. (2014). Retrieved from http://quotesheart. com/Quotation-Topics/Smoking-Quotes-Smoking-Sayings-One-LinersAccording to “No Smoking Quotes And One Liners” (2014), “”Yes, social friend, I love thee well, In learned doctor’s spite; Thy clouds all other clouds dispel, And lap me in delight.
Mcgraw Hill Companie, . (2002-2014). The Free Dictionary. com. Retrieved from http://encyclopedia2. thefreedictionary.
com/Personality+theoryMcgraw Hill Companie (2002-2014), (Utilized the information from the general definition of behavioral personality theory for both behavioral and social/cognitive). Cherry, K. (2014). About. com/psychology. Retrieved from http://psychology.
about. com/od/psychologystudyguides/a/personalitysg_3. htmCherry (2014), “Insert the quotation (Pg 3, Para. 4). The American Heritage ® Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, . (2002).
Dictionary. com. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/operant+conditioningThe American Heritage ® Stedman’s Medical Dictionary (2002), (The Dictionary Definition).
