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You may have resolved to read more books or lose weight, but no matter what your New Year’s resolutions are, don’t worry about breaking them. According to Alice Frye, a psychology professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, there’s a reason why we can’t always achieve our desires.
“Behavior has a purpose,” said Fry, who is also co-director of the Center for Autism Research and Education. “So it’s very difficult to change.”
Many Americans are determined to save more money, according to Statista’s Consumer Insights survey. Among respondents aged 18 to 64, 59% said they wanted to save more.
According to Statista data, exercise, healthy eating, and weight loss have dropped from the top spot compared to last year. Currently, 50% have resolved to exercise more, 47% to eat healthier, and 35% to lose weight.
Other interesting solutions include spending more time with family and friends (40% of respondents) and spending less time on social media (19%).
According to Frye, many of the goals are due to media influence.
“People probably make resolutions because they hear other people doing it,” she said, adding that she doesn’t think people generally made resolutions a few hundred years ago. .
But around that time, Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol. The story of reconciliation and redemption in 1843 played a vital role in people associating the new year with a “new beginning.”
Fry says psychology explains the fact that it’s hard to stick to well-intentioned decisions.
According to Frye, the solution follows an antecedent-action-consequence model. An antecedent is something that comes before an action, that is, something that causes the action. Actions are what an individual does, and results are what follows.
For example, if Joe really irritates Harry, that’s a trigger. The behavior consisted of Harry repeatedly yelling at Joe every time he got angry. As a result, Joe leaves the room, potentially reinforcing Harry’s reaction since Joe is no longer a nuisance.
“Often when people think about the behavior they want to change, they don’t think about what’s causing that behavior,” Fry says.
For example, someone who doesn’t want to eat sweet food may remove it from their diet. They may not realize it, but when they’re stressed, they tend to eat sweets, Fry says. As soon as the person has had a stressful day at work or had a stressful conversation, he or she returns to his or her original behavior of eating sweets.
However, this does not mean that the resolution cannot be implemented, Frye said. It may take a little more thought and planning, such as thinking of better ways to deal with stress.
“To most effectively change that behavior, you need to look at the causes of that behavior,” Fry says. “It’s easier if we think about what our actions will do to us.”
Monica Sager can be reached at msager@gloucestertimes.com. Follow Sager @MonicaSager3 on X/Twitter
Follow Monica on Twitter @MonicaSager3
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