How the Science of Habits Can Help Us Keep Our New Year’s Resolutions, with Wendy Wood, PhD

Speaking of Psychology

Kim Mills

Health & Fitness, Life Sciences, Science, Mental Health

4.3 • 781 Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2021

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Many of us are brimming with good intentions right now, determined to eat more healthily, get organized or fulfill our other New Year’s resolutions. But by February we’ll have reverted back to our old ways. Why is it so difficult to make these lasting behavioral changes? Wendy Wood, PhD, of the University of Southern California, discusses the research on how habits drive our behavior, why habits are so difficult to break, and how we can harness the power of habit to make the behavioral changes we want. We’d love to know what you think of Speaking of Psychology, what you would change about it, and what you’d like to hear more of. Please take our listener www.apa.org/podcast survey. Links Wendy Wood, PhD Music Jazz Music Loop by anechoix via freesound.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:22.9	$4.99 a month. And keep on moving for less. Fitting subject to availability, Halford's Motrim
0:28.5	Club, T&C's and Exclusion Supply. Welcome to January and our first episode of 2021. By now,
0:34.7	some of you are a few days into a new diet, determined to finally lose 10 pounds,
0:39.3	or maybe you downloaded a new language learning app and you're planning to resurrect your high school French or Spanish.
0:45.3	Perhaps you're working on the household budget so you can find new ways to save money.
0:49.3	Whatever your goals are for this year, many of us are brimming with good intentions right now,
0:55.2	but by February, it's likely that many of us will have reverted to our old ways.
1:00.2	Why do so few New Year's resolutions stick?
1:03.4	And more broadly, why is it so difficult to make lasting behavioral changes?
1:08.2	Is it just a lack of willpower or is something else at play? Welcome to Speaking
1:12.8	of Psychology, the flagship podcast of the American Psychological Association that examines
1:17.7	the links between psychological science and everyday life. I'm Kim Mills. If you enjoy speaking
1:25.5	of psychology, the conversation doesn't have to stop when the podcast is over.
1:29.3	Get unlimited access to hundreds of videos about the latest in psychology for just one low price
1:35.3	by registering for access to APA's 2020 virtual convention. Start with some of our selected videos
1:41.3	featuring psychology's biggest names discussing topics such as racism,
1:45.5	stigma, and COVID-19, or use our on-demand library to explore any psychological or behavioral
1:51.3	topic. Go to convention.a.a.org slash podcast. That's convention.a.a.org
	...

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