Dr's Casebook: An equation that could help you break a habit

Dr Keith Souter writes: Mobile phones have become an integral part of life. Many people have become habituated to them and have to have them on all the time.

In researching habituation I came across an interesting mathematical curio called Lewin’s Equation. It was first proposed by the psychologist Kurt Lewin in 1936. He stated that ‘behaviour’ is a function of the ‘person in their environment.’ The equation is thus: B = f(P,E).

It is actually a very interesting equation, because it gives you insight into what you can do to establish good habits and break bad ones. Before Lewin proposed his equation it was believed that a person’s behaviour and habits were a result of what sort of person they were. People still often think that way about habits. For example, people might say ‘I can’t stop smoking or drinking, I have no willpower.’

But Lewin would say that your behaviour is a function of both your personality ‘and’ your environment. If you can’t give something up, it may be because you are surrounded by bad options or people whose behaviour reinforces your bad habits.

An effective way of getting Lewin’s equation to work for you, concentrating on the P, or personality, is to change your mindset. Basically, people with a fixed mindset believe that their abilities are fixed, so they can’t improve or break free. Growth mindset people believe they can improve and learn.

The E, or environment is everything around the person. Nowadays, we can include the digital environment, because there are so many triggers.

The equation would suggest that you can develop good habits by focusing on P and developing a growth mindset and adjusting E, the environment to make good habits and behaviour easier to obtain. If you have an issue with smoking, dieting or using your iphone, the equation may help.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​