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Researchers Explain What Your Habits Say about Your Personality

Did you know that your habits reveal your personality traits? While every person is born with some unique qualities, their personal habits speak a lot about their personality. In fact, the Theory of Behavioral Personality defines personal habits as the behaviors acquired by an individual through repeated conditioning. This post will discuss how atomic habits shape your personality, the types of habits, and how habits reveal your nature.

What Is Behavioral Personality Theory?

In psychology theory, Behavioral Personality is termed as the outcome of an individual’s interactions with their environments.

Such interactions might include the following examples:

  • Traumatic events.
  • Relationship with parents.
  • Lessons from teachers and media.
  • Early childhood experiences.

All these above situations highly contribute to shaping an individual’s personality and habits.

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According to psychological studies, behavior personality is categorized in two different processes:

  1. Classical Conditioning
  2. and Operant Conditioning.

What Is Classical Conditioning?

Classical conditioning is a type of learning that takes place in an individual on an unconscious level. While learning through classical conditioning, an involuntary response is twined with a specific stimulus that shapes an individual’s behavior based on that conditioning.

In our everyday life, we are always in contact with classical conditioning in some way or another.

For instance, you’re likely to reach out for your phone if you hear similar ringtones, only to realize it’s not coming from your phone.

This is since the ringtone is a neutral stimulus, and through classical conditioning, you have associated yourself with the feeling of attending the phone. Likewise, food advertisers persuade customers to buy their products by using celebrities in their marketing strategy.

What Is Operant Conditioning?

Operant conditioning is a learning process where an individual’s behavior is an outcome of the external stimulus (rewards and punishments) that trigger specific behavior types.

These are the four types of operant conditioning:

  1. Positive Reinforcement: Receiving rewards to act in a particular manner and adding a pleasant stimulus.
  2. Positive Punishment: An act of punishment to add an unpleasant stimulus, so the end outcome is positive.
  3. Negative Reinforcement: Receiving rewards to remove an unpleasant stimulus.
  4. Negative Punishment: An act of punishment to remove pleasant stimulus.

Furthermore, here are four examples of operant conditioning:

  1. Positive Reinforcement: Praising your kid to perform their best in tests so that they can get rewards later.
  2. Positive Punishment: Restricting your kid from watching television so that they study and perform well in exams.
  3. Negative Reinforcement: Rewarding your kid so that they stop nagging and screaming at you. Here the rewards reinforce your kid to prevent their tantrums.
  4. Negative Punishment: Kids not performing well in exams may result in their parents restricting their child from watching television as an act of punishment.

What Do Your Habits Say About Your Personality?

what do habits say about your personality traits-alignthoughts

There are certain habits that a person has no control over it, and apart from the acquired habits that can change over time, some ticks can neither be altered nor controlled—these unconscious habits center in the emotional part of the brain. However, the prefrontal cortex, where our logic resides, helps tackle the unwanted behavior.

Researchers believe that habits reflect our behavior and personality to some extent. These habits give a person a particular personality trait.

Here is a list of a few practices that reveal a bit more about your personality.

1. Hanging A Toilet Paper Roll

It’s funny to be featured first on the list, but the way you hang the toilet paper roll reveals how assertive you are in your relationship.

Relationship expert and therapist Gilda Carle concludes from her 2000 men and women survey that people who prefer the “Overhead” method are more dominant. The “Underhead” method reveals a more submissive personality.

2. Sleeping Habits

Did you know your sleeping habits say a lot about your personality traits?

There are three types of sleepers:

  • Back sleepers.
  • Side sleepers.
  • Stomach sleepers.

Who are the back sleepers?

If you sleep on your back, you’re one of the 8% population who sleep on their back.

This is one of the healthiest sleeping positions, and it reveals that you, as a person, is focused, strong, and determine, who also prefers to stay away from unnecessary worry. It also means that you expect highly from yourself and the people around you.

Who are the side sleepers?

Do you prefer sleeping on your side?

Then chances are you’re an easygoing person who likes to go out and talk to people from all walks of life. You’re also likely to be incredibly open-minded and someone who can easily be trusted.

Who are the stomach sleepers? 

If you’re a person who has a habit of sleeping on your stomach, it reveals that your personality is friendly and loveable to the people around you.

You know what you want and may often come as offensively bold to others because of your outspoken nature, which, in fact, is a positive trait about you. People consider you free-spirited because you don’t steer away from taking risks in life.

3. Walking Style

According to Patti Wood, a language expert, if you put your weight forward and walk quickly, you are incredibly productive and logical. Though you may look cold, people still admire you for your competitive nature.

Your gait can send a strong message about you. If you walk while balancing your weight forward, you might appear to be charging ahead like a bull. Thus, you may seem to be ambitious and attentive in your work as well as life. Many believe that such people are cold and therefore can’t be approached easily.

Likewise, those who walk looking at their toes are generally introverted. Since they avoid looking at others, they tend to be shy and love to remain aloof. Whereas the sensitive ones have a smooth walk and they balance their weight and like to be team-oriented.

4. The Way You Write Emails

It may sound funny, but your emailing style can tell a lot about your personality. An email that does not have any typing errors or grammatical errors conveys that the writer is most likely a perfectionist and maybe slightly obsessive.

According to studies, it is also witnessed that the narcissist loves to use words like “I” “mine” frequently. Furthermore, a poorly written mail means the sender is not interested in communication or is weak in academics.

Whereas a person who writes long, detailed emails is generally energetic or who is innately needy.

  • Introverts usually write an email that is clipped and to the point.
  • On the other hand, extroverts would use playful words.

5. How Punctual You Are

You do not need an expert to tell you that you can’t be dependent upon if you are usually late. Tardiness doesn’t attract a lot of confidence; thus, people who are not punctual are typically laid back. At the same time, those who would like to be early are a bit neurotic.

They want to make sure they are made aware of all the variables before they meet someone. Sometimes they do come across as nervous.

At the same time, those who arrive on time are quite dependable ones!

They are not anxious and are scrupulous. They are often comfortable in any situation and are usually well prepared and ready to take any challenges that come their way.

6. Eating Habits

Who knew personality could be revealed by the types of eating habits you possess!

If you gobble down the food, you are most likely impatient but goal-centered and ambitious. People who eat slowly, cherishing every bite, are usually more in control, and they are confident and enjoy their life as it comes.

The way you eat food shows a great deal about how you lead your life. If you come across a picky eater, it depicts anxiety.

After all, you are what you eat!

Hence, people who like to try out new dishes and explore different cuisines prefer to take risks.

7. Shopping Habits

Even the shopping style tells a lot about your personality traits. There are two types of shoppers:

  1.  a person goes to the grocery store with a setlist
  2. someone who picks whatever they think they need

If your shopping style is the former, you are practical, and knowing your budget makes you meticulous.

People who go window shopping and buy a whole lot more are impulsive in nature. Sometimes they purchase things because of their fancy look, even if it holds no utility to them.

Lastly, people who love to read the entire ingredient list and then put the product in their shopping cart are detail-oriented and sometimes act obsessively.

8. Handwriting Style

Experts who study graphology say that physical characteristics and handwriting patterns can reveal a lot about your persona. Graphologists believe there is a deep connection, and a person’s writing style can explain at least 5000 traits.

If a person writes large letters, he wants to be noticed and somewhere feels he is misunderstood. In contrast, writing in small letters reveal an introverted personality.

And if your writing is towards rightward slant, it signifies that you’re friendly, sentimental with an impulsive nature. However, no slant with connecting letters conveys that you’re a person with a logical mind.

What Are Atomic Habits?

What Your Habits Say about Your Personality-AlignThoughts

Atomic habits are the micro habits that compound to shape your personality in a meaningful way. They are the tiny changes that you make regularly and hold a remarkable significance in your life.

Atomic or Micro habits are a feasible approach to build better habits instead of taking massive steps to break the negative patterns of an individual’s personality.

These mini habits focus on breaking your bad habits by taking small actionable steps daily to overcome those bad habits.

Atomic habits help to achieve big goals by bettering yourself by 1% every day, significantly impacting your overall growth after months and years.

How Can Micro Habits Help Build Your Personality?

According to a study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, researchers have found that it takes more than two months before a habit becomes a behavior, 66 days to be exact. However, the timeline to making a habit into a behavior differs from person to person. A person can form new habits in 2 months to 8 months.

Nonetheless, incorporating micro habits highly shapes your personality along with some other personal benefits.

1. Boost Confidence

There’s nothing sexier than confidence. For someone who lacks self-confidence, micro-habits help build self-esteem. Confidence determines how a person feels about themselves. For this reason, including habits that instills confidence is probably the most critical aspect of building personality.

For instance, someone who regularly does meditation is more likely to be self-aware and know what they want than someone who doesn’t meditate. In this case, the person who has a habit of meditating daily possibly has a more confident personality.

2. Motivation To Accomplish Tasks

Since micro habits are all about taking small actionable steps in breaking negative behavior, it can motivate you to accomplish tasks. If you only rely on motivation, you’ll never be able to complete tasks.

Motivation is only momentarily, whereas habits are what keep you going. Once you start building healthy micro habits, it will push you to come out of the comfort zone and achieve your goals.

3. Instill With More Energy

The more motivated you feel after completing specific tasks, the more energy you feel from within to do more. Just tweaking your daily lifestyle with tiny remarkable habits can instill you with more energy on dry days.

4. You Become Efficient In Doing More Tasks In Less Time.

Procrastination is one of the top bad habits that people struggle with these days, and the outcome of this habit is catastrophic and affects your personality in front of others.

Micro habits help you overcome procrastination and enable you to do more tasks efficiently in less time.

It’s all because micro habits consist of taking little actions consistently, which leads to gaining massive results in the future.

A Word From AlignThoughts,

A person who is emotional and reacts readily would write with a lot of pressure, while those who do not put pressure have a playful personality. Methodical people usually have no slant, while those who have a slight slant towards the right are friendly.

A person evolves over time, and individual habits and personality traits change. The behavior and personality of a person are complex and thus cannot be categorized under broad categories. These habits may reveal a side of you but are not a sure-shot way of defining who you are. Be true to yourself!

Do not hesitate to share your thoughts in the comments section below. Stay tuned by subscribing to us for more exciting content.

Key Takeaways On How Habits Form Your Personality

  • The Theory of Behavioral Personality defines personal habits as the behaviors acquired by an individual through repeated conditioning.
  • In psychology theory, Behavioral Personality is the outcome of an individual’s interactions and habits with their environments.
  • According to psychological studies, there are two types of behavior personality: Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning.
  • Classical conditioning is a type of learning that takes place in an individual on an unconscious level.
  • Whereas, Operant conditioning is a learning process where an individual’s behavior is an outcome of the external stimulus (rewards and punishments).
  • Research theory shows that habits reflect our behavior and personality to some extent.
  • For instance, our sleep habits can reveal our personality traits to a great extent.
  • If you have a habit of sleeping on your back, it shows that your personality is strong, attentive, and full of determination.
  • Similarly, your eating habits show a great deal about your personality and how you lead your life.
  • Someone with a faster eating habit conveys that they have the personality traits of being impatient but ambitious at the same time.
  • Furthermore, atomic habits are the micro habits that compound to shape your personality in a meaningful way.
  • Lastly, atomic habits focus on bettering yourself by 1% every day, significantly impacting your personality after months and years.

What is the definition of habit?

In Behavioral Personality Theory, habits are the repeated patterns that an individual regularly engages in. For example, it could be drinking a glass of warm water every morning.

How do atomic habits build personality?

Atomic habits are a feasible approach to build a better personality. It breaks the negative patterns of an individual’s personality and focuses on bettering yourself by 1% every day.

For instance, tiny healthy eating habits provide you a more energetic and vibrant personality.

How can micro habits help me?

  • Boost confidence.
  • Motivation to complete tasks.
  • Instill with more energy.
  • You become efficient in doing more tasks in less time.

Align your thoughts, and stay tuned by subscribing to us for more interesting content.

Preeti Bhandari
Preeti Bhandari
Preeti B lives in Canada with her two boys, who keep her on her toes. Content writing and paper quilling are two art forms that she is passionate about. She loves to express herself through these two mediums. Apart from these, listening to music and reading books are the hobbies that take her to a different zone.

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