Habituation is a learned behavior of ignoring neutral stimuli, which decreases response over time. It is different from sensory adaptation and is a way to conserve energy. Drug addiction is a habit of responding to stimuli that are perceived as beneficial, which can be both physical and psychological.
In psychology, habituation refers to the learned behavior of ignoring neutral stimuli. Addiction theory holds that when an animal is repeatedly exposed to stimuli that neither hurt nor help, it stops responding. This lack of response to something that is not a problem means that the animal is not wasting energy; he is still vigilant in case of danger.
While it is easy to confuse this type of learning with sensory adaptation, the two are not the same. Behavior is the key to habituation, as the animal may respond to stimuli in other ways, but some of the response is cut off. The animal learns to ignore something that doesn’t matter. Sensitization creates an increase in response, while habituation causes a decrease. The decrease can be gradual.
For example, a squirrel in a park may make an alarm sound and run up a tree when human footsteps approach. After repeated times where the footsteps finally faded and people kept walking, the squirrel may have run up the tree without making any vocal sounds. Eventually, if there hasn’t yet been a threat to its safety as the footsteps continue, the squirrel may not run up the tree or make any sounds at all. His response to stimuli gradually decreases. The change in behavior is a learned response to avoid wasting unnecessary energy.
Habit means that when something doesn’t pose a threat to our safety, we get used to it. We learn to tolerate harmless stimuli rather than waste our energy reacting to them. For example, if a person moves into a house near a train track and the vibration can be felt through the floor every time a train passes, they may at first think that something bad will happen, for example the vibration will cause people in the house to fall or an object to fall and break. After repeated exposure to the vibration of the train when nothing bad ever happens, the person experiences habituation and no longer acts worried when a train passes the house.
Drug addiction is something else. In this case, the habit of responding to stimuli that are perceived as beneficial is manifested. Eventually the effect of the drug may be neutral, but the effects without the stimuli, especially the withdrawal symptoms, are so bad that the habit remains. Drug addiction can be both physical and psychological.
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