Addiction 1

1) There's a problem with the construct of addiction: (if a phenomenon such as addiction seems to be a human idea or invention rather than clearly objective, social scientists call it a "construct") And if it is unclear that addiction is a real objective phenomenon, this makes investigations difficult... as operationalising variables that measure addiction is difficult and validity of results may be doubtful.

2) There are ethical issues and social stigma surrounding addiction: Many people consider that addiction is shameful. Some of the activities of addicts are illegal. This makes such people prone to psychological harm. If addiction is shameful and illegal, this makes investigations difficult because...

• Participants may be hard to find
• Participants may not co-operate
• Participants may be deceitful

3) There's a problem with the mental state of addicts: It is therefore hard to get informed consent and to debrief them *they may not be able to concentrate or may not co-operate).