Psychology Of Addictive Behaviour

Revision cards outlining the biological, cognitive and behavioural apporach to gambling addiction.

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Biological Explanation for Addiction.
Biological explanation puts emphasis on the role of genetics and neurotransmitters in the onset, maintenance and relapse of an addictive behaviour.
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Initiation of Gambling
Pathological gambling is proposed to run in family, due to social-modelling influences. Black et al found that first degree relatives of pathological gamblers were more likely to become gamblers.
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Maintenance of Gambling.
Research suggests that patholgoical gambling is associated with an under active pituitary-adrenal response to gambling stimuli. Paris et al measured cortisol levels of gamblers and found that pathological gamblers had no salivary cortisol increase.
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Relapse of Gambling.
Pathological gamblers are seen as people who need intense stimulation and excitement. Blaszcynski et al found poor tolerance for boredom may contribute to repetitive gambling. (pathological gamblers had higher boredom proneness scores)
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Evaluation (Gambling)
Genetic explanations can explain why some people develop pathological gambling habits yet others in the same environment don't. The diathesis-stress model supports the idea that some people are genetically predisposed to a gambling addiction.
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Cognitive Explanation for Gambling
The cognitive approach puts emphasis on the habitual ways of thinking and interpreting events that may lead to the development of an addictive behaviour.
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Initiation of Gambling.
The self-medication model proposes that individuals intentionally use different forms of pathological behaviour to treat the psychological symptoms they are suffering.Gamblers are thought to choose this activity as a result of depression from poverty
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Maintenance of Gambling.
Irrational beleifs are thought to play a role in the maintenance of pathological gambling; depsite the prbability of failure related to chance games, gamblers frequently believe they have the ability to influence the outcomes.
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Griffiths' study.
Compared 30 regular and non-regular gamblers' verbalisations when playing a frit machine. The regular gamblers believed they were more skillful then they were and were more likely to make irrational verbalisations.
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Relapse of Gambling.
Pathological gamblers suffer from recall bias, where they tend to overestimate wins while forgetting about losses. Consequently a string of losses does not act as a disincentive for future gambling, and so individuals are likely to return to gambling
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Evaluation(Gambling).
Li et al provided support for the self-medication model and fouhnd that pathological gamblers, who gambled to escape reality, were more likely to have other substance dependencies.
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Behavioural Explanation for Gambling.
Explains addictive behaviour without involving any conscious evaluation of the costs or benefits of a particular behaviour. Individuals will learn to assoc. behav. with the onset of something pleasant or the termination of something unpleasant.
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Initiation of Gambling.
Griffiths argues that gamblers playig slot machines may beome addicted as a result of the physiological, psychological and social rewards; as well as financial rewards if they win.
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Maintenance of Gambling.
Intermittent reinforcement - people gamble because of occasional reinforcement that is characteristic of most types of gambling. Behaviour is rewarded by occasional payouts.
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Maintenance of Gambling. (contd.)
Social approval - Lambos et a found peers and family of gamblers were more likely to approve of gambling, and so this acted as an incentive to gamble for longer periods of time.
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Relapse of Gambling.
Addicts learn to associate other stimuli with their gambling behaviour, these act as triggers for gambling as they have the ability to increase arousal. If an individual comes into contact with these stimuli they are likely to return to gambling.
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Relapse of Gambling.(contd.)
Gambling has +ve and -ve consequences so an individual is motivated to approach and aviod situations where gambling is involved, This motivation fluctuates between wanting and not wanting to gamble.
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Evaluation(Gambling).
Explains addiction in terms of cosequences of the behaviour. Although many people gamble at some point, few become addicts; this suggests other psychological factors are involved in the transition from gambling behaviour to a gambling addiction.
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Biological Explanation for Smoking.
Puts emphasis on an individuals development of an uncontrollable dependancy on cigerettes, so much so that they find it impossible to stop smoking.
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Initiation(Smoking).
Family and twin studies suggest the heredibility of smoking tobacco is between 39-80%. Vink ete al studied 1572 dutch twins and found that individual differences in smoking initiation were explained by genes(44%).
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Maintenenace of Smoking
Vink et al reported that nicotine dependence was influenced primarily by genetic factors(75%) This suggests that regular tobacco use is linked to individual differences in nicotine metabolism.
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How nicotine affects the brain.
Nicotine activates receptors in the brain which are responsible for relaesing dopamine, the release of dopamine leads to short-lived feelings of pleasure.
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Relapse(Smoking)
Twin studies suggest that the ability to quit smoking is subject to genetic influence. Xian et al found that 54% of the risk for failure to quit smoking could be attributed to heredibility.
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Evaluation(smoking)
Thorgeisson et al identified a gene varient that inlfluenced the number of cigerettes smoked per day, nicotine dependance and the risk of developing smoking-related diseases.
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Cognitive Approach to Smoking
Assumes that an individual will become addicted to smoking as a way of dealing with life problems they are suffering.
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Inititation(Smoking)
The expectancy theory proposes that a behaviour escalates into an addiction because of the expectations that an individual has about the costs and benefits of smoking.
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Inititation(Smoking).(contd.)
Kassel et al found that adolescent smokers commonly report smoking when they're experiencing bad moods, and they expect that smoking will drecrease the intensity of this feeling.
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Maintenence(Smoking)
Brandon et al suggests that as an addiction develops, the activity is influenced less by conscious expectancies and more by unconscious expectancies involvinf automatic processes.
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Maintenence(Smoking).(contd.)
Tate et al found that when smokers are told they will not experience -ve side effects during a period of abstinence, it led to fewer reported somatic effects suggesting that expectancies can be manipulated to prevent relapse.
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Relapse(Smoking)
Expectations for the costs and benefits of smoking affect an individuals readiness to quit and also the likeliness of then relapsing after they've quit.
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Evaluation(Smoking)
Moolchan et al showed that use of nicotine patches could increase cessation rates and reduce relapse, but only when used with CBT to change the +ve expectancies of smoking behaviour.
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Behavioiural Explanation for Smoking.
An individuals learns to associate the oset of something pleasant or the reduction of something unpleasant with smoking behaviours.
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Initiation(Smoking)
The SLT proposes that young people begin smoking as a consequence of their social models who also smoke.
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Maintenance(Smoking)
The repetitive act of smoking leads to a strong conditioned association between sensory aspects of smoking and the reinforcing effects of nicotine. Smoking related sensory cues become conditioned stimuli, making quitting more difficult.
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Relapse(Smoking)
Cues previously associated with recieving nicotine increases the likelihood that a smoker will respond be smoking. Self-efficacy porposes that adults who smoke more often have less confidence in their ability to abstain from smoking.
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Evaluation(Smoking)
Diblasio and Benda found adolescents who smoked were more likely to spend time with other adolescents who smoked.
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Evaluation(Smoking).(cntd.)
Drummand et al proposed that cue exposure, in which you present individuals with smoking cues without the opportunity to smoke, will lead to stimulus discrimination.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Pathological gambling is proposed to run in family, due to social-modelling influences. Black et al found that first degree relatives of pathological gamblers were more likely to become gamblers.

Back

Initiation of Gambling

Card 3

Front

Research suggests that patholgoical gambling is associated with an under active pituitary-adrenal response to gambling stimuli. Paris et al measured cortisol levels of gamblers and found that pathological gamblers had no salivary cortisol increase.

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

Pathological gamblers are seen as people who need intense stimulation and excitement. Blaszcynski et al found poor tolerance for boredom may contribute to repetitive gambling. (pathological gamblers had higher boredom proneness scores)

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

Genetic explanations can explain why some people develop pathological gambling habits yet others in the same environment don't. The diathesis-stress model supports the idea that some people are genetically predisposed to a gambling addiction.

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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