characteristics

• It is important to recognise that there is a certain criteria that should be met before a habit that we engage in can really be described as an addiction.
• addictions can occur to what kind of substances?

  alcohol, illegal drugs, gambling, internet
• The Oxford Dictionary of Psychology defines addiction as :

  “A state of dependency on a chemical substance, especially on a drug such as alcohol, nicotine, or caffeine, or a narcotic such as morphine or heroin, characterised by a strong physiological and psychological need and a compulsive inability to resist taking the drug despite anticipation of probable adverse consequence, withdrawal if there is an abrupt deprivation of the drug, and in some cases drug tolerance“
• Mark Griffiths (2005) suggested what?


  That there are six criteria that needs to be met for a behaviour to be considered an addiction.
• 1. Salience - What is salience?

  • When the activity has become the most important thing in the individual’s life.

  • It dominates the individual’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour.

  • Even when they’re not engaged in the behaviour, it will preoccupy their them.
• 2. Mood modification - What is mood modification?

  • When the individual engages in the addictive behaviour, they experience a change in their mood.

  • This could be a high or a buzz or perhaps a feeling of escape or numbness.

  • This could change at different times, e.e, a smoker would use nicotine for a boost in the morning but then for relaxation in the evening.

  • They’re using the addiction as a way to self-medicating to cope with the problems they’re experiencin.
• 3. Tolerance - What is tolerance?

  • It’s when an individual will need more of the addictive substance to achieve the same effects as they have built up a tolerance to it.

  • This can be applied to chemical addictions but also behavioural ones.

  • For example, Griffiths (1993) found that regular gamblers’ hear rates decreased faster than non-regular gambler, implying they needed to restart gambling more quickly to achieve the same level of arousal.
• 4. Withdrawal symptoms - What are withdrawal symptoms?

  • When an individual stops engaging in the addictive behaviour and they experience negative withdrawal symptoms.

  • These can be physical (e.e insomnia, headaches) or psychological (e.e moodiness, irritability).
• 5. Conflict - What is conflict?

  • Addicts will often experience conflict.

  • Interpersonal conflict = a conflict between themselves and friends or family by compromising their jobs and relationships at the expense of engaging in the addictive behaviour.

  • Intrapsychic conflict = a conflict within themselves, e.e when they know that they want to cut down or stop engaging in the behaviour, but may struggle to do so.
• 6. Relapse - What is relapse?

  • When addicts will have a strong tendency to return to the addictive behaviour even after years of not engaging in it or after seemingly successful treatment.
• Is the internet really an addiction?

  • Whether the internet is really addictive remains a source of debate.

  • While it is clear that many people spend a lot of time on the internet, that’s not the same as being addicted to it.

  • Although DSM-V does list internet addiction as a formal disorder, the manual recommends that more research is carried out.
• According to the Chinese government, internet addiction affects 24 million of it’s 632 million internet users.
• What are the issues with self report methods when it comes to researching addictive behaviour?

  • Many addicts are reluctant to report what they actually do and their recall of their behaviour may not be accurate, particularly in the case of addictions like those to illegal drugs.
• What are the issues of validity when it comes to researching addictive behaviours?

  • From an ethical and practical point of view, researchers cannot always ask participants to engage in an addictive behaviour in order to measure its effects.
  • Therefore, there is a lack of control over extraneous variables which can reduce the validity of research.
• What is the issue with generalisability when it comes to researching addictive behaviour?

  • Not being able to ask participants to engage in an addictive behaviour for the sake of research creates issues of generalisability because humans are subject to complex social and cognitive processes that will not be experienced in the same way by a rat, for example.
• What are the issues of sampling when it comes to researching addictive behaviour?

  • It can be difficult to obtain a representative sample for addiction research as addicts, by their nature, are secretive about their addiction.
  • Many researchers use samples from treatment centres but it could be that these people share common characteristics that could affect the validity of the research.