Cognitive theory

• Imitation - expectancy theory


  -people who start gambling think that the benefits will outweigh the costs.

  -People have unrealistic expectations about how gambling will help with emotions. People who have distorted expectations are more likely to become addicts.
• Relapse: self-efficacy 


  -refers to an individuals belief in their own ability to control and influence their behaviour.

  -when gambling, an individuals perceived ability relapse as they resist temptations of gambling.

  -individuals relapse as they don't believe they are capable to give up.
• Maintenance- cognitive bias


  -gamblers continue to gamble as they have cognitive biases, mistaken beliefs about luck.

  -these biases influence how gamblers think about the behaviour, what they do/don't pay attention to and what they remember or forget.
• cognitive biases - skills and judgment 


  -addicts have an illusion of control which means they overestimate their ability and skills to influence events. e.g. choosing winning lottery numbers.
• cognitive biases - personal traits 


  -addicts think they can win if they engage in superstitious activities e.g. blowing the dice or wearing a lucky top
• cognitive biases - selective recall 


  -gamblers only remember the wins and ignore/forget about the losses. e.g. gamblers mentioned winning £100 but not saying they lost £150 later that day.
• cognitive biases - faulty perceptions 


  -gamblers have distorted views about chance. They have gamblers fallacy which is when gamblers believe a losing streak can't last forever and a win will have to follow all these losses. e.g. after losing 10 times in poker they must win a hand soon so keep playing.
• Evaluation - strengths 


  +practical application - CBT can alter irrational thoughts (cognitive biases). Cognitive restructuring alters faulty beliefs about probability, control and skill. During CBT, patient is taught skills that may reduce urge to gamble success of CBT supports that behaviour is product of irrational thoughts.
• Evaluation - weakness

  -alternative expaination: Dickerson suggests positive reinforcments is involved in gambling. SLT indicated 86% of children who gamble reported gambling with family members. This suggests gambling is a learned behaviour.

  -Cognitive bias can't be applied to all types of gambling. Gamblers fallacy can only explain addiction where the events are independent e.g. coin toss. It doesn't explain cases where probability is not independent e.g. black jack as the probability of getting same card changes as the card is removed from the pack and is not replaced.
• Evaluation - strength 


  -research support by Griffiths: 30 pathological and 30 social gamblers had £3 to spend on fruit machines. The thinking out loud method was used to gain results. There was no significant difference between the money won but the pathological gamblers played for longer. Verbal utterances indicated a difference in cognitive bias.

  -However, there is methodological issues like problems with self report as could lead to SDB as addicts don't want to seem addicted so will think about what they are going to say before they say it and won't speak the truth.