addictive personality

• Eysenck's personality theory believes that personality traits include dimensions of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism.

  Eysenck (1997) argued that addiction is more prevalent in people who score high in psychoticism and neuroticism.
• extraversion

  there is little evidence to suggest that there is a link between the personality traits of extraversion/introversion and addiction.
• psychoticism and impulsivity

  one characteristic of high levels of psychoticism is high impulsivity - the tendency to act quickly with little forethought or planning.
• psychoticism and impulsivity

  high levels of impulsivity may lead people to engage in addictive behaviours or take substances that have negative consequences, as impulsive individuals have little consideration for the consequences of their actions.
• psychoticism and impulsivity

  a review of studies found that impulsiveness was both a cause and effect of drug abuse (de Wit, 2009) and other research has found that impulsive rats increased cocaine intake than low impulsivity rats (Dalley et al, 2007.)
• psychoticism and impulsivity

  Stevens et al. (2014) found that impulsive individuals were less successful in treatment programmes as they were more likely to drop out and less likely to achieve and maintain abstinence.
• neuroticism and self-medication

  people with high N scores tend to be anxious, depressed and therefore turn to addiction as a means of self-medication to deal with the stress and worry they are experiencing.
• neuroticism and self-medication

  Rajita Sinha (2001) reviewed research into this area and highlighted the role that stress played in the initiation of addiction, and also in the risk of relapse when an individual is trying to abstain.
• neuroticism and self-medication

  Mehroof and Griffiths (2010) found that neuroticism (alongside other traits such as sensation-seeking, anxiety and aggression) were significantly associated with online gaming addiction.

  it could be argued that online gaming was being used in a similar way to substances such as alcohol or drugs - as a way to escape from their problems.