addiction

    Cards (90)

    • addiction
      a disorder which an individual takes a substance or engages in a behaviour that is pleasurable but eventually becomes compulsive or harmful with consequences. Marked by physiological or psychological dependence, tolerance or withdrawal
    • physical dependence
      a state of the body due to habitual substance abuse which results in a withdrawal syndrome when the use of the drug is reduced
    • psychological dependence
      a compulsion to continue taking a substance or wanting to perform a behaviour because it's rewarding
    • tolerance
      a reduction in response to a substance so that an addicted individual needs more to get the same effect
    • risk factors
      any internal or external influence that increases the likely hood that a person will start using addictive substances or engage in addictive behaviours
    • withdrawal symptoms
      a set of symptoms that develop when an addicted person abstains from or reduces their substance abuse
    • 5 risk factors
      stress
      personality
      family influence
      peers
      genetic vulnerability
    • withdrawal has 2 stages
      the acute stage
      the prolonged withdrawal phase
    • the acute stage
      begins hours after abstaining, giving the person intense cravings for the substance, reflecting strong physiological and psychological dependence. The symptoms gradually reduce after days
    • the prolonged withdrawal phase
      includes symptoms that last for weeks, months or years. The person becomes highly sensitive to cues they associate with the substance. This is one reason why relapse is so common
    • ACH
      plays a key role in all nervous system activity which means there are ACH receptors on the surface on many neurones in the central nervous system
    • neurotransmitters
      relating to chemicals in the brain that regulate biological and psychological functioning
    • dopamine
      a neurotransmitter that generally has an excitatory effect and is associated with the sensation of pleasure. Unusually high levels are associated with schizophrenia and unusually low levels are associated with parkinson's disease
    • desensitisation hypothesis
      nicotine stimulates receptors located in the ventral tegmental. Causes dopamine to be transmitted along mesolimbic and mesocortical pathways to the frontal cortex
    • learning theory
      a behaviourist explanation based on the mechanisms of classical and operant conditioning such as positive and negative reinforcement
    • cue reactivity
      cravings and arousal can be triggered
    • cue reactivity is explained through
      classical conditioning
    • unconditioned stimulus
      cigarette
    • neutral stimulus
      environmental cues
    • cue reactivity
      the idea a person associates: mood, situation and environmental factors with the rewarding effects of nicotine can trigger relapse
    • nicotine is the unconditioned stimulus and the pleasure caused by the increase in dopamine levels which is the unconditioned response
    • positive reinforcement
      if the consequences to an individual are rewarding, the behaviour is more likely to occur again
    • negative reinforcement
      smokers try to avoid withdrawal symptoms by smoking
    • operant conditioning
      explains why smoking continues through positive reinforcement of nicotine in the dopamine reward system, if the individual does not smoke for a while the feelings of agitation that arise act as negative reinforcement. This negative reinforcement leads to the smoker smoking again to escape the agitation
    • social learning theory
      can explain how smoking starts because young people observe and imitate role models who smoke and vicarious reinforcement leads them to expect enjoyment from smoking
    • partial reinforcement is when a behaviour is not rewarded every time but when the rewards are according to a schedule
    • Parke and Griffiths 2007 investigated the theory of operant conditioning as an explanation and found a 'near miss' of 10 reinforced gambling behaviour
    • Wardle found people with parents who gamble are 6.57x more likely to have a gambling addiction
    • cognitive bias
      a distortion of thinking, attention and memory. It arises because of how we process the world, especially when we don't quickly. This can lead to irrational judgements and poor decision making
    • the cognitive approach sees gambling as a result of
      maladaptive thought processes
    • Wagenaar 1988 proposed types of cognitive distortion
      • availability bias
      • illusion of control
      • gambler's fallacy
    • availability bias
      selective memory that leads to wins being recalled more easily than losses
    • illusion of control
      the feeling gambler's have that they can exert control over an uncertain outcome, mainly through using their skill which they overestimate
    • gambler's fallacy
      the belief that a series of losses must be followed by a big win which is based on the idea that random events balance overtime
    • who was the illusion of control proposed by
      Ellen Langer
    • Langer's procedure
      conducted 6 experiments to see where the bias would appear, in each experiment participants had to participate in some sort of game which was governed by chance
    • Langer found
      people's confidence in their chances was influenced by different factors but none had anything to do with their chances of winning
    • debra rickwood
      classified the cognitive bias into 4 categories
    • cognitive bias 4 categories
      • skill and judgement
      • personal traits/ritual behaviours
      • selective recall
      • faulty perceptions
    • skill and judgement
      gamblers have an illusion of control meaning they overestimate their ability to influence a random event