addiction Flashcards
What does addiction mean?
*disorder in which indi engages in behaviour/ consumption iof drugs taht were once pleasurable
*and turned compulsive with harmful consequences
Whats psychological dependence?
*emotional and mental compulsion to keep taking substance
*as they believe they wont be able to cope with everyday demands without it
*absence of drug- causes anxiety or makes irritable
Whats physical dependence?
*state of body that occurs when withdrawal is produced due to stopping drug use or behaviour
Whats tolerance?
*maintance of consumption of drug for some time, due to repeated exposure, reposnse to substance reduced.
*increase dosage to get same psych/physical effects
Whats withdrwal?
*combination of psychological and physical symptoms indi will experince when stop taking or engaging.
*leads to low mood, feeling nauseos etc
What impacts the seriousness of withdrawal?
**the frequency of use/ engagement
*type of substance/behaviour
*amount of substance
Whats cellular tolerance?
*when neurons adapt in response to higher dosages
Whats behavioural tolerance?
*behaviour is less affected by substance
*indi can perform tasks under influence
Whats a risk factor?
*external/internal factors that increase the likelihood of indivifual starting to use drugs or engage in behaviour.
What are the risk factors of addiction
*stress
*personality
*family
*peers
*genetic vulnerability
Genetic vulnerability definition
*some ppl inherit genes that make them more vulnerable to addiction
*genetic vul refers to interaction of genes and environmental factors
*an indi will not become addicted unless exposed to substance or opportunity
Explain D2 receptors as gen vul
*number of d2 receptors determined by genetics
*having fewer is associated with addiction as it leads to getting less pleasure from everyday activities therefore turning to more addictive substances to compensate for defiency.
Explain metabolism as genetic vul
*metabolism= rate in which substances hydrolyse (break down), inheretd thru genes.
*faster metabolism= more prone to addiction as substance broken up faster= quick up take= short lived effects= need more to have same effects
Genetic vul AO3
Support:
P- RS to support gen vul as a risk factor conducted by Kender et al using data from national swedish adoption study.
E- looked at dults adopted as children feom bio families in which atleast one member had an addiction. Children had a significatly greater risk of developing addiction, compared to indi with no addict parent in bio families.
E-shows that inheritance of genes can predispose someone to developping an addiction. Threfore increases validity of gen vul as risk factor
Limitation:
P- rs into genetic vul is ofetn based on correlational ressearch where cause an deffect cant be established.
E- rs has shown a link betwee risk factors like gentics and addiction but doesnt show which came first,
E-for eg it coyuld be the addiction trhat causes abnormalities in the D2 receptors.
L- research lacks internal validity as it doesnt allow to conclude that gentic factors make someone more at risk of developping addiction.
Stress AO1
*stress is when individual experiences state of arousal in which they belive they dont have the ability to cope with perceived threat.
*period of long chronic stress and traumatic events in childhoof have been linked with increased risk of developping addiction
What are ppl with stress more likley to do
*turn to addictive substances as self medication for stress to acoid pain or to cope
Stress AO3
(can be ao1 or 3)
*Anderson and Teicher
P- found that early experiences of severe stress have damaging effects on a young brain in a sensitive period of development, can create vul to later stress.
E-further stressful experiences could trigger vul and make it more likley that persobn make self medicate or engage in bhevaiours
Limitations:
P- rs into stress as risk factor into addiction is offten based on correlational rs whre cause and effect cant be established.
E-for eg it could be that addiction causes the individual to be stressed by losing money etc rather than the other way round.
L- therefore rs lacks internal validity as doesnt allow to conclude that stress does make someone more at risk.
Personality AO1
*personality refers to an individuals unique and consistent pattern of thinking, feeling and behaving and is a risk factor.
*Clondiger proposed 3 innate dimensions associated with addiction:
*novelty seeking- tendency to get excited in response to new stimuli, so continulesly seeking new extreme activities .
*inhibited harm avoidance- inhibited feelings of worry and fear- ignore consequences.
*increased reward dependency- tendency to respond to more reward, find addictive sub more rewarding than others
Personality AO3
Support/Strength;
P- Rs to support- Scheinder et Al
E- found that novelty seeking was the trait most associated with increased involvement with alcohol, canabiss and cocaine.
E- further rs has demonstrated positive correlation between novelty seeking and relapse rates for several drugs.
L- supports how personality can make person more liljkely to engage in addictive behaviours, increasing the validity,
Limitation:
P-based on correlational rs where cause and effect cant be established .
E- could be that once develop addiction it causes them to take more risks, be more rward dependent or enage in novelty seeking.
L- as rs is done retrsopectively, doesnt show which came first, thefdore decreasing valifity as dont allow to conlcude that personalitu does increase risk.
Family influences AO1
*family members can have an effect on the thoughts, feelings and bhaviours over the course of indi development.
One family influence is perceived parental approval- ado belives that parents hows positive attitudes towards substance/ behaviour, will be more vul to devlop addiction.
*Livingstone et Al found that final year hs students that were allowed by parents to drink where likely to excessively drink in college.
*exposure within family life- if member of family takes sub/engages in behaviour- SLT. Indi observes person, imititate bhaviour as they identify to be like them
Family influences AO3
P- RS to support- Madras et Al
E- studied families with adolescents, where parents used cannabis.
E- found strong positive correlation between parents use of cannabis and adolescents use of cannabis, nicotine, alcohol and opiods.
L- this supports that ados perceived that parents were accepting of drugs and went on to do them.
- may also be cause they observed parents behaviour and modelled it, therefore increasing validity
Peers AO1
*peers= ppl that share interests, same age, similar background etc.
*can influence an indi development as they spend more time with them than famiy.
