Addiction

Question 0

(Smoking) Biological Initiation: Vink et al.

Answer 0

Studied 1572 Dutch twins

For both sexes, smoking initiation was explained by genetics (44%) and environmental influences (56%)

Question 1

(Smoking) Biological Initiation: Family and Twin studies

Answer 1

Estimate the heritability of tobacco smoking to be between 39% and 80%

Question 2

(Smoking) Biological Initiation: Boardman et al.

Answer 2

Conducted a US study of 348 MZ and 321 same-sex DZ twins

Estimated heritability for regular smoking to be 42%

Question 3

(Smoking) Biological Maintenance: Buka

Answer 3

Mothers smoking during pregnancy doesn’t effect whether the child will later start smoking or not but does double the chances of addiction if they do

Question 4

(Smoking) Biological Maintenance: Vink et al.

Answer 4

Affects brain chemistry by activating receptors on the brain leading to the release of dopamine
Creates short-term feelings of pleasure
Then this drops to impairment of mood and concentration due to nicotine level reductions
This is alleviated by smoking another cigarette

Question 5

(Smoking) Biological Relpase: Khaled

Answer 5

Long term smoking has an adverse effect on mood because it permanently alters brain chemistry and smoking again alleviates this in the short term

Question 6

(Smoking) Biological relapse: Uhl et al.

Answer 6

Research has tried to identify genes associated with quit success (not yet found)

Question 7

(Smoking) Cognitive Initiation: Mermelstein et al.

Answer 7

Mermelstein et al also suggests that the expectation of states such as relaxation and increased self-confidence are reasons for adolescents beginning smoking.

Question 8

(Smoking) Cognitive Initiation: Brandon et al.

Answer 8

Expectancy theory is used to explain how a behaviour escalates into an addiction. Brandon et al suggest this is because of the individual’s expectations of the costs and benefits of an activity. For example adolescents may smoke when they are experiencing a negative mood as their expectation is that the cigarette will improve their mood.

Question 9

(Smoking) Cognitive Maintenance: Automatic Processing

Answer 9

Automatic processing suggests that as an addiction develops, it is less about conscious expectancies and more about unconscious expectancies. This tries to explain the loss of control that many addicts experience.

Question 10

(Smoking) Cognitive maintenance/relapse: tate et al.

Answer 10

Supportive research. Tate et al. told smokers to expect no negative experiences during a period of abstinence. This led to fewer reported somatic effects e.g. The ‘shakes’ and psychological effects e.g. Mood disturbance than the control group who were not told. Those told to expect somatic and not psychological problems experiences more severe somatic complaints than the control group who was not told to expect this.

Question 11

(Smoking) Cognitive Relapse: DeVries and Backbier

Answer 11

Also DeVries and Backbier also suggest that expectations of the pros and cons of smoking and quitting affect their quitting behaviour. Smokers who expect that smoking has more benefits than quitting are more likely to relapse.

Question 12

(Smoking) Cognitive Relapse: Moolchan et al.

Answer 12

Moolchan et al. demonstrated that nicotine patches only increased cessation rates and reduce relapse rates when accompanied by CBT to change the positive expectancies of smoking

Question 13

(Smoking) Learning Theory Initiation: Karcher and Fisher

Answer 13

Youth with smoker parents were 1.88 times more likely to take up smoking
With smoker siblings, 2.64 times more likely to take up smoking
With close friends who smoke, 8 times more likely to take up smoking

Question 14

(Smoking) Learning Theory Initiation: DiBlasio and Benda

Answer 14

Found that peer group influences were the primary influence for adolescents who smoke or take drugs

Question 15

(Smoking) Learning Theory: Maintenance - Thewissen et al.

Answer 15

Cues were important in predicting smoking behaviour
In one room, smokers were presented with a cue associated with smoking and in the other, smokers were presented with a cue associated with not being able to smoke
Results showed the cue associated with smoking led to a greater urge to smoke

Question 16

(Smoking) Learning theory: Relapse - Drummond et al.

Answer 16

Developed a treatment based on this approach called ‘cue exposure’
Involves a person experiencing cues without the opportunity to smoke or engage in addictive behaviour
This breaks the association and reduces cravings
This was found to have good outcomes when tested on 35 alcoholics in 1994

Question 17

(Smoking) Learning Theory - Gender Bias

Answer 17

Gender bias - Nerin de Puerta and Jane (inherent gender bias in smoking research - onset follows different patterns for men and women) - theory fails to address this
Gender bias link - Lopez et al. found women start smoking later than men (gender Differences in initiation)

Question 18

(Gambling) Initiation: Biological - Shah et al

Answer 18

Conducted a twin study and found evidence of genetic transmission of gambling in men - 64% down to genes

Question 19

(Gambling) initiation biological - black

Answer 19

First degree relatives of pathological gamblers more likely to develop gambling addictions than more distant relatives

Question 20

(Gambling) biological initiation - family studies

Answer 20

Pathological gambling has been shown to run in families, suggesting genetic link

Question 21

Gambling biological maintenance - zuckerman

Answer 21

Claimed there are differences in the need for stimulation
High sensation seekers have a lower appreciation of risk and think of arousal as more positive than low-sensation seekers and so are more likely to gamble

Question 22

Gambling biological maintenance - cortisol

Answer 22

Cortisol is produced in the response to chronic stress
Under active cortisol levels were association with gambling (gamblers don’t find losing money stressful due to under active cortisol levels)

Question 23

Gambling biological maintenance - Paris et al

Answer 23

Recreational gamblers had increased cortisol levels after watching a video of their preferred method of gambling whereas pathological gamblers did not

Question 24

Gambling biological relapse - blaszcynski

Answer 24

Poor tolerance for boredom may contribute to repetitive gambling behaviour
Gamblers may need the stimulation and excitement of gambling^

Question 25

Gambling cognitive initiation - Gelkopf et al

Answer 25

Gelkopf et al. suggests that addicts intentionally use pathological behaviours to treat psychological symptoms they already have. This results in a vicious cycle as addictions undoubtedly make the original problem worse in the long-run

Question 26

Gambling cognitive initiation - li et al

Answer 26

Li et al. found that pathological gamblers who gambled to escape the painful reality of life were significantly more likely to have other substance dependencies than pathological gamblers who gambled for pleasure

Question 27

Gambling cognitive initiation - Becona et al

Answer 27

Becona et al. suggested that major depressive disorder is evident in the majority of pathological gamblers

Question 28

Gambling cognitive maintenance - Oei and Gordon

Answer 28

Oei and Gordon argue that despite the odds of failure, gamblers frequently have irrational perceptions of their ability to influence the win. They often have exaggerated self-confidence in their ability to ‘beat the system’ and influence chance. They attribute success to skill or ability and failure to bad luck

Question 29

Cognitive gambling maintenance - Defabbro

Answer 29

Defabbro et al. found that pathological gamblers were just as accurate as non-gamblers in estimating the odds of winning

Question 30

Gambling cognitive maintenance - griffiths

Answer 30

Griffiths compared 30 gamblers to 30 non-gamblers in their verbalisations at fruit machines. Gamblers were more likely to be irrational. “It doesn’t like me”, “My luck’s in today” or “I wasn’t concentrating so I lost” are examples of irrational speech.

Question 31

Gambling cognitive relapse - blanco et al

Answer 31

Blanco et al. suggested that pathological gamblers suffer from a recall bias meaning they have a tendency to remember and overestimate wins while forgetting about losses. They believe in a just world where they will be rewarded for their efforts and believe they deserve to win because they have lost so often.