Addiction- Individual difference explanations Flashcards
What are the 2 Individual difference explanations for addiction?
1- Eysenck’s personality theory
2- Cognitive biases
What is my FIRST choice for the individual difference explanation of addiction?
Eysenck’s personality theory
What are the 3 dimensions related to personality?
Extraversion
- lively, sociable, optimistic
Neuroticism
- high anxiety, moody, irritable
Psychoticism
- impulsive, impatient, aggressive
What did Eysenck’s propose in relation to addiction?
Some people were more vulnerable than others to addiction due to their personality
- people seek out addiction as a way of meeting a need that is driven out by their personality
- addiction is more prevalent in people who score high in psychoticism and neuroticism
Psychoticism/ self-control
High impulsivity, act on a whim
- little forethought and planning, no consideration of consequences
Engage in behaviours/take substances
- ignore and fail to account the consequences of this
Extraversion/ introversion
Francis reviewed the findings of previous research into this area
10 studies- found negative relationship between extraversion and addiction
2- positive relationship
12- no significant relationship
What does Francis research mean we can conclude about extraversion traits in addiction?
There is very little evidence to suggest a link between the personality traits of introversion/extraversion and addiction
Research into extraversion is mixed
Neuroticism/stability
People high in neuroticism tend to be anxious, tense, moody and prone to depression
- might use addiction as a means of self medicating to deal with the stress and worry they are experiencing (‘treating’ their problems)
Neuroticism/stability
SINHA
Highlighted the role that stress plays in the initiation of addiction, but also the risk of re-lapse when an individual is trying to abstain
- if they are more susceptible to stress, need addictive behaviour to overcome it
Neuroticism/stability
BAUMEISTER
Suggests that low self-esteem may lead people to act in a manner that is self-defeating in order to escape self-awareness
- use addiction as a way of voiding their negative feelings about themselves
Neuroticism/stability
FRANCIS
Addicts scored significantly higher in neuroticism and psychoticism than non-addict control when investigating addiction to nicotine, alcohol, heroine and benzodiazepines
Evaluation: Eysenck’s personality theory
X Cause and effect
Evidence for the relationship is correlational
X R carried out on those already addicted
X only establishes link, no cause not a good explanation
X Prison substance abuse, childhood trauma, 3rd variable
COUMO et al- impulsivity first, personality driving force
Evaluation: Eysenck’s personality theory
X Methodological issues
Social desirability bias affects validity
X answer in line with expected social norms
Self-report requires self-awareness
X addicts go to extreme lengths to conceal their addiction
LIE SCALE
- remove answers not considered honest
Evaluation: Eysenck’s personality theory
-X Ethical issues
Determinism- no control or free will, fault of personality, accountability of behaviour
X personality cannot be modified easily in therapy
- seen as disorder, treated rather than punished
Intervention- treatment and prevention
Cognitive skills- cope with impulsive behaviour
What is my SECOND choice for he individual difference explanation of addiction?
Cognitive biases
How do cognitive biases explain addiction?
Addiction is illogical
- cognitive biases/errors, think they are making rational choices
- problems in the way addicts think engage in behaviour with clear negative outcomes
How can u section cognitive biases?
HEURISTICS
- availability
- representativeness
OTHER BIASES
- hindsight
- self-serving
- attentional
- the sunk-cost fallacy
What are heuristics?
Applied to guide decision making
- rely on less information and use schemas
- assumed to facilitate faster decision making
- lead to systematic deviations from logic, probability, rational choice
- resulting errors are called cognitive biases
What are the 2 types of heuristics relating to addiction?
1- Availability heuristics
2- Representativeness heuristics
What are availability heuristics?
Kahnemon n Tversky
- mental shortcut for making frequency or probability judgements
- call on some memories more easily
remember winners of lottery not losers
What are representativeness heuristics?
Rely on it when making probability judgements
- belief that random events have a pattern
- particular event form a small sample should represent what can be found in a larger sample
What famous example is there of representative heuristics?
Monte Carlo- roulette wheel landed on black 26 times in a row
- people betted on red because it was ‘due’
What are the 4 other types of cognitive bias?
1- Hindsight bias
2- Self-serving bias
3- Attentional bias
4- The sunk-cost fallacy
What is hindsight bias?
A gambler will claim they are not surprised by an outcome and could’ve predicted it
- helps them to maintain their belief that their skills will improve, will be able to win more consistently
What is self-serving bias?
The tendency of gamblers to attribute any wins to internal causes
e.g. their own skill
Any losses are due to external factors
e.g. bad luck
What is attentional bias?
When an addict is paying attention to certain stimuli and ignoring others in this environment
Weinstein and Cox
- plays an important role in bot the development and maintenance of addiction
What is a key example of attentional bias?
Adaptation on the Stroop test
- some words take longer to say because the person focuses their attention on it
Johnsen- smokers had longer reaction times
What is the sunk-cost fallacy?
A decision-making bias that reflects the tendency to invest more future resources in a situation in which prior investment has been made
- if an individual has already invested heavily into something they are more likely to carry on losing time and money when the logical course of action is to ‘cut your losses’ and walk away
What is a key example of the sunk-cost fallacy?
Staying in a relationship because you have been with them for 2 years
- continuing to gamble because you have put a lot of money into it
Evaluation: Cognitive biases
- Supporting Research
Griffiths compared the verbalisations of 30 regular gamblers with 30 non-regular whilst playing a fruit machine
- Reg showed many more irrational verbalisations (14%)
- Non-reg (2.5%)
Verbalisations showed evidence of many heuristics and biases
How can we criticise Griffith’s supporting research?
X gamblers not verbalising all cognitions
X G’s categorising on what is rational might have researcher bias
Evaluation: Cognitive biases
X Cause and Effect
Suggest faulty decision making is a cause of addiction
X what if addiction causes faulty decision making
X when a theory establishes cause and effect it allows us to predict behaviour
How does Griffiths use the National Lottery an example of this evaluation point?
Media reported the number 13 had come up fewer times than any other
Representative- pick it bc it is due to appear
Availability- not pick it bc it wasn’t common
X does not allow prediction about behaviour to be accurate made
Evaluation: Cognitive biases
- Applications
Lends itself to practical applications
CBT- Cognitive restructuring]- taught to see that the thoughts they have whilst gambling are irrational
Griffith- suggests re-playing verbalisations to highlight irrational nature of thought
‘I could’ve predicted that!’
‘I knew it!’
