Addiction : Learning Theories Explanation Of Nicotine Addiction

Question 1

Explain learning theories explanation of why smokers find it hard to stop smoking.

Answer 1

• Since nicotine use is a voluntary behaviour, operant conditioning can be used to explain why people persist in using nicotine, and so become addicted.
• Through positive reinforcement, nicotine users receive a reward from smoking, which reinforces the use of nicotine. e. The reward is the pleasure derived from the release of
  dopamine in the reward pathway.
• Nicotine use is also reinforced through negative reinforcement. This occurs as
  nicotine addicts will experience withdrawal syndrome if they abstain from using nicotine.
  Therefore, to avoid this unpleasant state they must continue to use nicotine, thereby
  reinforcing its use.
• The negative effects of nicotine use (e.g., health issues or disapproval from others) can
  result in punishment of nicotine use behaviour, ultimately contributing to people reducing
  or stopping their nicotine use entirely.

Question 2

Explain learning theories explanation of why smokers continue to smoke/find it hard to stop via classical conditioning.

Answer 2

• Learning theory can also account for a phenomenon of nicotine addiction called cue
  reactivity. This is a learned response seen in addicts, involving physical reactions (e.g.,
  increased heart rate) and psychological reactions (e.g., cravings), in response to stimuli
  associated with their addiction.
• Nicotine addicts can develop cue reactivity to stimuli associated with nicotine because
  through classical conditioning these cues become strongly linked to the effects of nicotine.
  When someone repeatedly uses nicotine, their brain begins to associate the external cues
  present during nicotine use (like lighters, cigarette packets, or even certain environments)
  with the rewarding effects of nicotine. Over time, these cues alone can trigger involuntary
  responses like cravings, even without the presence of nicotine itself.
• If a nicotine addict is sensitive to these cues, then exposure to the cues can elicit the
  behavioural response of nicotine use. Consequently, cue reactivity can make it difficult for nicotine users to stop using nicotine

Question 3

How does learning theories explanation of nicotine imply that nicotine use is best explained through environmental reductionism?

Answer 3

For example, when a nicotine addict experiences cue reactivity and responds by using nicotine,
the S-R connection between exposure to the cue and the response of nicotine use is strengthened
through both positive reinforcement (the pleasure of nicotine use) and negative reinforcement
(relief from unpleasant cravings). This is a form of environmental reductionism, as the explanation of smoking is being reduced to a
basic set of S-R connections, which, for an environmental reductionist, are the most fundamental
constituent parts of behaviour. One problem with this environmental reductionist approach to explaining nicotine use is that S-R connections may not be the lowest appropriate level to explain nicotine use. Arguably, a biological reductionist approach is more fundamental as nicotine can only reinforce behaviours like smoking because of its role in stimulating the release of dopamine into the nucleus acumbens, causing the pleasure and withdrawal that reinforces nicotine use.

Question 4

Why is a limitation of learning theory’s explanation for nicotine addiction that it presents a deterministic account of nicotine addiction?

Answer 4

In this account, anyone exposed to role models who smoke (e.g., peers) will be likely to imitate
this behaviour. After that, the positive and negative reinforcement involved in smoking should lead everyone to become addicted. From learning theory’s perspective, behaviours relating to nicotine use are the result of
environmental determinism, as people are simply responding to the patterns of reinforcement they
are exposed to by their environment. Moreover, this explanation also presents a hard deterministic account of nicotine addiction that entirely ignores the role of free will in a person deciding whether they will or will not smoke. This explanation removes human agency from the explanation for people’s nicotine use. From the perspective of believers in free will, such as humanistic
psychologists, this is a problem as believing in free will is important if people are to have the
necessary agency to make positive changes in their lives, such as quitting nicotine.

Question 5

What research support is there for learning theories explanation for nicotine addiction?

Answer 5

Through a meta-analysis, Carter and Tiffany’s found that when smokers were presented with items associated with nicotine (e.g., pictures of cigarette packets) their heart rates increased and they reported a strong desire to smoke. These findings support learning theory’s explanation of nicotine addiction as this finding is easily explained using the concept of cue reactivity. Just as learning theory suggests, the participants’ physical and psychological responses to the items is a consequences of these items being associated
with nicotine through classical conditioning. Furthermore, this study’s findings on cue reactivity are especially compelling as they come from a meta-analysis. Because meta-analyses combine the
results from multiple published studies, they have large and therefore highly representative samples. This means this study’s findings on the phenomenon of cue reactivity are likely to be
generalisable to the general population of nicotine users.