B3- Non-substance-related addiction Flashcards
Gambling addiction
- Cognitive approach
- Learning approach
Shopping addiction
- Learning approach
- Cognitive approach
Non-substance-related addiction
Each addiction consists of:
- initiation
- maintenance
- relapse
Initiation
why people begin an addiction
Maintenance
why people continue in their addiction
Relapse
why people go back to their addiction after trying to quit
Gambling
- Cognitive
Initiation
- cost benefit analysis
Maintenance
- irrational thoughts
- cognitive bias
- illusion of control
Relapse
- recall bias
Cost- benefit analysis
(initiation)
potential costs =
financial costs + anxiety
potential benefits =
enjoyment + financial gain
If a person expects benefits to outweigh costs, they’re likely to gamble
Irrational thoughts
(maintenance)
- thoughts are not rational because our cognition can be distorted
- addicted gamblers are guided by irrational thoughts about probability chance and luck
Gamblers Fallacy
(maintenance)
mistaken belief that if something happens more frequently in a given time, it will happen less frequently in the future
e.g.
five heads tossed in a row predicts a tail will be next
Cognitive bias
(maintenance)
‘near miss’ bias
- instead of interpreting their loss as a loss they see it as a near miss which provides rewards that maintain gambling (tension + excitement)
- an addicted gamblers thinking is biased towards perceiving favourable outcomes
Illusion of control
(maintenance)
- a gambler may believe they can influence a gambling outcome
- superstitious behaviour:
- lucky charms, clothes etc
others think they have special knowledge that makes them experts.
Recall Bias
(relapse)
an addicted gambler who quits is at risk of relapse because their memory is self-serving
- they recall wins and overestimate benefits
- they forget loss and underestimate costs
Evaluation
- strength
Practical application for effective treatments
- a study showed replacing a gamblers irrational thoughts with more rational ones can reduce gambling
- this suggests cognitive distorts underlie addicted gambling behaviour
Evaluation
- weakness
Problems explaining initiation + maintenance
- many people have irrational thoughts about gambling but few ever start
- cognitive factors are’nt enough to explain why people start and continue gambling
Gambling
- learning approach
Initiation
- social learning
- classical conditioning
Maintenance
- positive reinforcement
- negative reinforcement
- partial reinforcement
- variable reinforcement
Relapse
- cue reactivity
Social Learning
(initiation)
many begin gambling through vicarious reinforcement
- also indirect reinforcement through the media