Chapter 8 - Behavioural Addictions Flashcards
What is the most common behavioural addiction?
Social media addiction
What is pooled prevalence?
When data is pooled from multiple different studies instead of numerous primary sources. This saves time and money, and will allow for more generalizability. Primary studies are harder to generalize because we have less information, we can’t necessarily generalize it to the population.
Features of behavioural addictions
- does NOT have direct neurotoxic effects resulting in cognitive impairment
- no physical withdrawal (though psychological is often present)
- behaviour-focused
- psychological cravings
features of substance use disorders
- physical dependence and withdrawal symptoms
- overdose risk
- involving a chemical substance
shared features between substance and behavioural addictions
- response to treatment (evidence-based is good, abstinence-based isn’t for everyone, higher rates of dropout)
- high rates of onset in adolescents/young adults
- chronicity
- natural recovery for many
- cravings
- tolerance
- used to regulate mood
- comorbidity common
- shared neurobiological mechanisms (some debate around this, related to reward circuitry, magnitude of activity is different - more active w/ substance, but in behaviours less active)
What populations are gambling most common in?
males, divorced or single people, younger people, belonging to ethnic minority, unemployment, low income, being born abroad, lower levels of education
three pathways model of gambling definition
this model acknowledges the existence of different subtypes of gamblers and accounts for multiple influences on dev. of gambling behaviours
what are the 3 pathways model of gambling
- behaviourally conditioned
- emotionally vulnerable
- antisocial/impulsive
behaviourally conditioned pathway of gambling
- no pre-existing psychological problems
- exposed to gambling environments, through conditioned learning they start gambling
- most promising prognosis
emotionally vulnerable pathway of gambling
- more likely to have ACEs, maladaptive coping
- affective instability (big ups and downs of emotions)
- gambling as negative reinforcement, regulate uncomfortable emotions
- prefer games of chance (less skill, requires less thought)
antisocial/impulsive pathway of gambling
- impulsive behavior, more likely to be easily bored, antisocial personality type, lack of self-regulation
- difficult to treat
- prefer games of skill (antisocial may be more competitive, more engaging and social, whereas games of luck are less social)
ecological validity
the extent to which the study represents real life
- ex: animal studies have lower eco validity because different from real life
- ex: make study replicate true casino - choice of lights, bar, lottery machines, etc
what are the two cognitive distortions in gambling disorder?
- the illusion of control
- the gambler’s fallacy
- people also tend to exaggerate their wins and downplay losses
explain illusion of control
- false belief that uncontrollable is somehow under one’s control (belief that level of skill is used in game of chance like coin toss)
- ex: “I’m good at picking lottery numbers”
- for gamblers this can also be applied in other every-day contexts
explain the gambler’s fallacy
- belief that is something happens often in a given time period, then it will occur less often in immediate future, when it’s really just random chance
- ex: “I’m due for a win!” (if coin toss keeps landing on heads, belief that it must land on tails soon)
