Cognitive Theory In Gambling

Question 1

Strength: RTS Griffiths

Answer 1

Carried out a natural experiment on sample of 30 regular gamblers, compared these to a control group of 30 occasional gamblers, played on a fruit machine and were asked to think out loud and verbalise thought process whilst playing, interviewed afterwards, found regular gamblers saw themselves as ‘skilful’ and were more likely to explain losses as near wins, made more irrational statements ‘I’m going to bluff this machine’ compared to occasional gamblers, supports role of cognitive biases such as illusion of control, inc validity

Question 2

Counter to RTS

Answer 2

use of thinking aloud research has been questioned, this self report method is used in a lot of studies into cognitive explanation of gambling, some psychologists believe that what is said in gambling situations does not necessarily represent what they really believe, ‘off the cuff’ remarks made whilst gambling may not reflect addicts deeply held beliefs about chance and skill,researchers may get misleading impressions that their thought processes are irrational when they’re not , limiting validity

Question 3

Strength: RTS practical applications

Answer 3

Principles of theory that addiction is caused by cognitive biases and faulty thought processes, led to development of CBT, effective in treating behaviour by identifying and challenging irrational and faulty thought processes that had led an individual to gamble, such as selective recall, changing them into rational and logical thought processes via disputing, important part of applied psych

Question 4

Weakness: alternative explanation

Answer 4

Learning theory, gambling addiction due to positive reinforcement, reward of a buzz (euphoria) that makes individual repeat behaviour to gain same reward, rather than cognitive biases such as believing they can influence a random event being the reason for gambling, cognitive not only explanation to be considered