Gambling Addiction - Cognitive Theory

Question 1

expectancy theory

Answer 1

• expectations are a key part of the cognitive explanation for gambling
• gambler have expectations about the future benefits and costs of their actions
• if they expect the benefits of their gambling to outweigh the costs, the addiction becomes more likely and stronger
• gamblers have irrational thoughts which make them believe that they are more likely to win than they actually are

Question 2

cognitive biases

Answer 2

• gamblers will pay more attention to gambling-related information and remember it selectively, which begins and maintains the addiction

Question 3

Rickwood et al. (2010)

Answer 3

• 4 categories of classified cognitive biases
  1. skill and judgement
  2. personal traits and ritual behaviours
  3. selective recall
  4. faulty perceptions

Question 4

skill and judgement

Answer 4

• gambling addicts have an. illusion of control, in which they overestimate their ability to influence random events and the level of influence that skill has in gambling

Question 5

personal traits/ritual behaviours

Answer 5

• gamblers believe that they have a greater chance of winning due to them being particularly lucky or engaging in superstitious behaviour

Question 6

selective recall

Answer 6

• gamblers will only remember when they win bets, and disregard their losses
• they put losses down to being unexplainable one-offs

Question 7

faulty perceptions

Answer 7

• gamblers have a distorted view of the operation of chance, known as gambler’s fallacy
• this is the belief that a losing streak can’t last and that it must always end in a win

Question 8

Griffiths (1994)

Answer 8

• conducted study to investigate cognitive biases in gamblers
• used 30 in-frequent gamblers and 30 frequent gambler, giving each of them £3 to spend on a 10p slot machine
• he told the participants to ‘think aloud’ to see if there was a difference between the cognitive processes of regular and occasional gamblers
• participants had to say anything that entered their mind relating to what they were doing aloud
• these utterances were organised into either rational or irrational
• irrationals include ‘the machine likes me’
  rationals include ‘wow I won’
• interviews were also conducted to investigate participants opinions about the level of skills needed to win while gambling
• Griffiths found that there was no difference in the rate of winning between the groups
• however, regular gamblers uttered 6 times more irrational statements than irregulars, 14% compared to 2.5%
• regular gamblers also tended to have an illusion of control

Question 9

self-efficacy

Answer 9

• refers to our expectations that we have the ability to behave in a certain way which will achieve a desired outcome
• explains why some people relapse back into a gambling addiction, taking it up again because they don’t believe that they can give it up
• a self-fulfilling prophecy with he individual behaving in a way that conforms to the expectations of them, which is reinforced over time

Question 10

(+) EVAL - research support

Answer 10

• Michalczuk et al. (2011) looked at 30 addicted gamblers attending the National Problem Gambling Clinic, comparing them with 30 non-gamblers
• gamblers showed much higher levels of gambling-related cognitive distortions e.g. illusions of control
• they were as a whole more impulsive and more likely to opt for immediate rewards over differ rewards that would come in the future
• data supports the view that cognition plays a key role in gambling addiction

Question 11

(+) EVAL - explains automatic behaviour

Answer 11

• research shows that people who frequently gamble are able to place bets almost automatically
• this is predicted by cognitive theory
• McCusker and Gettings (1997) used a modification on the Stroop procedure, which made participants identify the colour of the ink that words were printed in as quickly as possible
• this required them to pay attention to the colour of ink and ignore the meaning go the word
• findings showed that gambler took longer to complete the task when words were related to gambling
• they were unable to prevent the words form automatically interfering
• research supports the idea that gamblers have an automatic cognitive bias
• they are influenced by addiction and operate subsonsciously

Question 12

(-) EVAL - individual differences

Answer 12

• a number of individual differences may determine the manner in which gamblers interpret and perceive what they gamble and how
• Burger and Smith (1985) looked at the degree of control motivation
• different people have different motivation level to achieve control over their lives
• individuals with a high level of control motivation are more likely to believe that they can influence chance-determined situations
• this therefore means that cognitive biases alone can’t explain gambling