Learning Approach to Smoking Flashcards
How does the Learning Approach explain addiction?
The Learning Approach explains addictive behaviour without involving any conscious evaluation of the costs or benefits of a particular activity. Individuals will typically learn to perform behaviours because they are associated with the onset of something pleasant or the termination of something unpleasant. As a result impulses to engage in behaviours such as smoking may become so powerful that they can overwhelm concious desires to restrain these activities
Learning Approach to Smoking
Initiation
How does the Learning Approach explain the initiation of smoking behaviour?
According to the Learning Approach, people start smoking due to role models and positive reinforcement
Learning Approach to Smoking
Initiation
Availability of role models
Key Studies
Kandel and Wu 1995
Learning Approach to Smoking
Initiation
Availability of role models
Social learning theory explanations of experimental smoking propose that young people begin smoking as a consequence of the social models they have around them who smoke (Kandel and Wu 1995). From this perspective, experimental smoking is primarily a function of parental and peer role modelling and the vicarious reinforcement that leads young people to expect positive physical and social consequences from smoking
Learning Approach to Smoking
Initiation
Popularity as a positive reinforcer
Key Studies
Mayeux et al 2008
Learning Approach to Smoking
Initiation
Popularity as a positive reinforcer
Popularity among peers may also serve as a positive reinforcer in the initiation of smoking. Mayeux et al 2008 found a positive relationship between smoking at age 16 and boys’ popularity two years later
Learning Approach to Smoking
Maintenance
How does the Learning Approach explain the maintenance of smoking behaviour?
The Learning Approach believes that smoking behaviour is maintained because repetition of the act of smoking thousands of times a year eventually leads to a strong conditioned association between the sensory aspects of smoking and the reinforcing effects of nicotine.
Learning Approach to Smoking
Maintenance
Key Studies
Franklin et al 2007
Learning Approach to Smoking
Maintenance
This view is supported by Franklin et al 2007…
This view is supported by Franklin et al 2007 who found that smoking-related cues rapidly become conditioned stimuli and so activiate the same brain areas as when someone first starts smoking, making cessation more difficult
Learning Approach to Smoking
Relapse
How does the Learning Approach explain the relapse of smoking behaviour?
The Learning Approach explains the relapse of addictive behaviour through conditioned cues and self efficacy
Learning Approach to Smoking
Relapse
Condition cues
Key studies
Hogarth et al 2010
Learning Approach to Smoking
Relapse
Condition cues
Cues associated with perviously with receiving nicotine, such as the smell of cigarette smoke, increase the likelihood that the smoke will respond by smoking
Learning Approach to Smoking
Relapse
Condition cues
This view is supported by Hogarth et al 2010..
This view is supported by Hogarth et al 2010 who found that the amound of craving increased significantly when a conditioned stimulus related to smoking was presented to a smoker
Learning Approach to Smoking
Relapse
Refusal self-efficacy
Key Studies
Lawrance and Rubinson 1989
Learning Approach to Smoking
Relapse
Refusal self-efficacy
A person’s belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation.
Learning Approach to Smoking
Relapse
Refusal self-efficacy
This view is supported by Lawrance and Rubinson 1989..
Among adults, those who smoke more frequently have less confidence in their ability to abstain (Lawrance and Rubinson 1989) and so are more likely to relapse
Learning Approach to Smoking
Evaluation
Support for the influence of role models
Key Studies
DiBlasio and Benda 1993
Karcher and Finn 2005
Learning Approach to Smoking
Evaluation
Support for the influence of role models
There is much supporting evidence for the influence of role models on smoking behaviour. For example, DiBlasio and Benda 1993 found that peer group influences were the primary influence in adolescents who smoke or use drugs. Karcher and Finn 2005 also found that youth whose parents smoked were 1.88 times more likely to take up smoking. If their siblings smoked they were 2.64 times more likely to smoke and if close friends smoked they were up to 8 times more likely to smoke than if their parents, siblings and friends did not smoke
Learning Approach to Smoking
Evaluation
Support for the influence of conditioned cues
Key Studies
Thewissen et al 2008
Learning Approach to Smoking
Evaluation
Support for the influence of conditioned cues
There is much supporting evidence for the influence of conditioned cues on smoking behaviour. Thewissen et al 2008 tested the importance of environmental contexts in the urge to smoke. In one room, they repeatedly presented 33 smokers with a cue predicting smoking, whilst in a second room they presented a cue predicting smoking unavailability. Consistent with expectations, results supported the view that a cue predicting smoking later led to a greater urge to smoke than did a cue associated with smoking unavailability
Learning Approach to Smoking
Evaluation
Implications for treatment
Key Studies
Drummond et al 1990
Learning Approach to Smoking
Evaluation
Implications for treatment
The idea of environmental cues being important in the maintenance of smoking has allowed researchers such as Drummond et al 1990 to identify a treatment method known as cue exposure. This involves presenting cues associated with smoking without the opportunity to engage in the smoking behaviour. This leads to a phenomenon known as stimulus discrimination, as without the reinforcement provided by actual nicotine, the association between the cue and smoking is extinguished , thereby reducing the craving for cigarettes when exposed to that particular cue. However, the problem with this therapy is that even if one cue no longer produces a craving there may be many others that the individual does not even know about.
Learning Approach to Smoking
Evaluation
Real world application
Key Studies
Botvin 2000
Learning Approach to Smoking
Evaluation
Real world application
Botvin 2000 suggests that effective forms of drug prevention programmes should target adolescents since they are the most vulnerable to the influences of peer pressure especially. Resistance training can teach young people how to refuse drugs but also informs them of the influences of peers and adults. Education in this respects can help teenagers counteract the pro-smoking/pro-drug messages provided in their environment.
