Phillip- Behavioural addiction Flashcards
Lecture 1- What are behavioral addictions, and why is gambling considered one?
Behavioral addictions involve repetitive, voluntary, rewarding behaviors that cause harm. Gambling fits this definition because it’s repetitive, rewarding, voluntary, and leads to negative consequences.
Lecture 1- discuss and apply what addiction heirarchy means in this context
gambling is a well established research topic- the findings of which can be applied to other behavioural addictions
Lecture 1- How has gambling historically evolved with technology? Give examples.
Gambling has existed since Ancient Greece/Rome, evolving into forms such as online poker, 24/7 betting platforms (e.g., Bet365), video-game loot boxes, and cryptocurrency casinos.
Lecture 1-
What did Skinner’s pigeon study (1948) demonstrate about gambling behaviors?
Random reward schedules caused pigeons to develop superstitious behaviors (e.g., flapping wings). Gamblers exhibit similar superstitions (e.g., avoiding saying “7” in craps).
Lecture 1- Why are “variable reinforcement schedules” significant in gambling?
Variable reinforcement schedules (random rewards) strongly encourage repeated gambling, even when irrational, because unpredictable rewards sustain behavior.
Lecture 1- How do football betting companies manipulate risk perception according to Newall (2015)?
: They combine multiple likely outcomes into a single complex bet, making large payouts seem attainable despite low overall probabilities. which feeds into a common error of spending very little money on a low probability high outcome bet
Lecture 1- What is the “Parable of the Happy Loser”?
It describes rational, emotionally detached professional gamblers who focus on statistical long-term outcomes rather than short-term gains or losses. therefore are happy to lose a few times if it on balance works out in their favour
Lecture 1- what is the long term statistical expectation of zero edge, european and american roulette
Zero-edge roulette (no zero): Break-even (no loss)
European roulette (one zero): Lose 2.7% per bet
American roulette (two zeros): Lose even more per bet (~5.3%)
Lecture 1- Define “loss aversion” and “tilt” in gambling contexts.
Loss aversion: Losing money feels worse than gaining the same amount feels good.
Tilt: Emotional frustration after losses, causing reckless betting behavior.
Lecture 1- How has society’s view of gambling harm changed over time?
Historically seen as a pathological disorder (Freudian view: unconscious desire to lose). Currently, gambling is considered a public health issue, shifting from “problem gambler” to “people experiencing gambling harm.”
2- describe the addiciton heirarchy model and give example
addiction as a concept evolves over time and they become associated with other types of addiction e.g. models on substance addiction become applied to gambling
2- associations between gambling addicted individuals and other addicitons
also associated with other behavioural addiction e.g. binge eating/ sex/ shoppping ( 45% )→ those who had additional addictions had higher rates of PTSD and generally not having a good time
2- discuss brain structures associated with gambling
- damge to ventromedial prefrontal cortex e.g. phineas gage is associated with higher impulsivity
- this is tested through the iowa gambling task- patients with vmpfc damage were shit at it and kept picking the risky and bad over all bets
- not just vmpfc people tho- gamblers are shit at it too
2- describe the brain disease model
brain disease model- cues/ urges→ tolerance and higher use → withdrawal
2- discuss cue stuff
- neural vidence of pavlovian association with drug paraphernalia
- gambling logos can illicit craving to gamble. adverts work and are shit generally
2- discuss tolerance stuff
- olerance increases- a unit of an addiction leads to less reward over time. most commonly all about substance use how does this relate to gambling..
- tolerance in gambling is measured with ‘have you needed to gamble more money in order to get the same amount of excitement’
- BUT- does this work to account for harms and the more you gamble then the less money you have to put in
- maybe its more so about longer odds and riskier bets to generate that same excitement
- changes to prefrontal cortex that occur in addiction makes it harder to implement a persons best long term plans ( avoiding the harm associated with addiction)
- gamblers experience urges to gamble that continues to draw them back in. hard to remove yourself from gambling
2- discuss impacts of medications on gambling
- people with parkisons have a lack of dopamine- medications that increase dopamine can lead to harmful gambling behaviours
- drug treatments for gambling- drugs that target substance addictions e.g. nalmefene and naltrexone are designed to short term prevent someone having an opioid overdose from dying can have some positive impacts on those who have gambling addictions
2- critiques of the brain disease model
brains change all the time super easy (neuroplasticity)
potentially deterministic
2- benefits of brain disease model for gamblers
- amblers tendency to blame themselves- leading to a depressive spiral often
- reward centres of the brain become very activated seeing gambling images in people that have gambling addiction
- can help to prevent self blame by removing the stigma and placing responsibility on the brain
- im not a bad person i am an ill person
- mixed evidence for pharmacological treatments
- biological theories can induce pessimism and helplessness- how can i get better when my brain is broken
3- describe and discuss the early big win model please
- custer ( 1985) posited the big win model, where those who win big first time feel more inclined to continue to gamble
- turner et al ( 2006) found evidence for this model
- evidence for big wins being motivating occurs in animals too- skinners operant conditioning pigeons found that occasional large reinforcement causes them to extend more energy than the reward is worth
- big wins are statistically bad and irrational
- FLAW- youre asking experienced gamblers about their historical results, which is self report and open to a lot of bias and inaccuracy
- supported by heirene et al ( 2022)→ inaccurate about how much they have gambled using different ways
- empirical support using sports betting data suggests a link between big wins and later involvement
- data is limited historically and dont account for the most heavily involved gamblers engage in multiple types of gambling
uh oh!
- where is the role of individual differences
- what are the impacts on long term interventions
3- describe and explain the pathways model of gambling please
- put forward by blaszczynski and nower ( 2002) very influential very much sucking them off
- behaviourally conditioned- no previous issues, wins and becomes drawn into it, anyone can be behaviourally conditioned
- emotionally vulnerable- people have issues and may use gambling as a form of escapism. more associated with female gambling and non cognitively demmanding products e..g slots
- could be associted with childhood trauma ( sherrer et al 2007)
- biologically vulnerable- people with a lifetime history of impulsive/ illegal behaviour which predates gambling. experiences highest level of gambling harm and highest number of comorbity issues ( substance addiciton/ behavioural addicitons)
- nice and simple and broad and easy
- BUT: needs to be operationalised and can be deterministic as doesnt say alot about cognitive steps involved and high rates of natural recovery may suggest something else
3- describe and discuss the cognitive model of gambling
- gamblers are not rational- most people gamble to win big money but that is statistically unlikely and uk gambling is currently valued at 15billion pounds a year
- even losing while gambling can provide utility in some ways ( escapism/ excitement)
- wagenaar- biases to explain how bias sneaks into gambling
- e.g. superstition, wins = skill, loss= external factors, tilt, selectively remembering wins, overestimating the role of knowledge or personal control
- illusion of control is pretty centralised in gambling research
- meta analysis →
- control → people throw dice harder when theyre trying to obtain a higher result
- but…. how evidenced is this, this dice effect doesnt occur online using phones
we dont know about what types of irrationality matter the most, and how irrational thoughts differ across different types of gambling (e.g., superstition, illusion of control)
4) what is the public health model
instead of placing responsibility on people experiencing gambling harm, steps are taken to address gambling as a problem that can affect the public population.
i-frame: nudges adress the issue at an individual level e.g. when the fun stops stop
s-frame: wide level societal interventions aimed towards all of society e.g. no more gambling adverts on television
