Psychological Treatments for Addiction. Flashcards
What is the aim of aversion therapy?
based on the idea of punishment rather than reward.
works with classical conditioning - associate addictive behaviour with something unpleasant.
How does aversion therapy work?
Rapid smoking - person sits alone in a room and takes a puff of a cigarette every 6 seconds.
Begin to feel sick - associate smoking with the unpleasant feeling, develop and aversion and therefore abstain from smoking.
Evaluate aversion therapy.
Does not get to the aetiology of why a person develops their addiction - less effective LT.
Inconsistent results into the effectiveness of aversion therapy - lacks reliability. Question the effectiveness and appropriateness.
Not effective for all addictions - e.g. long term drinking - wide variety of drinks. difficult to develop an aversion to all of them. not appropriate.
Research has found that aversion therapy works best alongside other treatments. improve the effectiveness.
What is the aim of CBT.
to challenge the client’s irrational thought surrounding their addiction, changing them to rational ones. e.g. some gamblers believe they can predict the future.
How does CBT work?
the psychologist teaches the client three ways to challenge their irrational thoughts:
Logical Disputing - how does it make sense that you can predict the future?
Empirical Disputing - where is the evidence that your predictions are correct? i.e. losses.
Pragmatic Disputing - how is your addiction helping you? e.g. financial/emotional strain.
The client will also practice these techniques at home.
Evaluate CBT.
More effective for alchoholics - Feeney - 14% abstained from drinking with CBT alone, compared to 38% with CBT and drugs. Shows that CBT is most effective when combined with a different biological treatment.
Does not deal with the aetiology - less effective.
Aetiology fallacy.
Floyd - aimed to change beliefs of students who use online gambling roulettes. 3 groups:
1. heard a discussion of irrational beliefs and saw warning messages during play.
2. saw brief warning messages.
3. heard a discussion on the history of roulette.
groups one and two engaged in less risky play - shows simple psychological interventions which aim to change irrational beliefs are effective.
