Reducing addiction: Behavioural interventions

Question 1

Aversion therapy

Reducing addiction: Behavioural interventions

Answer 1

Aversion therapy is behavioural intervention for addiction based on classical conditioning
Addicton can be reduced by exploiting same conditioning process but by associating behaviour w/ unpleasant sate (counterconditioning)

Question 2

Aversion therapy for alcohol addiction

Reducing addiction: Behavioural interventions

Answer 2

Client given aversive drug (i.e. disulfiram)
This interferes with normal bodily process of metabolising alcohol into harmless chemicals
Means that someone who drinks while taking disulfriam will experience severe nausea & vomiting
Aim of treatment is for client to learn new association
Alcohol & disulfriam seperately don’t produce nausea but together they do
Through association they become conditioned stimuli producing a conditioned response
Client soon expects CR when they drink

Question 3

Aversion therapy for gambling addiction

Reducing addiction: Behavioural interventions

Answer 3

Addicted gambler thinks of phrases that relate to their gambling behaviour & writes them on cards
Some non-gambling behaviours are also included
Client reads each card
When they get to a gambling-related phrase, they are given a 2 second electric shock
Intensity & duration of shock are preselected by client
After repeated pairings, the pain (UCR) becomes associated w/ gambling-related behaviours (was NS, now CS)
The client’s cravings subside and they stop gambling

Question 4

Evaluation: Methodological problems

Reducing addiction: Behavioural interventions

Aversion therapy

Answer 4

Limit: studies of aversion therapy have methodological problems
Hajek & Stead (2001) reviewed 25 studies of aversion therapy for nicotine add
Concluded it was impossible to judge effectiveness of therapy because most studies had ‘glaring’ methodological problems
E..g. there was a failure to ‘blind’ the procedures - this may have influenced researchers’ judgements of therapy’s success
Therefore, this research may tell us little about value of aversion therapy

Question 5

Evaluation: Poor long-term effectiveness

Reducing addiction: Behavioural interventions

Aversion therapy

Answer 5

Limit: Lack of long-term benefits
Fuller et al (1986) gave one group of ppts who were addicted to alcohol disulfiram every day for 1 year
Another group recieved a placebo
Both groups had weekly counselling sessions for 6 months
No sig diff in total abstinence from drinking between the groups after 1 year
Therefore, aversion therapy fro alcohol add is no more effective thean placebo (which may be because counselling had a bigger impact)

Question 6

Covert sensitisation

Reducing addiction: Behavioural interventions

Answer 6

Type of aversion therapy that occurs in vitro
Rather than actually experiencing the unpleasant stimulus of an electric shock or vomiting, the client imagines how it would feel

Question 7

Covert sensitisation in practise

Reducing addiction: Behavioural interventions

Answer 7

Client encouraged to relax
Therapist reads script instructing client to imagine aversive situation
Client sees themselves smoking a cig followed by imagining unpleasant consequences
More vivid the imagery, the better - why therapist gpes into graphic detail about sights, smells & sounds
One technique is for client to imagine being forced to smoke cigs covered in faeces
Sometimes, therapy will incorporate aversive stimuli chosen by client
E.g. McMurran (1994) reports habitual slot machine user who had phobia of snakes
Scenario involved winnings come out not as cash but as snakes

Question 8

Evaluation: Research support

Reducing addiction: Behavioural interventions

Covert sensitisation

Answer 8

Strength: research support for covert sensitisation
McConaghy et al (1983) compared covert sensitisation to electric shock aversion therapy for gambling add
After 1 year, those w/ covert sensitisation were sigly more likely to have reduced their gambling (90% of CS ppts compared w/ 30% undering aversion)
Covert sensitisation ppts also reported experiencing fewer & less intense gambling cravings
Therefore, covert sensitisation is highly promising behavioural intervention

Question 9

Evaluation: Methodological criticism

Reducing addiction: Behavioural interventions

Answer 9

Limit: many studies of covert sensitisation do not include suitable comparison group
E.g. such studies often omit non-behavioural therapies as a comparison group
Instead they compare covert sensitisation w/ aversion therapy
Addiction has many non-learning causes
Non-behavioural therpaies (CBT) address these whereas neither covert sensitisation nor aversion therapy do
Therefore, benefits of cover sensitisation may be exaggerated