Risk Factor: Personality

Question 1

What personality type is mostly correlational with addiction?

Answer 1

Anti-social personality disorder which includes traits impulsivity, risk taking, lack of planning, preference for immediate pleasure and gratification

Question 2

Risk Factor: Personality

Answer 2

Patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving that differ between individuals

Question 3

Evidence - Francis

Answer 3

• tested 13-15 yr olds using Junior EPQ
• found an association between psychoticism and attitudes to substance abuse. - Impulsivity seemed the particularly important component of the P personality.

Question 4

Evidence - Dalley et al

Answer 4

found that more impulsive rats had fewer dopamine receptors in the ventral striatum, associated with reward and pleasure.

• Later these rats were far more likely to self-administer cocaine.
• This is particularly useful for separating cause and effect.
• At the time of testing the rats were ‘cocaine virgins’.

Question 5

Evaluation

Answer 5

• Personality is not an objective, directly observable characteristic.
• Psychologists therefore rely on questionnaires in its assessment; these are open to interpretation and self-serving bias.
• However, the above studies have all used the EPQ which is widely seen as an affective measure of personality with a long track record.
• Much of the research is also on other species. Other animals often react differently to drugs than do humans.