Risk Factors and Addiction- Stress Flashcards
What are the 2 types of stress?
- Everyday
- Traumatic
What is everyday stress?
- Addiction is generally associated with relieving anxiety
- People report that they drink, smoke, use drugs and gamble to cope with daily hassles such as relationship problems, money worries and workplace stress
- The self medication model by Gelkopf suggests that some people deliberately cope with everyday stressors by using different types of pathological behaviours
What is traumatic stress?
- Research has found that people exposed to severe stress are more vulnerable to addiction, especially children who experienced trauma
- PTSD is also linked to addiction
- Driessan et al found that 30% of drug addicts and 15% of alcoholics also suffered from PTSD
If the point is:
A strength of stress as a risk factor is that there is evidence to support the notion that stress is related to substance abuse.
What is the evidence and link?
Evidence- For example, alcohol dependence occurs twice as much in those with social phobias than those without. We could presume the anxiety and stress from this condition contributes to addiction.
Link- This illustrates that stress, and particularly mental health issues, clearly relate to addiction.
If the point is:
A weakness of stress as a risk factor is that there are individual differences that need to be taken into account, as stress may create vulnerabilities in some people but not all and personality traits should be considered.
What is the evidence, explanation and link?
Evidence- Kobasa said that some people have a ‘hardy personality’.
Explanation- If someone has high hardiness, they have a strong defence against the negative effects of stress. Key features of this personality include being high in control, commitment and challenge. This personality trait could be seen to be a protective factor against addictions.
Link- This means that this factor is incomplete as the sole explanation for addiction and lacks explanatory power.
If the point is:
A strength of stress as a risk factor is that there is further evidence that stress is linked to addiction from university students.
What is the evidence and link?
Evidence- Tavolacci examined risk factors that may precede addiction at university. They argued that those students who found university to be stressful may develop addictive disorders. They compared highly stressed students with students feeling less stressed and found that high perception of stress was related to smoking regularly, alcohol abuse and a risk of internet addiction.
Link- This suggests that stress and vulnerability to addiction are linked.
If the point is:
A weakness of stress as a risk factor is that there is a cause and effect issue with it.
What is the evidence and link?
Evidence- Evidence into this has linked stress and addiction together, however this link derives from retrospective research with no measurements taken before the onset of addiction, meaning we cannot assume that stress causes addiction. For example, we cannot conclude whether stress leads to addiction as someone turns to a substance as a coping mechanism, or whether addiction causes stress due to the need for the substance as well as the time and money needed to obtain it.
Link- This means that the link between stress and addiction is simply correlational.
What are the evaluation points for stress as a risk factor?
+ Evidence to support the notion that stress is related to substance abuse
— There are individual differences that need to be taken into account, as stress may create vulnerabilities in some people but not all and personality traits should be considered
+ There is further evidence that stress is linked to addiction from university students
— There is a cause and effect issue
