risk factors: stress

Question 1

AO1: stress

Answer 1

Definition
Reated to addiction
self-medication model
traumatic stress

Question 2

Stress definition

Answer 2

A state of psychological arousal produced by demands from the environment (stressors)

Question 3

Stress in relation to addiction

Answer 3

People deal w stressful events in life by engaging in a variety of behaviours that make them feel better or help them forget the stress

Question 4

self-medication model

Answer 4

Proposes that some individuals
intentionally use different forms of pathological behaviour (e.g. alcohol, drugs and pathological gambling) to ‘treat’ the psychological symptoms they experience because of everyday stressors in their life.

Research from drug abusers has shown that stress is one of the strongest predictors of relapse and increased drug cravings. Although engaging in such behaviour may not make things better (e.g. decrease the stress the person is under) the perception that it does is instrumental to that behaviour becoming an addiction.

Question 5

Traumatic stress

Answer 5

Ppl exposed to severe stress are more vulnerable to addictions

Robins et al. interviewed US soldiers within a year of their return from the Vietnam War and, of these, almost 50% had either used opium or heroin
during their tour of duty, with about 20% reporting that they had developed a physical or psychological dependence for heroin at some point during their time in Vietnam.

Kessler et al found that for men with a history of PTSD 34% reported drug abuse or dependence at some point in their lives, compared to 15% of men
without PTSD.
For women, 27% of those with a history of PTSD reported drug abuse or
dependence, compared to 8% of women without PTSD

Question 6

AO3:

Answer 6

str: practical application
lim: varies by type of addiction

Question 7

str: practical application

Answer 7

Research into stress and addiction has a practical application

If addiction is a consequence of the experience of stress, individuals who develop effective coping strategies for stress should have less of a need for addictive behaviour.

Matheny & Weatherman carried out a follow-up study of 263 smokers
who had completed a national smoking cessation programme and found that
there was a strong relationship between participants’ use of stress coping resources (such as problem-solving and tension control) and their ability to maintain abstinence from smoking once they had given up.

This suggests that teaching stress management techniques would be an effective strategy to help with abstinence maintenance.

Question 8

lim: varies by type of addiction

Answer 8

relationships between stress and addiction varies by type of addiction

Support for the role of stress in other forms of addiction (other than drugs) is not convincing

Arevalo: interviewed 393 women from substance abuse programmes and found evidence of an assoc between stress and illict drug use but no assoc w stress and alc

BUT use of self-report measures, which are vulnerable to sdb and may have led to under-reporting of abuse