SOC212 - 6. Alcohol & Addiction Flashcards
Introduction
Alcohol most popular mood-altering drug consumed in Canada + U.S.
physical + behavioral consequences of alcohol consumption
Physiological Dimensions
Alcohol doesn’t lead to physiological habit in way that some other drugs do
Large quantities disturb activities in organs controlled by the brain
Physiological Dimensions
Chronic alcohol consumption can cause gastrointestinal disorders, pancreatitis, liver disease, nutritional deficiency, cardiovascular defects, myopathy, birth defects, etc
Other Health-Related Effects
Intoxication can result in automobile fatalities.
Other Health-Related Effects
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS): cluster of defects in newborn infants connected with drinking by mother during pregnancy
identified only in children born to mothers who drank heavily while pregnant and often combined it with smoking and illegal drugs
Physiological Effects
Moderate quantities can relax tensions + worries, it may ease fatigue associated with anxiety
Research identifies non-universal behavioral consequence of drinking alcoholic beverages
Physiological Effects
Drunken actions largely learned behavior sensitive to cultural + social contexts
Prevalence of Drinking
Canadian drinkers favor beer, then wine, then distilled spirits
Men are more likely than women to describe themselves as drinkers.
Prevalence of Drinking
Average Canadian alcohol consumption per capita is 470 standard drinks per year (age 15 years & older)
Types of Drinkers
Norms set standards for consumption of alcoholic beverages, indicating to drinkers:
Which beverages suit specific occasions + times
Types of Drinkers
How much they should consume
What kind of behavior society will tolerate after consumption
Types of Drinkers
Four Types of Drinkers: • Social or Controlled Drinker • Heavy Drinkers • Problem Drinkers • Chronic Alcoholics
Social or Controlled Drinker
Someone who drinks for reasons of sociability, conviviality, and conventionality
Primary characteristic is the ability to take alcohol or abstain at will
Social or Controlled Drinker
Often refrain from drinking + use alcohol only in certain social circumstances
Heavy Drinkers
Frequently uses alcohol, occasionally consuming sufficient quantities to become intoxicated
Drinking exceeds community standards for social use
Heavy Drinkers
- Interferes with health, social, or economic functioning
- 5 or more drinks on one occasion
- Binge Drinkers
Problem Drinkers
Those who experience some problem as a result of their drinking, regardless of how much they consume or circumstances surrounding that consumption
Problem Drinkers
Distinguished by consequences of alcohol rather than characteristics of drinker or quantity + frequency of consumption
Chronic Alcoholics
Results after consuming large quantities of alcohol over long periods of time.
Compulsion, solitary drinking, morning drinking, general physical deterioration
Chronic Alcoholics
Alcoholics cannot escape problems caused by alcohol consumption by terminating drinking
Global Problematic Drinking
Canada - 5.43% Males 1.92% Females
greatest alcohol use disorders in NA, Russia, Europe + Australia
Variations in Drinking Behaviour
North American life
• Learned behaviour
• Follows Social pattern
Variations in Drinking Behaviour
Drinking frequency varies by age, education, income, community, marital status + religion
Age / Gender
Consumption of alcoholic beverages tends to decline with increasing age
Men drink more frequently and larger amounts than women do
Age / Gender
Heavy drinking appears to peak at different ages between both sexes – at age 21 to 34 for men and at age 35 to 49 for women.
Social Background / Regional Differences
Drinking varies with levels of education and income + between religions + regions of the country
more formal education also drink more than those with less education
Social Background / Regional Differences
more common in large cities than in smaller towns and among unmarried people than married people.
Social Background / Regional Differences
Culture —not race or biology — determines patterns of alcohol consumption
• Irish
• Italian
Ethnic Differences in Excessive Drinking
- French
- Asian Americans
- Native Americans
Ethnic Differences in Excessive Drinking
• Acculturation
The Cost of Alcoholism
Economy loses large sums of money because of problems caused by excessive alcohol consumption in the form of absenteeism, inefficiency on the job, and accidents,
5.1 billion
The Cost of Alcoholism
• Social costs: relationship issues
Alcohol Related Crime
High rates of arrest for public drunkenness among lower class
• High recidivism rates apply to revolving door
Alcohol Related Crime
- flow of public drunkenness cases through criminal justice system
- Drunkenness plays a role in violent crimes
Drunk Driving
Alcohol plays a major role in the number of traffic crashes resulting in death
Blood alcohol level (BAL) over 0.08 percent
Role of Subculture
Group associations + subculture identification play important roles in determining who becomes an excessive drinkers
Role of Subculture
role of group + subculture factors in producing excessive drinking and alcoholism in many ways:
more acceptable in certain subcultures
who you hang out with
Role of Subculture
• Gender differences: men drink more + outside home
sign of social solidarity
• Choices of companions when drinking
• Homelessness
Role of Subculture
Occupational differences in excessive drinking: increase in % with increase in occupational status - academia
male dominated occupations
Religious differences
Ethnic differences: more tolerance
Strategies of Social Control
Prohibition: Legal regulation strategy applies the law to established standards, backed by legal sanctions, for acceptable practices in manufacturing, distributing + consuming alcohol
Strategies of Social Control
over acceptable limits sanctioned informally in micro level + macro level with formal sanction
prohibition: attempt to get rid of drinking
seen as cause of all problems - outlawed manufacturing and distribution
Strategies of Social Control
legal regulation: what is appropriate
can’t buy alcohol at a bar after 2 AM
Strategies of Social Control
- Educating people about consequences of using alcohol.
* Encourage alternatives to alcohol (nonalcoholic beverages).
Prohibition in Canada
PEI 1901
Ontario - 1916-1923
came from 5 elements
WWI: money should be diverted from liquor and go back to economy
Prohibition in Canada
war fitness
new authority of women: organizing, fend for themselves during war
more power after war
Prohibition in Canada
50 years of campaigning by churches
existing moral climate
protestant ethic
blamed for crime, domestic abuse, disease - didn’t go away
exemptions: produce, but could smuggle it in the states
Prohibition in America
realized money went to underground economy
job demands
made fun of police
raised spirits
Models of Alcoholism
Psychoanalytic Model – alcoholism symptom of some underlying personality disorder
Family Interaction Model – regards alcoholism as family problem, not an individual one
Models of Alcoholism
Behavioral Model – conceives alcoholism and treat it as behavior (or set of behaviors) rather than as disease.
Biological Model – focuses on biological antecedents of alcoholism attempting to explain it is a biological predisposition to the condition
Models of Alcoholism
Medical Model – considers alcoholism a disease + focuses on treatment by medical measures
Combined Perspectives – claims alcoholism can occur from combination of biological, psychological, familial, social-class, and sociocultural risks
Community-Based Treatment Programs
Provides counseling + other services to problem drinkers through:
• development of community-based referral + treatment centers for problem drinkers
Community-Based Treatment Programs
- Providing outpatient counselling
* Emphasizing hospitalization
Community-Based Treatment Programs
• Alcoholics Anonymous - 12-step philosophy
• AA works to “de-label” alcoholic + move person back into society as contributing, independent individual.
rehab
Community-Based Treatment Programs
12 step - well known + quite successful
delabel stigma around alcoholism
tertiary deviance work
diff to evaluate success because it’s anonymous
