The Cognitive Approach Flashcards
Initiation of Gambling
Self-medication
indis intentionally use different forms of P behaviour to treat psychological symptoms they suffer.
Some activities are chosen because they help with anxiety or gambling helps with depression associated with poverty
It doesn’t make it better but needs only to be judged as doing so to become an addiction
Maintenance of Gambling
The Role of Irrational beliefs
Despite probability of failure, problem gamblers have irrational perceptions about their ability to influence the outcome of their gambling.
Cognitive distortions associated with gambling
Gamblers fallacy = belief that random events (coin toss) are somehow influenced by recent events
Illusions of control = demonstrated through acts of superstition
Pathological gamblers = also show exaggerated self-confidence in their ability to beat the system = because success being attributed to personal ability and failure = chance factors e.g. bad luck
Relapse in Gambling
Recall bias & ‘Just world’ hypothesis
Pathological gamblers = recall bias = tendency to remember + overestimate wins while forgetting, underestimating and rationalising losses =
Blanco et al
String of losses doesn’t act as a disincentive. Indis believe they will be rewarded for their effort + motivated by fact they ‘deserve to win’ = just world
Initiation of Smoking
Expectancy Theory
Behaviour escalates into addiction because of expectations that an individual has about cost + benefits of it.
Adolescent smokers report smoking when –ve mood + expect smoking will decrease it
Mermelstein: expectancy of +ve mood = reason to start
Maintenance of Smoking
Automatic processing
As an addiction develops, the activity is influenced less by unconscious expectancies involving automatic processing
Explains loss of control addicts experience in addictive behaviour + problems stopping
Tate et al: told smoker they should expect no –ve experiences during abstinence = fewer reported somatic effects + psychological effects than control group. Those told of expect somatic effect = more reported
Relapse of Smoking
Assessing costs + benefits
Affect indis readiness to quit + likelihood of relapsing after they have quit
.
Indis who perceive smoking to have many benefits and quitting to have few = ones most likely to relapse + revert to smoking after trying to quit
Research support for self-medication model
Li et al
P gamblers who gambled to escape painful reality of life were sig more likely to have other substance dependencies
Problems with gambling cause and effect
Self-medication model = some form of psychological distress must precede drug use as one necessitates the use of the other
Correlation between depression and gambling does not mean that depression is the cause of gambling, it could be a consequence of the personal + financial cost of pathological gambling
Addiction or excess?
Research mainly focused on excesses of particular behaviour rather than addiction to it
Rarely considers loss of control mainly focuses on heavy smoking or excess gambling
Addiction usually involves indi being unable to control their behaviour = not clear what role expediencies might play in development of this loss of control
Research support for the relationship between expectancies + relapse
Inconsistent findings: some say nicotine patches didn’t improve cessation + relapse
Research: Nicotine patches did increase cessation rates + reduced relapse but only if accompanied with CBT to change +ve expectancies of smoking
Importance of expectancies
Smokers reported greater expectancies that cigarettes alleviate negative mood states + craving, + had +ve effect on weight control compared with different forms of NRT available
Smokers +ve expectancies for the effects of smoking do not appear to generalise to NRT, which might explain it relatively modest success rate for smoking cessation
Implications for Treatment
Evidence that there is more than 1 motivation for becoming P gambler = should be different approaches to helping their treatment
Self-medicating gamblers = treat underlying mental ailment before getting to quit gambling
CBT aims to correct irrational beliefs = reduces motivation to gamble
Publication bias
Focus of research into expectancy theory = largely on positive research findings = negative results receive less attention
Studies have supported association between expectancies + addictive behaviour = publication bias = selective publication of +ve results gives an unrepresentative view of research
