“Addiction is a serious illness that is continuously rising in numbers and affects nearly 23.5 million Americans nationwide.”(DrugFacts: Treatment Statistics | National Institute on ... (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2016, from https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/treatment-statistics). Addiction has physical, physiological, biological, emotional, and social factors that play a role in why a person may become addicted. B.F. Skinner’s operant conditioning and Ivan Pavlov’s classical conditioning are two styles of learning that can not only cause, but can treat addiction.
“Conditioning is a form of learning in which either (1) a given stimulus (or signal) becomes increasingly effective in evoking a response or (2) a response occurs with increasing regularity in a …show more content…
(Classical Conditioning and Addiction • Sober Nation. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2016, from https://www.sobernation.com/classical-conditioning-addiction/) gives an example of how classical conditioning forms an addictive behavior. The initial effect of drug use has an environmental cue of drug administration—such as people who like to smoke meth after work—(neutral stimulus) receives an effect of the drug onto the brain (unconditioned stimulus) which results in their reaction to the drug (unconditioned response). After time, the environmental cue becomes a conditioned stimulus which results in them smoking (conditioned response).
With operant conditioning on addiction, it focuses more on the effects of the drugs on the body. As stated before, drugs cause a chemical reaction in the brain (positive reinforcement) which reinforces the behavior to take place in the future. Drugs deteriorate the body 's natural reward system by blocking our natural, chemical production. When this happens, and the use of drugs stop (negative reinforcement) the body lacks the needed chemicals to feel “normal” which reinforces people to keep
“Conditioning is a form of learning in which either (1) a given stimulus (or signal) becomes increasingly effective in evoking a response or (2) a response occurs with increasing regularity in a …show more content…
(Classical Conditioning and Addiction • Sober Nation. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2016, from https://www.sobernation.com/classical-conditioning-addiction/) gives an example of how classical conditioning forms an addictive behavior. The initial effect of drug use has an environmental cue of drug administration—such as people who like to smoke meth after work—(neutral stimulus) receives an effect of the drug onto the brain (unconditioned stimulus) which results in their reaction to the drug (unconditioned response). After time, the environmental cue becomes a conditioned stimulus which results in them smoking (conditioned response).
With operant conditioning on addiction, it focuses more on the effects of the drugs on the body. As stated before, drugs cause a chemical reaction in the brain (positive reinforcement) which reinforces the behavior to take place in the future. Drugs deteriorate the body 's natural reward system by blocking our natural, chemical production. When this happens, and the use of drugs stop (negative reinforcement) the body lacks the needed chemicals to feel “normal” which reinforces people to keep