Psya4 - A - Risk Factors In The Development Of Addiction, Including Stress, Peers, Age And Personality

Front 1

STRESS as a risk factor for addictive behaviours

Back 1

*AB aim to relieve the stress arising from daily hassles, such as relationship, financial and workplace problems.
*PTSD – People exposed to highly traumatic events (e.g. child abuse, war) are more likely to demonstrate AB. Driesssen (2008) found 30% of drug addicts and 15% of alcoholics also suffered from PTSD. Therefore this is some evidence for the fact that people exposed to severe stress are more vulnerable to AB such as…

Front 2

STRESS as a risk factor for smoking and gambling

Back 2

*SMOKING:- Smokers report that smoking reduces stress; but in reality it doesn’t. Hajek (2001) reportes that smoking MAY only reduce the stress that occurs as a result of needing to smoke.
*GAMBLING: - Stress may not be an adequate risk factor for gambling because gamblers tend to gamble to reduce boredom not stress. However stress may be the result of negative aspects of gambling behaviour like debt.

Front 3

STRESS as a risk factor for addictive behaviours
Evaluative comments

Back 3

+ As different individuals have different levels of stress in their lives, it can be a good way to explain individual differences in addictive behaviour.
+ Logical and fits well with cognitive ideas about self-medicating

Front 4

AGE as a risk factor for addictive behaviours

Back 4

Young adolescents are more likely to be influenced by their peer group in early adolescence, but this influence decreases as they age, whereby romantic relationships and close friends, and later work colleagues, become more influential in the development and maintenance of AB.

Front 5

AGE as a risk factor for smoking and gambling

Back 5

*SMOKING: Adolescent brains are different to Adult brains. Shram (2008) found that adolescent rats were more sensitive to the rewarding effects of nicotine and less sensitive to its aversive effects compared to adult rats. Are adolescents more susceptible to nicotine than adults?
*GAMBLING:Younger adolescents may be less susceptible to gambling behaviour because opportunities to gamble are fewer before the ages of 16 and 18.

Front 6

AGE as a risk factor for addictive behaviours
Evaluative comments

Back 6

- Little research regarding the AB in adolescents and children because of i) ethical restrictions relating to the potential for psychological harm, ii) Teenagers may be unwilling to reveal AB because of the threat of sanctions.
- Generalisabilty from NHAs to humans

Front 7

PERSONALITY as a risk factor for addictive behaviours

Back 7

* Eysenck proposed that personalities that were high in Neuroticism and Psychoticism were more prone to AB.
* Extroverts are under stimulated and therefore seek additional stimulation to supplement, possibly leading to AB.
* Cloniger proposed novelty seeking, harm avoidant and reward dependent personalities were more prone to demonstrate AB.

Front 8

PERSONALITY as a risk factor for smoking and gambling

Back 8

*SMOKING & GAMBLING : Buckholtz (2010) found persons high in impulsivity and attention seeking had a more sensitive dopamine response system, meaning that they were less concerned with the consequences of their behaviour e.g. health risks from smoking OR debt from gambling.

Front 9

PERSONALITY as a risk factor for addictive behaviours
Evaluative comments

Back 9

- Most research is correlational. Certain traits may be present in people with AB but this may be coincidence or due to a third factor. It’s difficult to see whether the AB was caused by the person’s personality or the AB caused a change in personality.

Front 10

PEERS as a risk factor for addictive behaviours

Back 10

* Social Learning Theory proposes that we observe and imitate the AB of our peers
* Social Identity Theory proposes that AB may be the result of the ‘identity’ of a group and that membership to that group necessitates taking part in the AB.

Front 11

PEERS as a risk factor for smoking and gambling

Back 11

*SMOKING: Karcher and Finn found that adolescents who had close friends that smoked were up to 8 times more likely to smoke than those adolescents who had close friends that did not smoke. They reported that the influence of peers was higher than that of parents or siblings in adolescents.
*GAMBLING: - Difficult to apply this vulnerability factor to gambling as this AB doesn’t really involve group behaviour. Perhaps a particularly admired peer may act as a role model.

Front 12

PEERS as a risk factor for addictive behaviours
Evaluative comments

Back 12

- It can’t explain individual differences. Mitchell reports we don’t know how influential peer groups are and why some adolescents do not adhere to peer group norms, perhaps it conflict with individual interest?
-Research tends to only focus on the impact of peers during adolescence.