Addictions can lead to the worst in people. Those who have an addiction do not have control over what they are doing, taking, or using. It has the power to hurt the individual mentally, physically, and emotionally. According to Lauren Slater, “Rat Park: The Radical Addiction, scientists, Old and Milner were stating that an addiction is a “physiological inevitability”(6) which causes them to conduct experiments in finding the pleasure center. Another scientist who was very fond of finding the cause of addictions was Bruce Alexander. In order to find out, he and other colleagues constructed two environments for the lab rats to live in: an isolated cage and a co-ed colony called “Rat Park”. Each of the environments had sixteen lab rats
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To conduct the experiment, the investigators put 16 lab rats isolated cages and the others in a fancy coed colony called “Rat Park”. The experimenters gave both sets of rats morphine- laced water sprinkled with sucrose which was what the rats hated because it was bitter. However, they also gave them plain old tap water. The researchers found out that that the caged rats loved the morphine- laced water while the rats in the park did not even have a sip no matter how much sweeter they made it. Surprisingly, the isolated rats drank up to sixteen times more than the rats at the park. These results the researchers received from the experiment were thought to be “socially as well as significant” (107). This experiment shows that solitary confinement can cause distress in humans beings and they try to find a new way to cope with it. This connects with Angie Bachman’s problem because the house was empty all day long. She had a feeling of isolation just like the rats did and So to cope with it she began to going to the casino which caused her to become addicted just as the rats drinking the morphine laced …show more content…
Alexander said “ the withdrawal is so painful, in in and of itself guarantees continued use.” (10) To test his assumption , the researchers got the same lab rats that were addicted to the morphine laced water and put them in the fancy rat residence, Rat Park. Over the past 57 days, Alexander gave both groups of rats plain and morphine water to “‘produce tolerance and physical dependency”( 10 Slater). He concluded that the rats were offered the same drug, but chose to not take it despite the withdrawal they had. This infers that the environment plays a huge role in their addiction. Just as for Bachman who stopped for a couple years and decided to go back to gambling. She knew about her debts, but did not take responsibility to
To conduct the experiment, the investigators put 16 lab rats isolated cages and the others in a fancy coed colony called “Rat Park”. The experimenters gave both sets of rats morphine- laced water sprinkled with sucrose which was what the rats hated because it was bitter. However, they also gave them plain old tap water. The researchers found out that that the caged rats loved the morphine- laced water while the rats in the park did not even have a sip no matter how much sweeter they made it. Surprisingly, the isolated rats drank up to sixteen times more than the rats at the park. These results the researchers received from the experiment were thought to be “socially as well as significant” (107). This experiment shows that solitary confinement can cause distress in humans beings and they try to find a new way to cope with it. This connects with Angie Bachman’s problem because the house was empty all day long. She had a feeling of isolation just like the rats did and So to cope with it she began to going to the casino which caused her to become addicted just as the rats drinking the morphine laced …show more content…
Alexander said “ the withdrawal is so painful, in in and of itself guarantees continued use.” (10) To test his assumption , the researchers got the same lab rats that were addicted to the morphine laced water and put them in the fancy rat residence, Rat Park. Over the past 57 days, Alexander gave both groups of rats plain and morphine water to “‘produce tolerance and physical dependency”( 10 Slater). He concluded that the rats were offered the same drug, but chose to not take it despite the withdrawal they had. This infers that the environment plays a huge role in their addiction. Just as for Bachman who stopped for a couple years and decided to go back to gambling. She knew about her debts, but did not take responsibility to