Summary
Summary Addiction Notes - AQA A-level Psychology
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- Addiction (7182)
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- AQA
AQA A-level Psychology Paper 3
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addictionspecification
describing addiction: physical and psychological dependence, tolerance and withdrawal syndrome.
risk factors in the development of addiction, including genetic vulnerability, stress, personality, family
influences and peers.
explanations for nicotine addiction: brain neurochemistry, including the role of dopamine, and learning
theory as applied to smoking behaviour, including reference to cue reactivity.
explanations for gambling addiction: learning theory as applied to gambling, including reference to
partial and variable reinforcement; cognitive theory as applied to gambling, including reference to
cognitive bias.
reducing addiction: drug therapy; behavioural interventions, including aversion therapy and covert
sensitisation; cognitive behaviour therapy.
the application of the following theories of behaviour change to addictive behaviour; the theory of
planned behaviour and Prochaska’s six-stage model of behaviour change.
describing addiction
dependence
physical dependence:
when a person has used a substance so often and in such amount that they experience withdrawal
symptoms when they stop using the substance
physical need
psychological dependence:
an emotional need to use a substance or perform a behavior that has no underlying physical need
the compulsion and pleasure associated
tolerance
when a person has diminished response to a drug as a result of repeated use
an increase in the dose of the substance is needed to obtain the same effects as their initial response
physical effect of repeated use of a drug, not necessarily a sign of addiction
becoming used to a drug and needing more of it to achieve the same effect as before
level of tolerance is different for different effects of the substance
cross-tolerance: tolerance to one drug can also provide tolerance to another drug
withdrawal syndrome
use of substance discontinued or reduced
addiction 1
, occurs in drug and alcohol addicted individuals
brain has adjusted functioning to presence of substance
level of substance reduced / absent → brain seeks substance to bring level back up
unpleasant psychological symptoms (e.g. depression, anxiety) and physical symptoms (e.g. nausea,
loss of sleep, weight loss)
type and severity of the symptoms depends on type of substance, amount used, length of time the
substance has been used
fear of the withdrawal syndrome often motivate people to carry on using the drug
can be acute or prolonged
risk factors in the development of addiction
no single factor alone causes addiction, can only increase risk but not directly cause, many factors
interact and combine
genetic vulnerability
predisposition to become addicted Kendler et al. (1997)
genetics influence the way various substances twin study
are metabolised → influence response to the
Swedish male twins
substance by enhancing the positive/negative
effects of the drug concordance rates:
interaction between genetic and MZ twins 33%
environmental factors, individual has to be DZ twins 15%
exposed to the substance to become addicted
concordance rates never reach 100%,
e.g. some Asians metabolise alcohol slowly, genetics not the sole factor, environmental
feel nauseous after drinking even a small factors play a role
amount of alcohol → unlikely to become
Kendler et al. (2012)
addicted
9% of adopted individuals with a biological
people with addictions have been found to
parent who had an addiction become
have less dopamine D2 receptors, amount
addicted themselves
genetically determined, less dopamine activity,
addictions may be a way to increase 4% of adopted individuals with no
dopamine activity addicted parent
influence of nurture controlled but may still
be present, individuals may have had
contact with biological parents,
environment prior to adoption
correlational, cause and effect cannot be
established
biologically reductionist, too simplistic,
overlooks environmental and psychological
factors, multiple factors may interact
addiction 2
, deterministic
socially sensitive, takes blame but also
responsibility away from addicts
stress
can increase vulnerability to addiction Epstein et al. (1998)
addictive substance/behaviour provides women who had experienced childhood
temporary relief → coping mechanism, rape had more PTSD symptoms and
emotion-focused coping alcoholism symptoms than women who
had not been raped
mediating factors e.g. social support can
reduce likelihood of addiction in stressful Tovalacci et al. (2013)
situations
measured stress using a questionnaire
sources of stress: family, urban/rural
highly stressed university students were
environment (more drug adduction in cities
more likely to smoke, abuse alcohol, and
than countryside but could be due to
at risk to an addiction to the internet
availability of drugs), childhood trauma
correlational, causal relationship cannot
be established, questionnaire used
Sinha (2008)
emotional and physiological stress cause
a decrease in behavioural control and
increase in impulsivity
intensifying or long-term stress more likely
to cause maladaptive behaviours e.g.
addiction
Keating (2017)
childhood trauma or Adverse Childhood
Events (ACE) makes people more
vulnerable to addiction in later life
personality
Eysenck (1997) Ivanov et al. (2008)
some personality types may be more strong link between impulsivity and drug
vulnerable to addiction use
e.g. high neuroticism (high levels of Morein-Zamir et al. (2015)
irritability and anxiety), high psychoticism
inhibitory difficulties mediated by fronto-
(aggressive and emotionally detached)
striatal circuitry → neurological cause for
now rejected by most psychologists impulsivity
impulsivity is linked to addiction applications, can be used to identify
individuals vulnerable to addiction, provide
lack of planning, risk-taking, desire for
support, prevention measures, economically
immediate gratification of desire
beneficial for individual and society
addiction 3
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