Individual Differences
Addictive Personality
Extraversion: Extraverts are sociable, lively and optimistic
Neuroticism: Individuals high in neuroticism have high levels of anxiety and can be moody and irritable
Psychoticism: Those high on the Psychoticism scale are impulsive, impatient, aggressive and creative
Linking with Addiction
- Eysenck suggested a ‘resource model of addiction’ whereby the addiction develops because it fulfils some
need of the individual’s personality.
- In particular, Eysenck highlighted important roles of psychoticism and neuroticism in particular.
- A number of research studies have tested the personality of addicts and looked for common patterns in their
score on the EPQ;
- Gossop and Eysenck (1980): researched over 200 drug addicts and found that addicts had high P and N scores
but lower E and Lie scores than the control group.
- Other traits which have been listed as characteristic of an addictive personality include apathy, compulsivity
and other mental health disorders.
Psychoticism and Impulsivity
- Often addicts act impulsively, without thinking about the consequences; for instance, they might relapse
because they think indulging in a past behaviour will no longer have the same negative impact.
- de Wit (2009): Impulsivity is both a cause and effect of drug abuse.
- Dalley et al (2007): Impulsive rats increased cocaine intake more than low impulsivity rats.
- Impulsivity can also cause issues when individuals are trying to abstain from their addictions
- Laura Stevens et al (2014): Impulsive individuals were less successful in treatment programmes, either
because they were more likely to drop out, or simply because they were less likely to achieve and maintain
abstinence.
Neuroticism and Self-Medication
- Neurotic people may self-medicate in order to deal with the stress and anxiety they experience, and this can
develop into a full-blown addiction.
- Rajita Sinha (2001): highlighted the role that stress plays in the initiation of an addiction, but also the risk of
relapse. If an individual is more susceptible to stress, they are at a higher risk of turning back to their addictive
behaviour to overcome it.
- Neurotic individuals also experience low self-esteem, and addiction can be a way of avoiding negative
feelings about oneself.
- Roy Baumeister (1997): Low self-esteem may lead to people behaving in self-defeating ways as a means of
escaping self-awareness.
Anti-Social Personality Disorder
- People with ASPD have a disregard for the rights of others and are more likely to violate social norms or
behave irresponsibly.
- Characterised by a lack of remorse, engagement in emotional and social manipulation of others and are likely
to be frequent liars.
- It has been suggested that 40-50% of those with substance use disorders have ASPD and about 90% of those
with ASPD have a substance use disorders.
- Those with ASPD are more likely to engage in risky behaviours like sharing needles and to start using earlier.
- Timothy Trull et al (2004): Found a significant relationship between personality symptoms, including ASPD,
and substance abuse or dependence- they concluded that the characteristics preceded the substance use rather
than the other way around.
Other Traits
- People who are too rigid with managing their impulses may end up using substances as a manifestation of an
obsessive-compulsive behaviour pattern.
- Addiction can be a compulsion to use a substance based on a habit that has formed over time rather than a
single impulse to try something.
- Traits listed as part of an addictive personality all have in common the inability for an individual to self-
regulate behaviours and thoughts that might otherwise enable an ability to moderate substance use.
- Research shows that an inability to regulate behaviour around the anticipation of receiving a reward is
strongly linked to the development of an addiction.
