risk factors (personality) Flashcards
addiction-prone personality
barnes et al (2000) developed addiction-prone personality (APP) scale as a way of assessing influence of personality on addictive behaviour
traits such as impulsivity are linked to addiction but there is no addictive personality
APP scale effect way of discriminating between drug addicts from non-addicts and predicting severity of addiction and likelihood of remission during recovery
e.g. APP found that personality was significant predictor of heavy marijuana use
psych +
Eysenck (1997) explored addictive personality
suggested an individual develops addictive habit as it fulfils a certain purpose related to personality type of individual:
psychoticism: aggressive, cold and emotionally detached
neuroticism: moody, irritable and anxious
also those with an anti-social personality are vulnerable to developing an addiction
2 types of anti-social personalities
impulsive personality
novelty-seeking (sensation seeking)
impulsive personality
more likely to act without thinking (reckless) and fail to acknowledge risks involved with behaviour, making them vulnerable
people with insufficient serotonin systems are prone to making reckless decisions (e.g. decisions that they later regret) as they need immediate gratification
novelty-seeking personality
more likely to pursue opportunities for change and stimulation
actively seek out new environments and experiences which makes them vulnerable
known to have weak dopamine reward circuit in nucleus accumbens, which means they need more stimulation than average to get hedonic response
strength of personality
supporting research
bush
used 250 American smokers and found that those with an impulsive personality started smoking at a younger age (15.6) compared to those with a different personality (17.3)
this suggests those with a more impulsive personality are more likely to take risks without acknowledging the consequences
limit of personality
may be pre-dispositional
because possession of certain personality traits doesn’t automatically mean addiction will definitely occur
e.g. many impulsive individuals do not go on to develop an addiction. they may actively make choices to avoid certain situations or perhaps they do not possess certain risk factors (e.g. peer pressure)
weakens predictive validity of personality as a risk factor of addiction, suggesting other risk factors are more important
limit of personality 2
limited practical applications
when a risk factor is limited in its ability to benefit rest of society
although individuals who have certain personality traits (e.g. impulsivity) can be identified as being more likely to develop an addiction, it’s not possible to change an individual’s personality meaning implications for treatment are limited
suggests other risk factors which have led to useful treatments (e.g. peer pressure) are more useful
general limit of risk factors
inability to establish cause and effect
research into risk factors tends to be correlational
e.g. research shows peers can pressurise people to have an addiction however, it may be that addiction makes the person to seek out similar people
suggests because risk factors and addiction co-relate, it makes it difficult to separate whether these risk factors are the cause or effect of addiction, decreasing validity
general limit 2
may not be a complete explanation by themselves
mayes and suchman (2006)
suggest different combinations of risk factors determine nature or severity of addiction. e.g. may be more at risk if they have genetic precursor (low level of D2 receptor) and environmental trigger (traumatic life event)
suggests there are many different pathways to addiction and its too simplistic to suggest one factor is more important than another. instead, we should observe the interactions between these different factors
