Learning Approach to Smoking

Question 1

How does the Learning Approach explain addiction?

Answer 1

The Learning Approach explains addictive behaviour without involving any conscious evaluation of the costs or benefits of a particular activity. Individuals will typically learn to perform behaviours because they are associated with the onset of something pleasant or the termination of something unpleasant. As a result impulses to engage in behaviours such as smoking may become so powerful that they can overwhelm concious desires to restrain these activities

Question 2

Learning Approach to Smoking
Initiation

How does the Learning Approach explain the initiation of smoking behaviour?

Answer 2

According to the Learning Approach, people start smoking due to role models and positive reinforcement

Question 3

Learning Approach to Smoking
Initiation

Availability of role models
Key Studies

Answer 3

Kandel and Wu 1995

Question 4

Learning Approach to Smoking
Initiation

Availability of role models

Answer 4

Social learning theory explanations of experimental smoking propose that young people begin smoking as a consequence of the social models they have around them who smoke (Kandel and Wu 1995). From this perspective, experimental smoking is primarily a function of parental and peer role modelling and the vicarious reinforcement that leads young people to expect positive physical and social consequences from smoking

Question 5

Learning Approach to Smoking
Initiation

Popularity as a positive reinforcer
Key Studies

Answer 5

Mayeux et al 2008

Question 6

Learning Approach to Smoking
Initiation

Popularity as a positive reinforcer

Answer 6

Popularity among peers may also serve as a positive reinforcer in the initiation of smoking. Mayeux et al 2008 found a positive relationship between smoking at age 16 and boys’ popularity two years later

Question 7

Learning Approach to Smoking
Maintenance

How does the Learning Approach explain the maintenance of smoking behaviour?

Answer 7

The Learning Approach believes that smoking behaviour is maintained because repetition of the act of smoking thousands of times a year eventually leads to a strong conditioned association between the sensory aspects of smoking and the reinforcing effects of nicotine.

Question 8

Learning Approach to Smoking
Maintenance
Key Studies

Answer 8

Franklin et al 2007

Question 9

Learning Approach to Smoking
Maintenance

This view is supported by Franklin et al 2007…

Answer 9

This view is supported by Franklin et al 2007 who found that smoking-related cues rapidly become conditioned stimuli and so activiate the same brain areas as when someone first starts smoking, making cessation more difficult

Question 10

Learning Approach to Smoking
Relapse

How does the Learning Approach explain the relapse of smoking behaviour?

Answer 10

The Learning Approach explains the relapse of addictive behaviour through conditioned cues and self efficacy

Question 11

Learning Approach to Smoking
Relapse

Condition cues
Key studies

Answer 11

Hogarth et al 2010

Question 12

Learning Approach to Smoking
Relapse

Condition cues

Answer 12

Cues associated with perviously with receiving nicotine, such as the smell of cigarette smoke, increase the likelihood that the smoke will respond by smoking

Question 13

Learning Approach to Smoking
Relapse

Condition cues
This view is supported by Hogarth et al 2010..

Answer 13

This view is supported by Hogarth et al 2010 who found that the amound of craving increased significantly when a conditioned stimulus related to smoking was presented to a smoker

Question 14

Learning Approach to Smoking
Relapse

Refusal self-efficacy
Key Studies

Answer 14

Lawrance and Rubinson 1989

Question 15

Learning Approach to Smoking
Relapse

Refusal self-efficacy

Answer 15

A person’s belief in his or her ability to succeed in a particular situation.

Question 16

Learning Approach to Smoking
Relapse

Refusal self-efficacy
This view is supported by Lawrance and Rubinson 1989..

Answer 16

Among adults, those who smoke more frequently have less confidence in their ability to abstain (Lawrance and Rubinson 1989) and so are more likely to relapse

Question 17

Learning Approach to Smoking
Evaluation

Support for the influence of role models
Key Studies

Answer 17

DiBlasio and Benda 1993

Karcher and Finn 2005

Question 18

Learning Approach to Smoking
Evaluation

Support for the influence of role models

Answer 18

There is much supporting evidence for the influence of role models on smoking behaviour. For example, DiBlasio and Benda 1993 found that peer group influences were the primary influence in adolescents who smoke or use drugs. Karcher and Finn 2005 also found that youth whose parents smoked were 1.88 times more likely to take up smoking. If their siblings smoked they were 2.64 times more likely to smoke and if close friends smoked they were up to 8 times more likely to smoke than if their parents, siblings and friends did not smoke

Question 19

Learning Approach to Smoking
Evaluation

Support for the influence of conditioned cues
Key Studies

Answer 19

Thewissen et al 2008

Question 20

Learning Approach to Smoking
Evaluation

Support for the influence of conditioned cues

Answer 20

There is much supporting evidence for the influence of conditioned cues on smoking behaviour. Thewissen et al 2008 tested the importance of environmental contexts in the urge to smoke. In one room, they repeatedly presented 33 smokers with a cue predicting smoking, whilst in a second room they presented a cue predicting smoking unavailability. Consistent with expectations, results supported the view that a cue predicting smoking later led to a greater urge to smoke than did a cue associated with smoking unavailability

Question 21

Learning Approach to Smoking
Evaluation

Implications for treatment
Key Studies

Answer 21

Drummond et al 1990

Question 22

Learning Approach to Smoking
Evaluation

Implications for treatment

Answer 22

The idea of environmental cues being important in the maintenance of smoking has allowed researchers such as Drummond et al 1990 to identify a treatment method known as cue exposure. This involves presenting cues associated with smoking without the opportunity to engage in the smoking behaviour. This leads to a phenomenon known as stimulus discrimination, as without the reinforcement provided by actual nicotine, the association between the cue and smoking is extinguished , thereby reducing the craving for cigarettes when exposed to that particular cue. However, the problem with this therapy is that even if one cue no longer produces a craving there may be many others that the individual does not even know about.

Question 23

Learning Approach to Smoking
Evaluation

Real world application
Key Studies

Answer 23

Botvin 2000

Question 24

Learning Approach to Smoking
Evaluation

Real world application

Answer 24

Botvin 2000 suggests that effective forms of drug prevention programmes should target adolescents since they are the most vulnerable to the influences of peer pressure especially. Resistance training can teach young people how to refuse drugs but also informs them of the influences of peers and adults. Education in this respects can help teenagers counteract the pro-smoking/pro-drug messages provided in their environment.