Addiction- Individual difference explanations

Question 1

What are the 2 Individual difference explanations for addiction?

Answer 1

1- Eysenck’s personality theory
2- Cognitive biases

Question 2

What is my FIRST choice for the individual difference explanation of addiction?

Answer 2

Eysenck’s personality theory

Question 3

What are the 3 dimensions related to personality?

Answer 3

Extraversion
- lively, sociable, optimistic
Neuroticism
- high anxiety, moody, irritable
Psychoticism
- impulsive, impatient, aggressive

Question 4

What did Eysenck’s propose in relation to addiction?

Answer 4

Some people were more vulnerable than others to addiction due to their personality
- people seek out addiction as a way of meeting a need that is driven out by their personality
- addiction is more prevalent in people who score high in psychoticism and neuroticism

Question 5

Psychoticism/ self-control

Answer 5

High impulsivity, act on a whim
- little forethought and planning, no consideration of consequences
Engage in behaviours/take substances
- ignore and fail to account the consequences of this

Question 6

Extraversion/ introversion

Answer 6

Francis reviewed the findings of previous research into this area
10 studies- found negative relationship between extraversion and addiction
2- positive relationship
12- no significant relationship

Question 7

What does Francis research mean we can conclude about extraversion traits in addiction?

Answer 7

There is very little evidence to suggest a link between the personality traits of introversion/extraversion and addiction
Research into extraversion is mixed

Question 8

Neuroticism/stability

Answer 8

People high in neuroticism tend to be anxious, tense, moody and prone to depression
- might use addiction as a means of self medicating to deal with the stress and worry they are experiencing (‘treating’ their problems)

Question 9

Neuroticism/stability
SINHA

Answer 9

Highlighted the role that stress plays in the initiation of addiction, but also the risk of re-lapse when an individual is trying to abstain
- if they are more susceptible to stress, need addictive behaviour to overcome it

Question 10

Neuroticism/stability
BAUMEISTER

Answer 10

Suggests that low self-esteem may lead people to act in a manner that is self-defeating in order to escape self-awareness
- use addiction as a way of voiding their negative feelings about themselves

Question 11

Neuroticism/stability
FRANCIS

Answer 11

Addicts scored significantly higher in neuroticism and psychoticism than non-addict control when investigating addiction to nicotine, alcohol, heroine and benzodiazepines

Question 12

Evaluation: Eysenck’s personality theory
X Cause and effect

Answer 12

Evidence for the relationship is correlational
X R carried out on those already addicted
X only establishes link, no cause not a good explanation
X Prison substance abuse, childhood trauma, 3rd variable
COUMO et al- impulsivity first, personality driving force

Question 13

Evaluation: Eysenck’s personality theory
X Methodological issues

Answer 13

Social desirability bias affects validity
X answer in line with expected social norms
Self-report requires self-awareness
X addicts go to extreme lengths to conceal their addiction
LIE SCALE
- remove answers not considered honest

Question 14

Evaluation: Eysenck’s personality theory
-X Ethical issues

Answer 14

Determinism- no control or free will, fault of personality, accountability of behaviour
X personality cannot be modified easily in therapy
- seen as disorder, treated rather than punished
Intervention- treatment and prevention
Cognitive skills- cope with impulsive behaviour

Question 15

What is my SECOND choice for he individual difference explanation of addiction?

Answer 15

Cognitive biases

Question 16

How do cognitive biases explain addiction?

Answer 16

Addiction is illogical
- cognitive biases/errors, think they are making rational choices
- problems in the way addicts think engage in behaviour with clear negative outcomes

Question 17

How can u section cognitive biases?

Answer 17

HEURISTICS
- availability
- representativeness
OTHER BIASES
- hindsight
- self-serving
- attentional
- the sunk-cost fallacy

Question 18

What are heuristics?

Answer 18

Applied to guide decision making
- rely on less information and use schemas
- assumed to facilitate faster decision making
- lead to systematic deviations from logic, probability, rational choice
- resulting errors are called cognitive biases

Question 19

What are the 2 types of heuristics relating to addiction?

Answer 19

1- Availability heuristics
2- Representativeness heuristics

Question 20

What are availability heuristics?

Answer 20

Kahnemon n Tversky
- mental shortcut for making frequency or probability judgements
- call on some memories more easily
remember winners of lottery not losers

Question 21

What are representativeness heuristics?

Answer 21

Rely on it when making probability judgements
- belief that random events have a pattern
- particular event form a small sample should represent what can be found in a larger sample

Question 22

What famous example is there of representative heuristics?

Answer 22

Monte Carlo- roulette wheel landed on black 26 times in a row
- people betted on red because it was ‘due’

Question 23

What are the 4 other types of cognitive bias?

Answer 23

1- Hindsight bias
2- Self-serving bias
3- Attentional bias
4- The sunk-cost fallacy

Question 24

What is hindsight bias?

Answer 24

A gambler will claim they are not surprised by an outcome and could’ve predicted it
- helps them to maintain their belief that their skills will improve, will be able to win more consistently

Question 25

What is self-serving bias?

Answer 25

The tendency of gamblers to attribute any wins to internal causes e.g. their own skill Any losses are due to external factors e.g. bad luck

Question 26

What is attentional bias?

Answer 26

When an addict is paying attention to certain stimuli and ignoring others in this environment Weinstein and Cox - plays an important role in bot the development and maintenance of addiction

Question 27

What is a key example of attentional bias?

Answer 27

Adaptation on the Stroop test - some words take longer to say because the person focuses their attention on it Johnsen- smokers had longer reaction times

Question 28

What is the sunk-cost fallacy?

Answer 28

A decision-making bias that reflects the tendency to invest more future resources in a situation in which prior investment has been made - if an individual has already invested heavily into something they are more likely to carry on losing time and money when the logical course of action is to 'cut your losses' and walk away

Question 29

What is a key example of the sunk-cost fallacy?

Answer 29

Staying in a relationship because you have been with them for 2 years - continuing to gamble because you have put a lot of money into it

Question 30

Evaluation: Cognitive biases - Supporting Research

Answer 30

Griffiths compared the verbalisations of 30 regular gamblers with 30 non-regular whilst playing a fruit machine - Reg showed many more irrational verbalisations (14%) - Non-reg (2.5%) Verbalisations showed evidence of many heuristics and biases

Question 31

How can we criticise Griffith's supporting research?

Answer 31

X gamblers not verbalising all cognitions X G's categorising on what is rational might have researcher bias

Question 32

Evaluation: Cognitive biases X Cause and Effect

Answer 32

Suggest faulty decision making is a cause of addiction X what if addiction causes faulty decision making X when a theory establishes cause and effect it allows us to predict behaviour

Question 33

How does Griffiths use the National Lottery an example of this evaluation point?

Answer 33

Media reported the number 13 had come up fewer times than any other Representative- pick it bc it is due to appear Availability- not pick it bc it wasn't common X does not allow prediction about behaviour to be accurate made

Question 34

Evaluation: Cognitive biases - Applications

Answer 34

Lends itself to practical applications CBT- Cognitive restructuring]- taught to see that the thoughts they have whilst gambling are irrational Griffith- suggests re-playing verbalisations to highlight irrational nature of thought 'I could've predicted that!' 'I knew it!'