Cognitive theory of Gambling addiction Flashcards
(17 cards)
What is the cognitive approach of gambling addiction
The cognitive approach to behaviour sees many abnormal behaviours resulting from irrational thought processes.
The development of a gambling addiction depends on the individual reasons for a person’s gambling behaviour, the way it makes them feel and their expectations of being able to beat it.
What are cognitive biases
A distortion of attention, memory and thinking.
It arises because of how we process information about the world, especially when we do it quickly.
Irrational beliefs include distorted thinking patterns, illusions of control, gamblers fallacy, recall bias and near miss bias.
Gambling addiction develops and is maintained because the addict pays more attention to gambling-related information and remembers it selectively.
Describe the expectancy theory
Gamblers have expectations about the future benefits and costs of their behaviour. If they expect the benefits of gambling to outweigh the costs, then addiction becomes more likely.
This is not a conscious process because memory and attention processes do not operate in a rational and logical manner.
Gamblers who find themselves in financial difficulties may begin to gamble as they expect it to decrease their negative mood (such as boredom) and increase positive moods (excitement) but this creates a vicious cycle.
Describe Cognitive myopia
Gamblers often place higher priority on present excitement than on future consequences.
They only think about the short-term gain rather than long-term consequences of their behaviour. The continued
expectation of a positive outcome makes the person continue to gamble.
What are illusions of control
Overestimating personal ability to influence the outcome of random events.
(E.g. being skilled at choosing lottery numbers).
What is the gamblers fallacy
Expectations of imminent wins after losing streaks.
What is recall bias
Selective recall of winning and losing.
Gamblers can remember the details of their wins, but they forget, ignore or otherwise discount their losses.
What is near miss bias
Seeing nearly winning as encouragement for further play.
What are ritual behaviours
Gambling addicts believe that they have a greater probability of winning because they are especially lucky or they engage in some superstitious behaviour
(e.g. wearing a certain item of clothing, using a certain machine, carrying out a certain routine before placing a bet).
Describe the just world hypothesis
Such individuals believe they will eventually be rewarded for their efforts and could be motivated to return to gambling on subsequent occasions because of a belief that they ‘deserve’ to win, having lost so often on previous occasions.
This thought process may encourage an individual to relapse.
What is self-efficacy
Self-efficacy refers to our expectations that we have the ability to behave in a way that achieves a desired outcome.
It can explain why some people relapse into gambling after abstaining. An individual takes up gambling again because they simply do not believe they are capable of giving it up permanently.
This sets up a self-fulfilling prophecy in which the individual behaves in a way that confirms the expectation
(i.e. they gamble: ‘You see, I told you that I couldn’t stop’) which is in turn reinforced.
What are strengths of the cognitive approach to gambling addiction
Supporting evidence
Practical applications
What are limitations of the cognitive approach to gambling addiction
Methodological issues
Biological biases
Evaluate supporting evidence as a strength of the cognitive approach to gambling addiction
P: Supporting evidence.
E: Griffiths found that regular fruit machine gamblers were significantly more likely to use irrational verbalisations (‘I lost because I wasn’t concentrating’) than non-regular users. Regular gamblers also showed
more evidence of flexible attributions (blaming failure on external factors and crediting success to their own
skill).
E: The evidence strengthens the idea of how powerful cognitions are in smoking/gambling addiction
Evaluate practical applications as a strength of the cognitive approach to gambling addiction
P: Practical applications.
E: Interventions such as CBT could be used to correct cognitive biases (such as the gamblers fallacy) which in turn
would reduce the motivation to gamble. This type of intervention has been shown to have positive outcomes in reducing gambling behaviour. Research by Echeburua found that CBT was particularly effective in
preventing relapse in gamblers who played slot machines.
E: The researchers did acknowledge that slot machine pathological gamblers may not be representative of the
larger population of problem gamblers.
Evaluate methodological issues as a limitation of the cognitive approach to gambling addiction
P: There are methodological issues that may confound the research.
E: Many research studies into cognitive distortions in gambling assess the thinking processes of gamblers using self-report methods such as the thinking aloud technique. According to Dickerson & O’Connor, a problem with this method is that the things people say in gambling situations do not necessarily represent what they really think. Frivolous or off-the-cuff remarks during a slot machine session might not, therefore, reflect the addict’s
deeply held beliefs about the roles of chance and skill in their behaviour.
E: This is a limitation because conclusions from such studies might not be completely valid.
Evaluate biological bias as a limitation of the cognitive approach to gambling addiction
P: Cognitive biases may have a biological basis.
E: Research has shown that gambling addicts may have developed a different pattern of brain activity compared to nongamblers. This gives them the misguided belief that they are able to beat the odds in games of chance.
Clark et al (2014) identified a region of the brain that appears to play a critical role in supporting the distorted thinking that makes people more likely to develop gambling addiction. The researchers discovered that if this region (the insula) is damaged as a result of brain injury, people become immune to cognitive biases such as the gambler’s fallacy.
E: The findings suggest that, if the cognitive biases found in gambling addicts have a neurological basis they could be
treated with drugs that target specific regions of the brain.
