Risk Factors (Genetics. Stress. Personality) Flashcards
(22 cards)
What is a risk factor?
internal/external influences that increase the likelihood someone will start using drugs or engage in addictive behaviours.
What are the risk factors of addiction?
- Genetic vulnerability
- Stress
- Personality
- Family influences
- Peers
How does genetic vulnerability increase the risk of addiction
Addiction itself isn’t inherited but a predisposition or vulnerability to drug dependence.
Genes aren’t inevitable causes, an individual will never become addicted unless they try the drug. Once someone is exposed to a drug genetics can explain why people become dependent and others do not.
Outline Blum’s idea of genetic vulnerability
Blum suggests that individuals who are vulnerable to drug addiction suffer from abnormally low levels of dopamine and a decreased ability to activate dopamine receptors in the reward centre of the brain.
- This means that anything that increases the amount of dopamine can produce strong feelings of euphoria.
Theres Different types of dopamine receptor.
- D2 receptor - abnormally low numbers are involved in addiction.
The proportion of all receptors in the brain is determined genetically.
Outline Pianezza et al’s study of genetic vulnerability
Found that some people lack a fully functioning enzyme (CYP2A6) which is mainly responsible for metabolising nicotine.
Such individuals smoke significantly less than smokers with the functioning version.
Expression of the enzyme is genetically determined, individuals with the functioning version are at greater genetic risk of nicotine addiction.
What is a strength and a limitation of Genetic vulnerability as a risk factor of addiction
S: Can explain individual differences
L: Gender differences
Evaluate the explanation of individual differences as a strength of genetic vulnerability as a risk factor
P: Can explain individual differences.
E: Dathesis-stress model can explain why some people develop addictive behaviour, yet others who have the same environmental experiences do not.
Some are more likely to develop an addiction because of their genetic vulnerability. For example, the A1 variant of the dopamine-receptor gene has been found to be associated with cocaine & nicotine dependence.
E: Suggests that individuals who inherit this gene variant are more vulnerable to developing addictive behaviour because of their low levels of dopamine and the increase in dopamine that is possible with drugs that activate the brain-reward pathway.
Evaluate genetic differences as a limitation of Genetic vulnerability as a risk factor
P: There are gender differences to addiction.
E: Studies of male alcoholics have consistently supported the importance of genetic factors in the development of alcoholism. However, research with women produced inconsistent findings.
Only 2 out of 5 twin studies found significantly greater concordance for alcoholism among female MZ twins than among female DZ twins.
E: Suggests that genetic factors may be less important in the development of alcoholism in women than in men.
How does stress increase the risk of addiction?
The ‘self-medication’ model proposes that some individuals intentionally use different forms of pathological behaviour to ‘treat’ the psychological symptoms they experience due to everyday stressors. Stressors may contribute to the initiation and maintenance of addictions.
Although engaging in such behaviour may not actually make things better, the perception that it does is what causes an addiction.
Stress is one of the strongest predictors of relapse and increased drug cravings.
Outline Piazza’s study into stress as a risk factor
- Investigated how stress affected vulnerability to addiction in rats
- Demonstrated how previous repeated exposure to** stressful tail-pinching and amphetamines** increased activity in the dopamine neural system through behavioural sensitisation, making the rats more disposed to self-administer amphetamines.
- This suggests that stress affects drug taking via the action of neurobiology.
How may traumatic stress increase the risk of addiction
Increased risk of addiction is linked to periods of chronic, long-lasting stress and traumatic life events in childhood.
Epstein et.al. looked at data from the National Women’s Study. They found a strong correlation between incidence of childhood rape and adult alcohol addiction but only for those women who were diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
It therefore appears that there is not an inevitable relationship between a traumatic
childhood event and later addiction. A child will only have an addiction problem if they have a vulnerability and a later stressful situation
What is a strength and a limitation of Stress as a risk factor of addiction
S: Practical applications
L: Varies by the type of addiction
Evaluate practical applications as a strength of Stress as a risk factor of addiction
P: Practical applications.
E: If addiction is a consequence of the experience of stress, then individuals who develop effective coping
strategies for stress should have less of a need for addictive behaviour.
Weatherman (1998) carried out a follow-up study of 263 smokers who had completed a national smoking
cessation programme, and found that there was a strong relationship between participants use of stress coping resources and their ability to maintain abstinence from smoking once they had given up.’
E: This suggests that stress management techniques would be an effective strategy in predicting abstinence
maintenance.
Evaluate that it varies by the type of addiction as a limitation of Stress as a risk factor of addiction
P Varies by the type of addiction.
E: Arevalo et al interviewed 393 women from substance abuse programmes in Massachusetts. They found evidence of an association between stress and illicit drug use, but no association between stress and alcohol addiction.
E: However, a limitation of this study is the use of self-report measures, which are vulnerable to social desirability
effects. This may have led to the under-reporting of drug use which would affect the validity of the findings.
Describe research into personality as a risk factor
Barnes et al (2000) developed the addiction prone personality (APP) scale as a way of assessing the influence of personality factors on addictive behaviour and found that personality was a significant predictor of ‘heavy’ marijuana use.
Studies using the APP scale have shown that this scale is an effective way of discriminating drug addicts from nonaddicts and predicting the severity of addiction and likelihood of remission during recovery.
Individuals with neurotic and psychopathic traits are believed to be more vulnerable to addiction, due to the attraction
of substance abuse in helping to escape the everyday stresses of life.
What are three personality traits that may cause addiction
Neuroticism
Psychoticism
Extroversion
Describe Neuroticism
negative and unstable emotions, high anxiety and a tendency to low moods.
People high in neuroticism often experience negative affect (depression, anxiety)
Describe Psychoticism
emotional coldness, aggression, impatience and impulsivity
(reacting with little forethought/not thinking about the consequences of one’s actions).
Describe Extroversion
chronically under aroused and bored and seek external stimulation to increase their brain arousal.
What is a strength and a limitation of Personality as a risk factor of addiction
S: Research support
L: Correlational evidence
Evaluate research support as a strength of personality as a risk factor of addiction
P: Supporting evidence for the neurotic and psychotic personality and addiction.
E: Gossop & Eysenck researched over 200 addicts at various London treatment centres. The ppts were all polydrug users with heroin being a particular problem. Their personalities were assessed using the
Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ). They found a significant association between both neuroticism and
psychoticism and addiction.
E: This evidence supports that personality is linked to addictive behaviour. However, the study used the EPQ to assess
personality, this is a self-report method which is prone to bias and inaccuracies. As the supporting evidence may lack validity it may not provide strong evidence.
Evaluate correlational research as a limitation of personality as a risk factor of addiction
P: Research has only shown a correlation between personality and addictive behaviour.
E: It is possible that other mediating factors are at play such as genetics, family influence or childhood trauma alongside personality factors. If there is a relationship, the question is whether the personality trait or the addiction comes first.
E: Supporting research does not identify if personality is the initial trigger of the addictive behaviour or just one of
many contributing factors. It therefore cannot further our understanding of the cause of addictive behaviour.
