Karteikarten
Personality
Karten in diesem Stapel (14)
- 1Eysenck's theoryEysenck's theory of personality outlined the characteristics of extroverts/introverts, neurotics/stables and psychoticism/normality and he argued that addiction develops in an individual because it fulfils a need that relates to their personality profile
- 2scoresa number of research studies have tested the personality of addicts and looked for common patterns in their scores on the EPQ. these studies compare addicts with a control group on 3 dimensions and their lie score
- 3Gossop and Eysenck 1980researched over 200 drug addicts and found that addicrs had hiugh P and N scores but lower E and L scores than the control group
- 4Psychoticism and Impulsivityone trait associated with P is impulsivity. often addicts act impulsively without thinking through the consequences. impulsivity will also cause problems when the individual is trying ot abstain from their addiction
- 5de Wit 2009found that impulsiveness was both a cause and effect of drug abuse
- 6Laura Stevens 2014found that impulsive individuals were less successful in treatment programmes as they were more likelly to drop out an dless likely to achive and maintain abstinence
- 7Neuroticism and self-medicationit may be that neurotic individuals are using the addiction as a means of self-medication to deal with the stress they are experiencing. another cjharacterisirtic of neutotic individuals is low self-esteem
- 8Baumeister 1997suggests that low self-esteem may lead people to act in a manner that is self-defeating in order to escape self-awareness
- 9Difficulty establishing cause and effect (1)most of the research into addiction and personality is correlational. personality tests are usually given after the individual has developed the addiction which therefore means that cause and effect can't be established
- 10Difficulty establishing cause and effect (2)however, there is evidence from prospective studies that support the idea that personality causes addictive behaviour
- 11Dong 2013students were given the EPQ after entering the uni and 2 years later their addiction to the internet was assessed. found that higher P and N scores were linked to addiction and the prospectiv design suggests it was a cause rather than an effect
- 12Stoess 1993looked at individuals tendency to become addicted to a range of different activities and couldn't find a common pattern. therefore the type of personality involved might depend on the specific addictive behaviour being investigated
- 13the myth of the addictive personalitymany of the traits are not unique to addiction. for example, Eysenck found high P and N scores in criminals
- 14Kerr 1996refers to the idea of an addictive personality as one of the 'myths' of addiction and suggests that there are so many traits listed that these would be typical of most individuals to some degree. therefore it may not be appropriate to refer to an addictive personality