GAMBLING

GAMBLING

1. any activity which money (or anything valuable) is put at risk on an event of uncertain outcomes that relies, in part or entirely, on chance.

2. Types of gambling

   • Problem
     • characterised by difficulties in limiting money and/or time spent on gambling, which leads to adverse consequences for the gambler, for others or the community
   • Pathological
     • characterised by persistent and recurrent gambling behaviour that disrupts personal, family and/or work-related relationships and activites

3. Impulse control

   • psychological effort made to resist an urge/temptation to do something potentially harmful to oneself or others

4. Biological contributing factors

   • Dopamine reward systen
     • neural pathway in the brain, that, when stimulated, provides feelings of enjoyment and pleasure, which can reinforce and motivate a person to perform certain activities
     • dopamine agonists
       • stimulate the release of dopamine and mimic dopamine to produce its effects
         • L-dopa
     • dopamine antagonists
       • inhibits the activity if a neurotransmitter
         • Naltrexone

5. Psychological contributing factors

   • social learning theory
     • emphasises observational learning and describes it as involving a sequence of processes called attention, retention, reproduction, motivation and reinforcement
     • live models
       • people whom we have direct contact, such as parents, siblings, teachers and friends

6. Schedules of reinforcement

   • partial reinforcement
     • player can't determine frequency of reinforcement as it varies unpredictably
   • fixed schedule reinforcement
     • arrival of reinforcer is usually predictable
   • variable schedule
     • promotes steadily response rate that can be maintained over a long period without reinforcement
   • extinction
     • gradual decrease in the strength or rate of a learned response following consistent non-reinforcement of a correct response
   • variable ratio schedule
     • reinforcement is given immediately after an unpredictable number of correct responses and there is a constant mean number of correct responses for giving reinforcement
   • random ratio schedule
     • occurs when the reinforcer is given after a random number of responses and each response has an equal chance of reinforcement

7. Treatement

   • cognitive behavioural therapy
     • treatment method that combines cognitive and behavioural therapies to help people overcome a mental health problem or disorder
     • cognitive component
       • help person become more balanced and accurate thoughts, beliefs and attitudes about playing and winning games of chance
       • illusion of control
         • refers to the mistaken belief that outcomes of random unpredictable events can be influenced by one's thoughts or actions
       • gamber's fallacy
         • refers to the false belief that in a series of independent chance events, future events can be predicted from past ones
     • behavioural component
       • assists the person to use behavioural techniques to manage tension, anxiety or arousal that is frequently associated with compelling urges to gamble
       • imaginal desenstisation
         • exposes the individual to mental images of gambling opportunities while they are in a state of relaxation, so that, overtime, they will learn to associate feelings of relaxation with gambling rather than tension or arousal
   • psychodynamic psychotherapy
     • aims to help people understand the roots of emotional distress by exploring unconscious conflicts, motives, needs and defences
     • abstinence
       • voluntary restraint from activity that gives pleasure
     • free association
       • encouraged to say whatever comes to mind and assesses themes involved with development of gambling
     • denial
       • refusal to believe whatever it is that may be causing one's anxiety or emotional conflict
     • rationalise
       • come up with endless variety of reasons to justify the negative consequences
     • omnipotence
       • feeling of being all powerful and is direct defence against feelings of inadequacy and helplessness
     • transference
       • client unconsciously responds to the therapist as if they are a significant person in their life and shifts or transfers unresolved conflicts to their therapist
     • defence mechanisms
       • examines defence mechanisms they are likely to be using

8. Socio-cultural contributing factors

   • social permission
     • well entrenched in australia -three in four aussies gamble at some time of the year
   • social networks
     • social support
       • help or assistance from other people when needed during recovery process
       • appraisal support
         • having access to someone to talk to and obtain feedback about impulses and problems associated with gambling
       • tangible support
         • to help pay a bill payment etc
       • informational support
         • such as a web address of a social network for people with gambling problems
       • emotional support
         • help coping with problems being experienced
     • recovery group/support group
       • is a group run by and for people to interact on the basis of common interests or experiences to support one another