Addiction Terms

Question	Answer
Self-efficacy	Belief in your ability to do something well.
Salience	One of the clinical criteria for diagnosing substance dependence - the importance of the behaviour to the individual; prioritising it above everything else.
Mood modification	One of the clinical criteria for diagnosing substance dependence. Addicts can use addictions to bring about mood change.
Tolerance	One of the clinical criteria for diagnosing substance dependence. The increasing amount of activity that is required to achieve the same effect.
Withdrawal symptoms	One of the clinical criteria for diagnosing substance dependence. The unpleasant feelings and physical effects that occur when the addictive behaviour is suddenly stopped/reduced.
Conflict	One of the clinical criteria for diagnosing substance dependence. Develop conflicts with themselves and the people around them.
Relapse	One of the clinical criteria for diagnosing substance dependence. The tendency for repeated reversions to earlier patterns of the particular activity to recur and for even the most extreme patterns, typical of the height of the addiction, to be quickly restored after many years of abstinence/control.
Initiation	The process where individuals start to become addicted.
Maintenance	The process whereby people continue to behave addictively even in the face of adverse consequences.
Down regulation	When there is a reduction in the activity of positive reward circuits in the brain. This generates a stress situation for the addict. The user takes the drugs to avoid an unpleasurable state but as a result of down regulation the drug levels required to trigger the brain reward system increases.
"the vicious cycle"	Beck et al (2001) said that low mood can be relieved by addictive behaviour, addiction can lead to problems, these problems lead to low mood so the cycle begins again.
Self-medication model	The particular addiction isn't chosen at random but has been selected as it's perceived to help a particular problem. It helps fulfil 3 major functions: mood regulation, performance management and distraction.
Expectancy theory	Expectations about the outcomes of addictive behaviour are thought to contribute to their excessive use. Addicts may have a positive expectancy bias towards their addiction.
The cue-reactivity theory	Carter and Tiffany (1999) - addicts react to things associated with their addiction in a similar way to the actual addiction itself, via classical conditioning.
Smoking addiction	An individual has developed an uncontrollable dependence on cigarettes and finds it impossible to stop.
Gambling addiction	Individual demonstrates loss of control of gambling behaviour, exhibit progressive increase in gambling frequency, time spent thinking about gambling etc. and continue to gamble despite negative repercussions on their life.
Behavioural attitude	Made up of behavioural beliefs. If it predicted behaviour you'd expect the behaviour to be in line with attitudes.
Affective attitude	Emotional e.g: it's fun
Instrumental attitude	Consequences e.g: I'll get fitter
Subjective norm	Made up of what we think referent (significant to you) others think about the behaviour (and also whether we're likely to follow their beliefs).
Injunctive norm	What other people think you should do e.g: the doctor thinks you should exercise more.
Descriptive norm	What other people actually do e.g: my mate Dave won £100
Alcohol myopia	The tendency of alcohol to lower cognitive capacity so that only the most obvious characteristics of a situation are attended to.
Behavioural expectation	The perceived likelihood of performing a certain behaviour.
Humanistic therapy	Client-centred therapy.
Behavioural intention	Plans about their future behaviour.
Aversion	A drug which produces unpleasant consequences such as vomiting and nausea, especially when taken alongside other drugs.
Agonist	A drug which is a less harmful replacement for the dependent drug, resulting in fewer side effects and allowing gradual, controlled withdrawal from the substance.
Antagonist	A drug which blocks the effect of the target drug, preventing it from having the desired effect.

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	Created by Hazel Meades over 9 years ago