Addictive behaviour-Cognitive Explanation- Smoking

Addictive behaviour-Cognitive Explanation- Smoking

1. Three parts of addictive behaviour

   • Initiation= refers to the process where individuals start to become addicted
   • Maintenance= is the process whereby people continue to behave additively even in the face of adverse consequences
   • Relapse= the process whereby individuals who have managed to give up three addictive habits start to show signs and symptoms of the behaviour

2. Cognitive explanations of addictive behaviour

   • The cognitive approach emphasises the habitual ways of thinking and of interpreting events that might lead to the development of addictive behaviour. They are interested in the reason for the additive behaviour, e.g. coping with life’s problems or to ‘self-medicate’

3. Beck's' Vicious cycle

   • Coping by using (smoking/gambling)
   • Financial, social and medical problems
   • low mood

4. Alongside Beck’s model of addiction, there are other explanations such as coping, expectancy and self-efficacy

   • Coping
     • A key idea in the cognitive model of addiction is that people engage in addictive behaviours to cope with stress in their lives. In terms of addiction, coping is thought to fulfil three major functions:
       • Mood regulation: addictive behaviours can be used to increase positive mood and reduce negative mood
       • Performance enhancement: the addictive behaviour may make a person feel alert or more able to perform certain tasks
       • Distraction: the behaviour may serve to distract the addict from less-pleasant life experiences
   • Expectancy
     • If the addict expects the behaviour to have negative consequences rather than positive ones, they are less like to engage in the behaviour, Hansen et al (1991) found those who abuse alcohol are likely to be those who perceive fewer negative consequences. Those who expect strong negative effects (perhaps on moral or religious grounds) are less likely to engage in addictive behaviour. Researchers have shown that expectancies about the effect of an addictive behaviour can sometimes have more of an influence upon the addict’s experience than the actual changes in produces
     • Expectancies do not have to be accurate in order for them to motivate our behaviour. For example, individuals may consume alcohol in part because they think (expect) the alcohol increases sexual arousal, when in fact it has just the opposite physiological effect (Crowe and George 1989)
   • Self-efficacy
     • Self-efficacy refers to our beliefs in ourselves, and whether we believe that we are capable of dealing with he effects of a particular behaviour. Self-efficacy is thought to play a very important role in whether or not we start engaging in addictive behaviours and whether we believe we can do anything about the addictive behaviour once it is established.

5. initiation

   • AO1
     • Whether someone starts to some or not an be explained in terms of expectancy. May think smoking reduces stress, makes them look attractive to the opposite sex, help them make friends, control appetite or weight gain eat ect. In terms of coping, performance enhancement may explain it, think it will help them concentrate at work. Self-efficacy suggests that although it is dangerous and addictive, people believe they are in control and can stop at anytime.
   • AO2
     • Brandon and Baker (1991) suggested people begin smoking because they expect it will relieve boredom.
     • Heishman (1999) found smoking can help people concentrate with increased attentional focus and enhanced performance of well-learned behaviours. The positive effects motivate further use (Kenny and Markou, 2001)

6. Maintenance

   • AO1
     • Can be explained by Beck's vicious circle. People engage in smoking, this leads to health or financial problems which leads to low negative mood, which leads to more smoking. Coping theory may explain why people continue as it really des seem to allow them to concentrate for longer or prevent them from getting bored at work. Self-efficacy- what starts out as behaviour they can control becomes one which they can't cope with the withdrawal effects of and so they continue to smoke. Smokes may expect that giving up will be difficult (as other smokers have said so) and so continue to smoke
   • AO2
     • Eiser (1987) studied 10,000 British adolescents and found they acquired expectations from other smokers and had a greater external locus of control about their health than non-smokers. Supports the idea that thought processes can justify behaviour.
     • However, Cohen and Lichtenstein (1990) found that smoking actually increases stress levels, suggesting it is an irrational beliefs that it decreases stress

7. Relapse

   • AO1
     • Can be explained in terms of self-efficacy- those who have low self-efficacy may feel incapable of giving up for good and so go back to smoking or they feel that as they have given up once, they could do it again and return to smoking as a 'temporary' behaviour. In terms of coping, withdrawal can be unpleasant and so the easiest way to deal with this is to start smoking again
   • AO2
     • Cummings et al (1980) found that smokers relapsed due to negative emotional state (35% of lapses preceded by negative mood, 16% by interpersonal conflict and 20% due to social pressure)
     • Tate et al (1994) told smokers that they should expect no negative experiences during abstinence. This led to fewer somatic effects (e.g. shaking) and psychological effects (e.g. low mood) than in a control group who were not primed in this way. Suggesting expectations can be manipulated by prevent relapse

8. General Evaluation:

   • Cognitive models offers incomplete explanations, being based on expectation, being based on expectations and beliefs, thus ignoring important biological factors (reductionist)
   • The relative success of cognitive behavioural treatments suggests that addiction must have a cognitive component (real life applications)
   • The biological model is a better explanation of the initiation of dependency, but the cognitive model accounts more able for maintenance and relapses
   • Cognitive explanations help explain individual differences, i.e.: why everyone who plays slot machines doesn't become addicted (some develop faulty cognitive biases)
   • Cognitive explanations are better at explaining some additions such as gambling or video games but less so for chemical addictions like heroin or smoking
   • Research often relies on self-report techniques despite evidence to suggest that this kind of data is vulnerable to social desirability (Gaes et al 1978)
   • Cognitive approach believes addictive behaviour is based of false beliefs. By correlating these people can exercise their freewill and remove their addictive behaviour. A move from behaviour that is determined to that which is a product of freewill.