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NICOTINE ADDICTION - LEARNING THEORY - Coggle Diagram
NICOTINE ADDICTION - LEARNING THEORY
operant conditioning
reinforcement : anything in the environment that strengthens a behaviour, increasing the probability that it will reoccur in the future
there are three different rewards that could explain the development of addiction to nicotine
assumes that behaviour is learnt through consequences
physiological rewards: eg. increases dopamine produced in the nucleus accumbens, resulting in feelings of pleasure
psychological rewards eg. perceived rewards and stress relief
social rewards eg. popularity amongst peers
negative reinforcement
these appear once the effects of nicotine wear off
withdrawal symptoms: irritability, shaking, anxiety, headaches
explains why individuals continue to smoke and why many relapse, as they seek to reduce or avoid the unpleasant withdrawal symptoms
an individual may seek to avoid these intense cravings by engaging in the smoking behaviour again (negative reinforcement), resulting in relapse
cue reactivity
cues eg. smell of cigarette smoke, increases the likelihood that the smoker will respond by smoking
they are associated with the rewarding effects of nicotine
stimuli that occur immediately before or at the same time as the smoking behaviour and become heavily associated with the primary reinforcer (nicotine) - know as secondary reinforcers
these conditioned cues therefore often trigger relapse
smoking related cues rapidly become conditioned stimuli and activate the same brain areas as nicotine
SLT
if smoking is seen to have positive outcomes, then this may lead to an increased likelihood of imitation and repetition of the behaviour in future
The learning of smoking behaviour occur through observation particularly of role models, who individuals identifies with and therefore pay more attention to
research support
levin et al 1981 - gave rats the choice of self-administering doses of nicotine by licking one of two waterspouts (one contained nicotine)
the rats licked the nicotine waterspout significantly more often
support for operant conditioning as an explanation for nicotine addiction
this suggest that nicotine is psychologically rewarding and that its effect positively reinforce self administration in rats
extrapolation issues
issues with generalising findings from animal research to explanation to nicotine in humans
human behaviour is arguably far more complex in terms of the factors it is influenced by
research support
DiBlasio and Benda 1993 - found peer group influences to be the primary influence for adolescents who experiment with smoking
adolescents who smoked were more likely to hang out with other adolescents who also smoked
support for the role of social learning influences
perhaps due to conforming to the norms of their reference group and imitating the behaviour of admired peers
thus demonstrating the influence of vicarious reinforcement
research support
youths whose parents smoke were 1.88x more likely to take up smoking
2.46x more likely to smoke if there siblings smoked
Karcher and Finn 2005 found that
if close friends smoked, they were 8x more likely to smoke
adds further support to the social learning explanation