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GAMBLING ADDICTION - LEARNING THEORY - Coggle Diagram
GAMBLING ADDICTION - LEARNING THEORY
operant conditioning
physiological rewards eg. adrenaline rush, increased dopamine
psychological rewards eg. the 'near miss' - the gambler thinking they are close to winning, which leads to excitement and raised self esteem
different types of rewards that an individual might experience from gambling, which may explain how addiction to gambling could develop
social rewards eg. peer praise, congratulated by others
financial rewards: experiencing a win
contiguity
the reward of positive reinforcement for gambling is immediate, time contiguous
losses on a slot machine result in immediate punishment, but the overall negative feeling does not arise until there has been a series of losses, so the association is not as strong
proximity of stimulus and response
the individual wins are much bigger in magnitude than each loss, the punishment does not evoke such a strength of feeling
positive reinforcement - big win hypothesis
many pathological gamblers report having a 'big win' early in their gambling career or an early prolonged winning streak
they continue to gamble because of a desire to repeat that early peak experience - Aasved 2003
near miss
gambling can provide reinforcement even in the absence of a win
near misses (losses that are 'close' to being wins) create a brief period of excitement/thrill that encourage further gambling - Reid 1986
operant conditioning - partial and variable reinforcement
variable reinforcement: a type of partial reinforcement, where a proportion of response are rewarded, after an unpredictable number of responses or time interval
partial reinforcement: the behaviour is only sometimes reinforced (after a predictable (fixed) or unpredictable (variable) - number of responses/period of time)
reinforcement is resistant to extinction because of the unpredictability of these rewards that encourages people to keep gambling
they cant be sure of when a win will occur, so they continue to gamble as the next play might result in a win
conditioned cues
they encourage someone to revisit a casino or amusement arcade, to experience the positive emotions associated with it
conditioned cues act as triggers for gambling because they have the ability to increase arousal
SLT
will notice the happiness of the parent - attention
retain the memory - retention
A young adult could witness a parent (role model) reviving a big win in an amusement arcade, resulting in vicarious reinforcement
forming positive expectancies - reproduction
receive the same positive outcome - motivation
research support
supported the idea that gambling is reinforcing due to the money, thrill and excitement
near misses often experienced by gamblers are both physiologically and psychologically rewarding
parke and griffiths 2004
they give the gamblers the impression that they are close to winning and confirm their strategy
gamblers get just as physiologically excited when they are nearly winning as when they are winning
partial explanation
reinforcement schedules may lead to irrational beliefs, there is a cognitive element
patterns of wins and losses may lead to irrational thoughts generated by beliefs about gambling machine reinforcement schedules
this would therefore suggest that learning theory and cognitive theory should be combined to explaining gambling addiction