Addiction
Case 5
Dual processes
Problem statement: “What determines if we act on impulses or on intentions?”
Learning goals:
I. What is impulsivity and intentional behavior? And why does it lead to drug-related choices?
II. What is the dual process model and how does it work?
III. What brain structures are involved in impulsive vs. reflective precursors?
IV. How can the dual process model be applied to addiction?
V. What mediates acting on impulse or on intention?
What is impulsivity and intentional behavior?i
Impulse
Impulsivity = acting on immediate impulses that promise hedonic fulfillment.
Cognitive impulsivity
o Delay discounting task: get a small amount of money now or a larger amount of
money after a delay (weeks, months, year) the small amount now gets preferred.
Motor impulsivity
o Go/No-Go task of Stop-Signal task: responding rapidly to certain target stimuli, but
withholding responses to targets under certain circumstances..
% inappropriate responses (responded when should withheld) is the
indicator.
Characteristics of an impulse:
1. Specific rather than unspecific.
2. When global motivations (thirst) meet specific activating environmental stimuli (glass of
lemonade in summer).
3. A strong stimulating value consisting of a primitive hedonic reaction to the tempting
stimulus.
4. Immediate in temporal and special sense; it’s stimulating value decreases when temporal
or spatial distance increases.
5. Caries the tendency to perform a certain behavior; often an urge to approach or act on a
temptation.
When there’s no resistance in execution one might not even notice the impulsive
behavior, unless it has ended naturally (e.g. the bag of chips is empty)
Self-control
Self-control = the ability to eliminate or inhibit “undesired behavioral tendencies (impulses) and to
not act on them”.
This is an important skill for everyday functioning, since impulses interfere with personal long-
term goals and create interpersonal conflict at some point.
Self-control becomes clear in one’s standards about behavior in a given domain of life (e.g.
keeping a healthy diet or staying faithful to your lover).
Intentional behavior = acting on long term goals to restrain some behaviors.
Self-regulation = the regulation of inner responses such as thoughts and emotions.
, History of impulsivity and self-control
Akrasia
Akrasia (Socrates and Aristotle) = “weakness of will”; acting against one’s better judgement.
Socrates: akrasia does not exist, because “acting against your better judgement makes you
faulty and lacking of knowledge and a proper perspective”.
Aristotle: akrasia does exist, because “people can get overpowered by their passions”.
o The practical conclusion implied by passion (eating the candy) prevents the person
from reaching a second conclusion implies by reason (to not eat the candy).
Heather: addiction can be seen as a form of akrasia, a form with more severe consequences
than ‘ordinary akrasia’. ii
o Requirements of akratic action, which addicts meet: (1) free, (2) intentional, (3)
contrary to one’s better judgement based on practical reasoning, and (4) consciously
recognized as against better judgement.
Criticism
Healthy and unhealthy ill
William James (1890-1950)
Healthy will = a proper balance between impulsive forces and ideal motives.
Unhealthy will = explosive and obstructed will
o Explosive will = impulses are so strong that “inhibition doesn’t have time to arise”.
o Obstructed will = an excess of inhibition.
Id – super-ego – ego
Freud (1933/1949)
Human behavior is the result of conflicting inner forces.
o Id = an entity that operates only on primitive hedonic principles of pleasure and pain,
without looking at the consequences.
o Super-ego = one’s moral principles.
o Ego = a reality check, compromising id and the super-ego.
In past research, the focus has been on the capacity for self-control and the conditions/strategies
affecting it, and not so much on impulses and the power of temptation.
What is the dual process model and how does it work?iii
Horse-rider metaphor: the horse (impulsive processes) can be tamed by the rider (reflective
processes), if the rider is skilled and powerful. iv
Self-control is needed to resists temptations. Temptations create a conflict between the force ‘to do
what we believe is reasonable’ (intentional) and the force ‘to do what pleasure dictates’ (impulsive).
Assumption of the dual-system: structurally different systems on information processing underlie the
production of impulsive and automatic forms of behavior on the other system.
Reflective Impulsive Model (RIM) looks at how the 2 systems compete to determine behavior.
The impulsive system
Impulsive behavior emerges from associative clusters in long-term memory by stimulus input.
These clusters are created/strengthened by temporal or spatial activation of external stimuli,
affective reactions, and associated behavioral tendencies.
Case 5
Dual processes
Problem statement: “What determines if we act on impulses or on intentions?”
Learning goals:
I. What is impulsivity and intentional behavior? And why does it lead to drug-related choices?
II. What is the dual process model and how does it work?
III. What brain structures are involved in impulsive vs. reflective precursors?
IV. How can the dual process model be applied to addiction?
V. What mediates acting on impulse or on intention?
What is impulsivity and intentional behavior?i
Impulse
Impulsivity = acting on immediate impulses that promise hedonic fulfillment.
Cognitive impulsivity
o Delay discounting task: get a small amount of money now or a larger amount of
money after a delay (weeks, months, year) the small amount now gets preferred.
Motor impulsivity
o Go/No-Go task of Stop-Signal task: responding rapidly to certain target stimuli, but
withholding responses to targets under certain circumstances..
% inappropriate responses (responded when should withheld) is the
indicator.
Characteristics of an impulse:
1. Specific rather than unspecific.
2. When global motivations (thirst) meet specific activating environmental stimuli (glass of
lemonade in summer).
3. A strong stimulating value consisting of a primitive hedonic reaction to the tempting
stimulus.
4. Immediate in temporal and special sense; it’s stimulating value decreases when temporal
or spatial distance increases.
5. Caries the tendency to perform a certain behavior; often an urge to approach or act on a
temptation.
When there’s no resistance in execution one might not even notice the impulsive
behavior, unless it has ended naturally (e.g. the bag of chips is empty)
Self-control
Self-control = the ability to eliminate or inhibit “undesired behavioral tendencies (impulses) and to
not act on them”.
This is an important skill for everyday functioning, since impulses interfere with personal long-
term goals and create interpersonal conflict at some point.
Self-control becomes clear in one’s standards about behavior in a given domain of life (e.g.
keeping a healthy diet or staying faithful to your lover).
Intentional behavior = acting on long term goals to restrain some behaviors.
Self-regulation = the regulation of inner responses such as thoughts and emotions.
, History of impulsivity and self-control
Akrasia
Akrasia (Socrates and Aristotle) = “weakness of will”; acting against one’s better judgement.
Socrates: akrasia does not exist, because “acting against your better judgement makes you
faulty and lacking of knowledge and a proper perspective”.
Aristotle: akrasia does exist, because “people can get overpowered by their passions”.
o The practical conclusion implied by passion (eating the candy) prevents the person
from reaching a second conclusion implies by reason (to not eat the candy).
Heather: addiction can be seen as a form of akrasia, a form with more severe consequences
than ‘ordinary akrasia’. ii
o Requirements of akratic action, which addicts meet: (1) free, (2) intentional, (3)
contrary to one’s better judgement based on practical reasoning, and (4) consciously
recognized as against better judgement.
Criticism
Healthy and unhealthy ill
William James (1890-1950)
Healthy will = a proper balance between impulsive forces and ideal motives.
Unhealthy will = explosive and obstructed will
o Explosive will = impulses are so strong that “inhibition doesn’t have time to arise”.
o Obstructed will = an excess of inhibition.
Id – super-ego – ego
Freud (1933/1949)
Human behavior is the result of conflicting inner forces.
o Id = an entity that operates only on primitive hedonic principles of pleasure and pain,
without looking at the consequences.
o Super-ego = one’s moral principles.
o Ego = a reality check, compromising id and the super-ego.
In past research, the focus has been on the capacity for self-control and the conditions/strategies
affecting it, and not so much on impulses and the power of temptation.
What is the dual process model and how does it work?iii
Horse-rider metaphor: the horse (impulsive processes) can be tamed by the rider (reflective
processes), if the rider is skilled and powerful. iv
Self-control is needed to resists temptations. Temptations create a conflict between the force ‘to do
what we believe is reasonable’ (intentional) and the force ‘to do what pleasure dictates’ (impulsive).
Assumption of the dual-system: structurally different systems on information processing underlie the
production of impulsive and automatic forms of behavior on the other system.
Reflective Impulsive Model (RIM) looks at how the 2 systems compete to determine behavior.
The impulsive system
Impulsive behavior emerges from associative clusters in long-term memory by stimulus input.
These clusters are created/strengthened by temporal or spatial activation of external stimuli,
affective reactions, and associated behavioral tendencies.
