GCSE Edexcel Psychology - Psychological Problems (2022/2023) Rated A+

GCSE Edexcel Psychology - Psychological Problems (2022/2023) Rated A+ Nature Refers to the biological factors that can influence a persons' behavior and these are generally in place even before we are born. Nurture Refers to the environmental factors that can influence a persons' behavior mostly after they are born. Symptoms of Substance Addiction A feeling that the person needs to take the substance. Ignoring evidence that the use of the substance is harmful to them Stopping or reducing is difficult Symptoms of Behavioral Addiction They need to do the activity regularly They ignore arguments that the activity is unhealthy or damaging Reducing activity is very difficult Features of Addiction Denial Lack of patience Impulsive behavior Inability to deal with stress Incidence of Addiction The change in the definition of addiction which makes it difficult to estimate the true number of people with addiction Many people may not realize they have an addiction or may not seek help How addiction affects individuals Ignore their family Daily life(work,school,etc) Spend money on drugs instead Don't look after themselves Low quality of life/health How addiction affects society Impact on workplace Health problems which means time taken away from work Lack of self-care (not completing work) Companies pay to cover the workload of individual Cost of healthcare services Criminal behavior Emotional & physical costs for victims The role of genes in explaining addiction The DDR2 gene has been shown to be related to developing addiction. Many different addictions have been linked to a variation of this gene, known as A1. This gene is thought to affect the way the brain reacts to pleasurable activities so that a person needs to do something more often to get a normal 'buzz' from it. Dorit Carmelli et al. (1992) Identical twins - if one was a smoker there was a higher chance of the other one smoking then if the twins were not identical Donald Goodwin et al. (1973) Adopted children who had at least one biological parent with alcohol addiction were highly likely to show signs of alcohol addiction themselves Cadoret et al. (1987) Adopted children who shared a biological link with someone with alcohol problems were most likely to have problems with alcohol themselves Alcohol misuse in the adoptive family, then the adoptee had a greater risk of developing an addiction to alcohol. Diana Marinez et al. (2004) Heavy users of cocaine were most likely to have a particular version of a dopamine receptor gene Strengths of the biological explanation of addiction There is a lot of scientific evidence to support the genetic explanation for addiction Twin studies and adoption studies act as a control for possible factors that could explain addiction Weaknesses of the biological explanation of addiction The genetic explanation is reductionist because it fails to take social factors into account Research has not been able to find a single gene that explains where addiction comes from. This makes it difficult to pinpoint exactly what is causing the addiction. Explain the principles of stimulus and response learning Stimulus-Response theory is a concept in psychology that refers to the belief that behavior manifests as a result of the interplay between stimulus and response. In other words, behavior cannot exist without a stimulus of some sort, at least from perspective. Apply classical conditioning to explain addicition Classical conditioning states that behavior is learned through associations, so when two or more things happen at around the same time our mind 'links' them together. these two things automatically connected to one another, so in the future, when we experience one of these things, the other will be automatically triggered. This could explain why people first become addicted to something. If a substance or activity is associated with positive feelings in some way, the per