Personality & Social Influences (AQA A Level Psychology): Revision Note

Personality as a risk factor

• Psychologists generally agree that there is no such thing as an overarching 'addictive personality', and traits such as hostility and neuroticism have not been found to be linked with addiction (Butler & Montgomery, 2004)

  • The strongest correlation is between addiction-related behaviour and antisocial personality disorder (APD), which begins in early adolescence and incorporates many personality-related risk factors, the key one being impulsivity

• APD is marked by a lack of planning, a high degree of risk-taking, a preference for immediate gratification of desires, and a chaotic lifestyle

• Cloninger (1987) proposed a tri-dimensional theory of addictive behaviour, arguing that people inclined towards addiction have imbalances in three temperament dimensions

  • Harm avoidance – the amount that a person worries and sees the negative elements of a situation, making them cautious, apprehensive, and likely to avoid risky behaviours

  • Novelty seeking – an individual will actively and impulsively seek new environments and exciting experiences

  • Reward dependence – a strong need for approval and social attachments, being motivated by the anticipation of positive outcomes

• Novelty seeking overlaps closely with the impulsivity identified in APD, so the two accounts point towards a similar underlying trait

  • People who are high on novelty seeking and low on harm avoidance, with a need to fit in socially, may be at risk of becoming addicted to substances and behaviours that gain them approval and provide excitement

Research which investigates personality as a risk factor

• Howard et al. (1997) conducted a meta-analysis of research investigating Cloninger’s tri-dimensional theory and found that novelty seeking predicted alcohol abuse, but harm avoidance and reward dependence had a less consistent relationship with addiction

• Ivanov et al. (2008) reviewed research and concluded that many studies strongly support the link between impulsivity and addiction, speculating that this could be because they share a neurological basis, or even a common genetic component

Social influences as risk factors

Family & peer influences

• Family influences can operate through social learning or expectancies

  • Social learning:

    • When the child observes family role models (parents or other family members) enjoying smoking and/or drinking alcohol, the child learns through watching the enjoyment the smoker or drinker experiences (vicarious reinforcement) that this is a positive and pleasurable thing to do

    • Social learning theory can explain how the imitation of family role models may constitute a risk factor for addiction

  • Expectancies:

    • These are schemas formed from learning and experience in the family environment, which allow the child to predict their parents’ reaction if the child tries these addictive substances, e.g. My parents will go mad if they know I’ve been smoking

    • Expectancies explain how the perception of family approval of the behaviour can be a risk factor, e.g. My parents are cool with me smoking

    • If a child believes their parents approve of an addictive behaviour by engaging in it themselves, then the child feels free to try the activity, as they do not fear disapproval

• Peer influence is potentially a great risk factor for addiction, as the same principles of social learning and expectancies apply as with family influence

  • Peer pressure has been linked to first-time use of nicotine and recreational drugs, especially in adolescence

Stress

• Chronic stress may increase the likelihood of someone becoming addicted to substances and behaviours that give temporary relief as a way of coping with the stress

• If a person has good social support, then this can reduce the likelihood of stress resulting in addiction

• Conversely, the stress associated with poverty and overcrowded living conditions can increase the likelihood of a person turning to addictive substances

• There is a correlation between poor and overcrowded urban areas and high levels of people with addictions

• However, this does not mean that overcrowding and poverty cause addiction, as people with addictions may move to live in these areas because housing costs are cheaper and there is greater availability of addictive substances

• There is also the possibility that addiction increases stress due to the social problems and poverty it can cause, leading to yet more substance abuse to cope

Research which investigates social influences as risk factors

• Bonomo et al. (2001) found that teenagers who had experienced an alcohol-related injury were significantly more likely than others to have parents who drank alcohol daily

• Livingston et al. (2010) found that final-year high-school students who were allowed by their parents to drink alcohol at home were significantly more likely to drink excessively the following year at college

• Epstein et al. (1998) used data from the National Women's Study and found a strong correlation between severe childhood trauma and adult alcohol addiction, but only for those diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

  • This suggests there is no inevitable relationship between a traumatic childhood event and later addiction; a child will only have an addiction problem if they have both a vulnerability and a later stressful situation

Evaluation of personality and social influences as risk factors

Strengths

• Hawkins et al. (1992) believe that a focus on risk factors is a highly promising strategy for preventing and treating addictions, as if we can understand what the risk factors are and more importantly how they interact, we have an opportunity to identify those in the population who are most at risk

• Identifying risk factors, such as the influence of family and peers, can lead to educational campaigns in schools to help reduce the start of substance dependence in vulnerable teenagers, showing that research on risk factors has real-life applications

  • E.g., Tobler et al. (2000) created a peer pressure resistance training programme to prevent young people taking up smoking

Limitations

• There are interactions between all risk factors – combinations matter more than single risk factors, and these determine the nature and severity of an addiction

  • Some risk factors can be protective, e.g., certain personality traits and family and peer influences make addiction less likely; therefore, the path to addiction is much more complex than suggesting one risk factor is more important than the other

• Research into risk factors is correlational; therefore, there are issues determining cause and effect

  • E.g., in the correlation between stressful poverty and addiction, it is not always clear which came first, the addiction or the stressful living conditions

  • In the correlation between peer influence and addiction, it could be that adolescents who are already vulnerable to drug use are likely to be attracted to deviant peer groups

Issues & Debates

• Both explanations suggest a deterministic view of addiction — that individuals may be predisposed (biologically or socially) to addictive behaviour

  • This can challenge personal responsibility and free will, particularly in public health and treatment approaches

• The personality approach is psychologically reductionist, focusing narrowly on traits while ignoring social and situational factors

  • A holistic perspective is more appropriate, recognising that addiction is likely the result of an interaction between multiple risk factors (biological, psychological, social)