Therapies & Interventions for Addiction: Aversion Therapy (AQA GCSE Psychology): Revision Note

Aversion therapy to treat addiction

• Aversion therapy to treat addiction works on the principles of classical conditioning 

• Classical conditioning (learning via association) works as follows:

  • A neutral stimulus is substituted for the original unconditioned stimulus to produce a conditioned response 

  • An unconditioned stimulus produces a natural, unforced response

  • Classical conditioning is attributed to Pavlov, working with dogs in his lab:

    • The dog is given food (unconditioned stimulus)

    • The dog salivates when it sees and smells the food (unconditioned response)

    • A bell (neutral stimulus) is sounded every time the food is presented (the pairing of neutral and unconditioned stimuli)

    • After repeated pairings of bell and food dog salivates when it hears the bell

    • The bell has become the conditioned stimulus

    • The dog salivating to the sound of the bell has become the conditioned response

• In terms of aversion therapy, classical conditioning is used to break the individual’s pleasurable association with the addictive substance and replace it with a negative association

Treating alcoholism

• The alcoholic is given the drug Antabuse, which causes them to feel nauseous and eventually vomit

• Just before they vomit, they're given an alcoholic drink (often whisky, for its strong taste and smell) so the vomiting (caused by the Antabuse) and the alcohol become paired together

• Repeating this strengthens the association between the drink and vomiting:

  • Before learning: Antabuse (UCS) → Vomiting (UCR)

  • During learning: Antabuse (UCS) + Alcohol (NS) → Vomiting (UCR)

  • After learning: Alcohol (now CS) → Vomiting (now a CR)

• This treatment is repeated until the individual no longer wants to drink alcohol

• Alcohol, once associated with pleasure, becomes associated with something unpleasant and is avoided

Aversion therapy for alcoholism

Treating smoking

• Rapid smoking involves the smoker sitting in a closed room and inhaling cigarette smoke rapidly and deeply until they feel disgust and nausea

• These feelings become associated with smoking more generally, so that afterwards, just looking at a cigarette triggers disgust/nausea (now a conditioned response)

Treating gambling

• Electric shocks are used as the aversive stimulus for gambling addiction

• The gambler writes gambling-related phrases on cards, which are mixed into a pack with non-gambling phrases (e.g. "I ate dinner")

• They read each card aloud; on a gambling-related phrase they receive a mild but painful electric shock, at a level they've selected beforehand

  • Shock = UCS, pain = UCR

  • The gambling-related phrases (originally a neutral stimulus) become the CS

  • Pain becomes the CR

Evaluation of aversion therapy

Strengths

• Aversion therapy takes a holistic approach: Aversion therapy can be combined with CBT for greater effectiveness

• Aversion therapy targets the addictive behaviour directly, while CBT addresses the underlying causes of the addiction and provides coping strategies for when the person feels close to relapse

  • This gives longer-lasting support alongside aversion therapy's removal of the immediate urge to use

Weaknesses

• Treatment adherence issues: The aversive stimulus has to be genuinely unpleasant to work, so many addicts drop out before treatment is complete

  • This biases the research as participants who remain in studies tend to be those who have a stronger desire to quit, making it hard to draw general conclusions about the therapy's effectiveness

• Poor long-term effectiveness: McConaghy et al. (1991) found aversion therapy was much more effective at reducing gambling behaviour and cravings after one month than after one year; at one year it was no more effective than a placebo

  • This suggests that aversion therapy lacks lasting effectiveness