Download Evaluating one Learning Explanation of Substance Misuse

Outline one Learning Explanation of Substance Misuse
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Substance misuse can be explained using operant conditioning through a
combination of positive and negative reinforcement.
Positive reinforcement
 On first use, many illicit drugs produce an immediate strong pleasant effect,
for example the euphoria and rush experienced by heroin users. This acts as a
reward (positive reinforcement).
 This increase the probability that the person will take the drug again in order
to get this reward.
 With drugs like heroin and nicotine, the reward is almost immediate (strong
contingency) and this strengthens positive reinforcement.
Negative reinforcement
 As the brain develops a tolerance for the drug, unpleasant side effects may
begin to affect the addict.
 Negative reinforcement occurs as the addict takes the drug in order to avoid
the onset of these withdrawal effects.
 In other words, a heroin or nicotine addict will take the drug, not just to
receive a reward but to avoid these unpleasant effects.
Evaluating one Learning Explanation of Substance Misuse
Strengths
 Good face validity as it is clear that the
pleasure gained from taking drugs is a
major motivation to take them, and
tolerance/withdrawal effects are part
of the biological explanation of
substance misuse.
 Animal lab. Studies, e.g. Olds and Milner
(1954), have shown that the reinforcing
effect of drugs is very powerful. Rats would cross an electrified grid to
receive drug-like stimulation, whereas they would not do this for food.
 Support for the contingency effect comes from the fact that addicts are more
motivated to take drugs for the immediate pleasure they get (high
contingency) than to stop in order to bring long-term health benefits (low
contingency).
Weaknesses
X This explanation does not show why people start taking drugs, before they
have experienced the reward. This is explained better using social learning
theory or social identity theory.
X The operant conditioning explanation does not explain why some people do not
become addicts. Such individual differences (Professor Mark Griffiths called
this salience) must be down to other factors, such as personality differences
or social factors.
X Some illicit drugs produce unpleasant effects from the start and should put
people off rather than reward them. For example, young people do not tend to
like most alcoholic drinks at first taste. Again, social factors are better at
explaining why people persist into addiction.
X Much research into the operant conditioning explanation of substance misuse
involves animal lab. studies. While these are reliable and replicable, the
findings and conclusions might not apply to humans. In particular, drugaddicted animals are not normal in the wild, so have to be created through
giving them large quantities of drugs. So this is not natural behaviour for
animals, let alone humans.
Comparison with the Biological Explanation
Both explanations tend to be based on controlled laboratory studies, so they both
suffer from problems with validity. The behaviour seen in studies might not apply to
humans in real life.
One main reason for this is that normal human life is subject to a range of social and
environmental factors. These cannot be replicated in a controlled laboratory study.
Blattler et al showed the importance of social factors in maintaining drug use, so
excluding these from studies produces very low ecological validity.
On the other hand, findings and conclusions from such studies can be seen as very
reliable. The studies are highly replicable, and this gives people a lot of confidence in
the resulting theories.
The biological explanation is rooted in “nature”, saying that it is our physiological
response that determines our addiction. On the other hand, the learning explanation
is based on experience and the environment, saying that substance misuse is down to
“nurture”.
Both explanations have led to effective treatments for addiction. The Methadone
Maintenance Treatment for heroin is based on reducing withdrawal effects by
replacing heroin at the synapse. Treatments such as the token economy (learning
approach) are used with drug addicts to encourage them to stop misusing drugs.