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Julia Baca
Dr Miller
Psychology 101
29 November 2014
Developmental Factors of Substance Abuse
As seen in many cultures throughout today's society, substance abuse is becoming more and
more prominent. A greater majority of people are running into abuse problems because these
substances, such as drugs and alcohol, are slowly becoming easier to find, allowing addictions to
become easier. The addiction of substance abuse can be attributed to several different factors related to
psychology, including biology, sensation/perception, learning theories (conditioning), cognition, and
social psychology. In other words, substance abuse can be developed through several different ways.
Information learned throughout the course of psychology 101 will allow us to explain the above factors
involved in developing substance abuse.
The development of substance abuse can be explained biologically. Looking deeper than the
mere surface of the body, we are able to find an explanation as to how people become addicted to
drugs and rely on them in order to get through daily activities. In the brain, psychoactive drugs and
toxins work to block and enhance synaptic transmission (Miller 2014). Take, for example, marijuana,
currently the most popular illicit drug in the United States. When marijuana is smoked, it releases
cannabinoids into the brain, which are already present, just in lower amounts. The cannabinoid level
increases when the drug is smoked. THC, a specialized kind of cannabinoid resembles anandamide, a
neurotransmitter already found in the brain. Normally, neurons don't fire continually, allowing our
brains to be calm and under control. With THC and cannabinoids, neurons fire continuously. People
become addicted to the result of continuously fired neurons, including increased levels of dopamine and
norepinephrine in the brain. Feelings of euphoria, relaxation, pain modulation, and general
enhancement of activities are the ending result (youtube.com). Through the simple use of a drug,
people are able to change the way their brain works biologically, most likely without even knowing the
processes involved. Euphoria, relaxation, and general enhancement of experiences become addicting,
and people crave and use the substance, regardless of the negative consequences. Slowly but surely,
dependency of drugs is used to get through every day, in fear of losing the "high," thus developing
substance abuse. Aside from how drugs and other substances affect the brain biologically, people may
be biologically vulnerable to particular drugs through heredity. A study done by Crabbe in 2002 shows
that heredity influences aspects of alcohol abuse problems. If a biological parent has a history of alcohol
dependence, offspring of this parent have higher chances of alcohol dependency due to heredity (Myers
126). A study done by Kendler et al. in 2002 shows that an identical twin with alcohol or marijuana
dependency increases the likely hood of the other twin developing alcohol and marijuana problems as
well (Myers 126). These studies show evidence of heredity and biology playing large roles in the
development of substance abuse. People most likely don't realize they're at a higher risk of developing
abuse problems, all due to their family members passing on bad genes.
Aside from biology and heredity playing roles in the development of substance abuse, sensation
and perception both play roles as well. Sensation is defined as the process by which our sensory
receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment, while
perception is defined as the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to
recognize meaningful objects and events (Myers 224). According to Myers, perceptions are influenced
by our expectations, emotions, and motivation (Myers 232). I believe that emotions and motivation play
a large role in developing substance abuse, thus affecting perception. A relative of mine developed
substance abuse while in college, forcing him to drop out. While in college, he was more motivated to
party and hang out with friends than to succeed in school. This negative motivation took him down the
wrong path and led him to develop substance abuse for things other than alcohol, such as drugs.
Because he developed this substance abuse for drugs, his girlfriend broke up with him, thus causing
more negative motivation for him to continue the drugs and alcohol. Eventually he landed in rehab and
is currently working on breaking this addiction he has to drugs and alcohol. Clearly, my relatives' motives
were wrong, which were directed by an incorrect perception formation of partying being the most
important part of school. Partying caused any positive motives to be forgotten about, and sadly, most
people end up dropping out of school due to this type of perception. Dropping out of school obviously
isn't the only negative consequence of poor decisions and motives, but the above example evidences
how sensation and perception, mainly, can cause substance abuse and lead people down the wrong
paths when an abuse is formed.
Consciousness is a third factor influencing substance abuse. Consciousness is based upon how
aware we are of ourselves and our surroundings. There are three different types of consciousness:
spontaneous, physiologically induced, and psychologically induced (Miller 2014). Consciousness is said
to be very malleable, meaning it is able to be changed through a variety of ways. Specifically,
physiologically induced consciousness is very relatable to substance abuse and explains how it is able to
change one's conscious. It is induced by hallucinations, drugs, and starvation, which are all negative
ways of changing consciousness. Psychoactive drugs change our perceptions and moods, and exist in
three different categories: depressants, stimulants, and hallucinogens. Depressants are drugs such as
alcohol, tranquilizers, and opiates, which slow neural activity and bodily functions (Myers 117). People
become addicted to the feelings these drugs bring, such as invincibility. Stimulants include caffeine,
nicotine, cocaine, methamphetamine, and ecstasy. These drugs speed up neural activity and bodily
functions, causing pupils to dilate, heart and breathing rates to increase, blood sugar levels to rise, and
energy and self-confidence to rise (Myers 119). Hallucinogens include marijuana, LSD, and ecstasy. They
distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input (Myers 123). These three
categories cause people to form substance abuse, because as discussed earlier, they cause addictions
due to the powerful symptoms they provide. People get hooked and therefore experience negative
changes in consciousness. Clearly, these are all non-healthy ways to change consciousness. People may
want to change consciousness because they feel a lack of purpose in their lives, are experiencing major
stress, or may have a psychological disorder such as depression. A few healthy ways to change
consciousness include sleep (dreaming) and meditation, which should be used instead of turning to
alcohol or drugs.
Learning can be greatly linked to substance abuse. The psychological definition of learning is a
relatively permanent change in behavior, or behavior potential that occurs as the result of practice or
experience (Miller 2014). A big part of learning, called classical conditioning, occurs when an organism
comes to associate two stimuli together, such as lightning and thunder or the commonly known
example, Pavlov's dogs salivation experiment (Miller 2014). Classical conditioning occurs greatly in
substance abuse. A good example is a college student under great stress due to a large work load from
classes. When the student starts to feel very stressed during the week, he or she starts to drink alcohol
with friends over the weekend to have some fun in attempt to alleviate the stress. Eventually, the
student becomes so over-bared with stress, that he realizes he often finds himself thinking of how the
alcohol takes away the stress when drinking with friends. The student then begins drinking during the
week whenever stressed, in hopes that the alcohol will alleviate it, just like it did over the weekend. The
student eventually may even drop out of school because he has become an alcoholic, all due to stress.
The unconditioned stimulus in this example is the large work load from classes which in turn triggers the
unconditioned response of stress. The conditioned stimulus is the stressful feelings, which over time
began to trigger the conditioned response of drinking alcohol during the week. Operant conditioning is a
second type of learning, which studies how behavior is affected by its consequences, and focuses on
voluntary learning responses (Miller 2014). B.F. Skinner describes operant conditioning as this: actions
followed by good outcomes are likely to recur, and actions followed by bad outcomes are less likely to
recur (Miller 2014). This can be strongly linked to substance abuse in addition to classical conditioning. A
good example of operant conditioning could be a person who begins abusing marijuana. The first time
this person uses marijuana, he really likes the feelings of relaxation and euphoria which come from
smoking the drug. Because this person's behavior of smoking the illicit drug was followed by a good
outcome of feeling relaxed and happy, he begins to repeatedly smoke, and becomes addicted to the
way it makes him feel. Before the person knows it, he has become addicted to marijuana and
experiences substance abuse. Sadly, this happens to so many people now a days, which really affects the
way people think and act. Drugs cause humans to stop caring about a lot of things, and this is hurting
the future of our country. Thankfully, it is very possible to decrease substance abuse and even put it to
extinction. Punishment is an aversive event which decreases the behavior that it follows, and is able to
control any unwanted behavior (Miller 2014). Since substance abuse is usually linked to the use of illegal
drugs, a good punishment could be time in jail so the abuser is unable to continue using the drugs. Also,
in class we discussed good ways to stop a behavior. If a person acknowledges the fact that they have an
abuse problem, this person could start taking medication that makes them feel nauseas when they feel
the need to return to their addiction, and is known as aversion therapy and is discussed in full later on
(Miller 2014). This works really well for people who have a tobacco smoking problem and are attempting
to quit. Basically, there are several ways in which people can learn substance abuse. They are able to
learn through an internal process, or they can observe a behavior or performance.
Cognition is mental activity which involves the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of
knowledge (Miller 2014). When people have conflicting thoughts, this is when cognitive dissonance
occurs. People feel uncomfortable about the way these thoughts make them feel, so they attempt to
justify their actions, beliefs, and attitudes in order to reduce dissonance (Miller 2014). Cigarette smokers
tend to feel a lot of dissonance in the fact that they smoke, because they know that smoking is
unhealthy. They then can have two separate ways of thinking. The first thought that may run through
their mind is that smoking cigarettes is unhealthy, therefore I must quit smoking. Oftentimes, this is a
regular thought that people can't quite achieve because quitting tobacco is hard for them. A second
thought, which attempts to justify any uncomfortable feelings of dissonance, may cause somebody's
thought process to go like this. "Since research on smoking cigarettes is inconclusive, it's okay to
smoke." Too often, people sincerely know that an action is bad, and they feel all too uncomfortable
about the way they're feeling (Miller 2014). Overtime, people start to believe the lies they tell
themselves. Actions such as smoking tobacco causes these thoughts and lies in their heads to become
automatic.
Social psychology is the scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one
another. Our brains work differently when in the actual presence of others, in the implied presence of
others, and in the imagined presence of others (Miller 2014). Social psychology greatly explains several
reasons as to how substance abuse problems arise. We may be pressured by several different outside
sources to do the wrong thing, and social psychology has many different theories to describe this. First
off, we can use the fundamental attribution error to explain how substance abuse problems arise. The
fundamental attribution error (FAE) is the tendency to overestimate the effect of personality and
underestimate the situation a person is in, to explain social behavior (Miller 2014). For example, if your
friend goes away to college and comes back and drinks alcohol, your first thought is, "Wow, he must
have started partying a lot during the semester." This is your first thought of overestimating your
friend's personality qualities, and underestimating the influence of the situation. You make judgments
based upon your first thoughts of what your friend has been doing while away at college. What you
really don't know is that he has become an alcoholic because it's genetic in his family and he has been
under a lot of stress. The fundamental attribution error then says we start to think a little deeper than
we had originally when we made our statement of, "Wow he must have started partying a lot during the
semester." Of course, as humans, our first instinct is to get defensive and a little bit angry, but then we
take a step back and realize that something truly could have gone wrong to cause this person to perform
an action we didn't expect. The FAE can be applied to many different situations, but I thought that this
situation in particular could help us to realize when a friend may be in need if he or she has developed a
substance abuse problem. A social psychology theory called "group think" may also be used to describe
substance abuse. Group think occurs when a group is cohesive, in that they agree on most topics and
typically do not disagree because group harmony is the desired outcome (Miller 2014). A person makes
so many different friends in the course of his lifetime, but we typically make friends who are like us.
Writing from a college student's point of view, I see a lot of people who have the same type of
problems in their lives befriend other people with the same problems. The group of friends encourages
each other with their bad habits, and this tends to have a large effect on the group. If a person develops
a substance abuse problem, this person will want to find other people who abuse the same substance so
they won't have to feel alone. I saw this a lot in high school; most students who didn't care about their
grades and acted out in class tended to smoke cigarettes a lot outside. They'd all stand in a circle, talk,
and smoke. Because they all agreed that school was dumb, and were happy with that agreement, they
didn't want to listen to teachers tell them it's important to care about school. I eventually saw this
become destructive in the students' lives, especially in one friend of mine in particular. She used to be
pretty similar to me, personality wise: quiet, kind, and was friendly. Eventually, she started to care less
about school, and thus got into the crowd of kids who smoked tobacco and started smoking herself. She
made some pretty impulsive decisions which caused her to develop into a person I barely know today.
Group think encourages people to continue on with their substance abuse because one person of the
group won't stand up and take a stand on the abuse; the group wants peace.
You may be wondering why I didn't do anything to stop my friend from the decisions she was
making. This can be explained through the bystander effect. This definitely has a big effect because as
humans, we don't want to create any conflict with others. I loved my friend, and didn't want to create
conflict between us, but because I loved her I should have said something to her. Because neither I nor
my friends said anything to my friend, she continued to develop her substance abuse of both tobacco
and alcohol. Bystander effect is the tendency to be less likely to help if others are also present (Miller
2014). Because I had my friends with me, I was almost too shy to tell my friend that I was concerned
about her. I figured that I had my group of friends who could say something to her also.
Socialization is another social psychology theory which can be used to determine how substance
abuse arises. Over the course of our lifetimes, we come to respect certain people, whether it be because
we want to follow in their footsteps, or we admire their actions, etc. Socialization is just that; we aren't
born with stereotypes against people, but we grow to imitate those who we respect (Miller 2014). Sons
always respect their fathers, and want to be just like them when they grow up. Since we tend to imitate
the people we respect, if a father is an alcoholic, the son has a greater chance of becoming an alcoholic
as well. The son sees his father drinking, and makes a mental note of this. He thinks it's okay to drink a
lot, thus developing a substance abuse problem. Heredity also plays a large role in this. Both my parents
used to drink here and there when my brother and I were little. Fortunately, they both stopped drinking
as we got older because they did not want us to grow up thinking it's okay to drink. I come from a very
conservative family, but I'm glad that my parents did this for us, especially now since alcohol is
prevalently found in college.
Although there are several different social psychology theories that can be applied to
developing substance abuse, a final major theory that applies is called the matching principle. This is the
tendency to choose similar partners or friends based upon social class, education level, religious
backgrounds, and intelligence (Miller 2014). If a person has previously developed a substance abuse
problem, and finds friends or even a romantic partner with the same type of problem, this person isn't
very likely to quit. He or she will be encourage to continue because the influence is right in front of him.
It doesn't help that his friends or partner has the same problem, who most likely isn't quitting or
attempting to get better. Furthermore, social influence and conformity play probably the biggest role in
substance abuse. Conformity is defined as the tendency for people to bring their behavior in line with
group norms (Miller 2014). They want to change in order to meet the group's standards. As humans, we
want to be liked and feel as though we're a part of a group, which is normative social influence. If
somebody wants to be accepted into a group, he or she will change their ways to fit in and feel
accepted. It's easy to say that substance abuse problems arise from the desire to "fit in," but the above
theories explain that there's more to developing these problems that possibly last lifetimes for some
people. If we know anybody with a substance abuse problem, we need to be there for them and help
them. That's where counselors and therapists come into play.
Therapists have the job of helping somebody out who has a problem. Along with showing
support and giving good advice to clients, there are other philosophies of clinical work available to
clients. I believe that aversion therapy has the power to turn people away from their substance abuse
problems. Aversion therapy, also known as exposure therapy, works to decrease attraction to stimuli,
which in this case is some sort of substance (Miller 2014). The substance, say for example, tobacco, is
paired with an unpleasant stimuli. If a person is trying to quit smoking through aversion therapy, he/she
would take a pill that makes them feel nauseous whenever they're tempted to smoke. The nauseas
feeling eventually becomes paired with smoking, thus turning the person away from tobacco. Through
aversion therapy, hopefully more people will come to terms with their substance abuse problems.
There are several different factors which contribute to the development of substance abuse. As
mentioned before, biology, sensation/perception, learning theories (conditioning), cognition, and social
psychology all give different theories as to how the abuse is formed. Although it is unfortunate that
substance abuse may arise though the various factors as described throughout this paper, there are
ways to treat and prevent substance abuse. By giving advice to any family, friends, or peers with
substance abuse problems, we can slowly but surely help one person at a time to better their lifestyle.
Works Cited
Dr. Miller's PowerPoints. (Miller 2014).
Myers, David G. Psychology: Myers in Modules. 6th ed. New York: Worth, 2001. Print.
"Your Brain on Drugs: Marijuana." YouTube. YouTube. Web. 9 Dec. 2014.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeF6rFN9org>.