1. Factors Affecting
Addictive Behaviour
Specification
Vulnerability to addiction;
 Risk factors in the development of
addiction, including stress, peers, age and
personality.
 Media influences on addictive behaviour
Addiction Booklet 2

2. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour
What makes some people more vulnerable to addiction? In this
booklet you are going to look at four possible explanations:
1) Personality – i.e., the relatively enduring characteristics of a
person. Aspects of an individual’s personality may increase their
vulnerability to addictive behaviours
2) Stress – is a state emotional strain; people may therefore become
“addicted” in order to self medicate.
3) Peers – i.e., people of equal status; addiction can be linked to the
role of the peer group and the ‘social crowd.’
4) Age – developmental and social aspects relating to age can affect
addiction

3. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Personality
Originally it was believed that addiction led to personality defects,
however research now suggests that it is likely that having certain
personality characteristics may actually increase the likelihood of a
person becoming an addict. AO1
Nathan (1988): supports the
idea that some people will be
more likely to become addicts
due to pre-existing character
defects within the individual
person.
Eysenck (1997) supported the link
between personality and addiction...
He found:
individuals with high levels of
neuroticism (high levels of moodiness,
irritability and anxiety) and also people
with high levels of psychotism
(aggressiveness, emotional coldness
and impulsivity)
.........were more vulnerable to
addiction than others without such
traits.
Elaboration: Having an “addictive
personality” would therefore suggest that
some people will inevitably become
dependent on alcohol, drugs or some other
activity because of a fault within their own
personality.
AO2
AO2

4. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Personality
AO2
Inconclusive: However, the link
between personality and addiction
is complex and uncertain.
According to Teeson et al
(2002) it is difficult to
disentangle the effects of
personality on addiction from
the effects of addiction on
personality.

5. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Personality
Chein et al (1964)
It is likely that the existence of certain individual common
personality traits make the person more vulnerable (i.e., more
likely) to develop an addictive behaviour such as;
* low self-esteem,
* a desire for immediate gratification,
* passivity,
* having a negative outlook on life
and also .....
* having a history of being dependent within relationships
AO2
Page 3
However, according to Gross et al (2011) the
concept of a distinct addictive personality has
not been fully supported
AO2

6. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Personality
Self-esteem
It seems that people with low self-esteem can be more vulnerable
to addiction than others. It is likely that individuals with low self-
esteem are more vulnerable to dependency on a substance or
behaviour in order to help them to escape reality.
Deverensky et al, 2003 found low self-esteem and higher rates of
depression in adolescent gamblers.
AO1
Page 3

7. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Personality
Page 3
Supporting research for the influence of low self-esteem on
the development of addictive behaviours:
Fieldman et al (1995) compared 42 heroin addicts and 47
cocaine addicts (with non drug addicts) and found drug addicts
report lower self-esteem.
Taylor et al (2007) analysed data from a sample of 872 boys
collected over a period of nine years. Those who had very low-
self-esteem at age 11 were at higher risk of addiction
(particular drug dependency) at the age of 20.
AO2
This shows..............
...there seems to be a link between personality characteristics such as low
self-esteem (even if this develops in childhood) and the development of
addictive behaviours during adulthood.
AO3?
Taylor et al (2007) - Longitudinal which is positive because it measures changes in behaviour over
time – but attrition may be a problem.
Correlational evidence – they found a negative correlation – low self-esteem score linked to a high
likelihood of addiction score. But no cause and effect relationship can be established.

8. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Personality
Self-esteem
Addiction typically involves links to substance
abuse (e.g., alcohol, drugs, nicotine, etc), but
increasingly, mobile phone use is being identified
by psychologists as an addictive behaviour. For
some people, addiction occurs because it is
thought that mobile phones provide escape from
situations that users find unpleasant – but what
do you think?
AO1
Page 4
Read the article on
Nomophobia......

9. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Personality
Page 4
Supporting research for the influence of low self-esteem on the
development of addictive behaviours:
•Takao et al (2009) investigated the relationship between
personality and problem mobile phone use.
AO2
Takao et al gave 400 college students questionnaires to establish
their mobile phone use and level of self-esteem. They found that
the problematic mobile phone user tended to be low in self-
esteem and high in self-monitoring.
This shows that the people who became addicted to using mobile phones
shared certain individual personality characteristics (i.e., low self-esteem and
high self-monitoring) and this supports the view that addiction is strongly linked
with personality, specifically levels of self-esteem.

10. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Personality
Page 5
Research into the influence of low self-esteem on the
development of Internet addiction:
Which shows............... that having low self-
esteem within your personality can make a
person vulnerable to many different forms of
addiction.
Armstrong et al (2000) found that pathological internet usage (an
indication of internet addiction) was more common in people with lower
levels of self-esteem. Armstrong reported that self-esteem was
therefore a good predictor of the amount of time spent online and internet addiction.
This suggests that personality factors (such as the level of self-esteem) can increase a
person’s vulnerability to addictive behaviours.
AO2

11. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Personality
Page 5
However there are problems with the evidence linking low self-
esteem to addiction......
AO2
There is contradictory evidence:
 Van Hasselt et al (1993) compared adolescent substance abusers
with adolescents who did not abuse drugs and found that although the
drug abusers were more likely to be depressed, there were no
differences between the groups in terms of self-esteem.
 Greenberg et al (1999) whilst researching multiple dependencies
(i.e., multiple addictive behaviours) in 129 students, did not find a
relationship between these behaviours and low self-esteem.
Newcomb et al also found that risk factors (such as peer drug use and
early alcohol use) were more influential in causing addiction than low
self-esteem

12. Outline the role of
personality in the
development of
addiction (8 marks)
14 minutes

13. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Stress
Increased stress levels are positively correlated with an increased
vulnerability to developing dependency habits, often as a
maladaptive way of dealing with stress.
Stressors can include things like social stressors, such as poor
housing and poverty (financial hardship or financial changes).
These types of stressors tend to be found more in dense urban
environments, which are also associated with increased levels of
addictive behaviours.
AO1
Page 6
AO2 Commentary: Individual differences ~ However, such a relationship isn’t clear cut.
It appears that certain individuals are more negatively affected by everyday stressors,
whilst others find it easy to cope.
Elaborate for AO2....

14. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Stress
Everyday stress – Addiction is generally associated with relieving
anxiety.
Coping strategy? Those who engage in addictive behaviours tend
to report that they smoke, drink, gamble etc as a method of coping
with small daily stresses.
It is because these daily hassles continue that the behaviour is
maintained and this explains why relapse happens, even after long
periods of abstinence.
AO1
Page 6
AO2 Commentary... It may be that people therefore become addicted because the
effect of smoking would be to calm the person down and relieve the anxious response
that may be experienced when the Sympathetic nervous system is activated by the
stressor, i.e., it helps them to cope and therefore makes them feel better.
Elaborate for AO2....

15. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Stress
Traumatic or severe stress – people exposed to severe stress are
more vulnerable to addictions, especially children who have
experienced trauma, for example parental loss and child abuse.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been linked with
addiction
AO1
Page 6
There is research support for the role of PTSD in addiction.
Driessen et al (2008) found that 30% of drug addicts and 15% or
alcoholics also suffered from PTSD.
AO2 elaboration: This evidence therefore suggests that people who
are exposed to severe stress are more vulnerable to addictions.
Elaborate for AO2....
AO2

16. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Stress
Page 6
Elaborate for AO2....
This suggests that stress may explain a
vulnerability to addiction for some, but not all
people.
Individual differences
However, there are important individual differences in the role of
stress in addiction, as stress creates a vulnerability to addiction
in some people, but not in all people.
AO2

17. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Stress
Page 7
Elaborate for AO2....
This suggests that ..it is likely that the gamblers become
so wrapped up in the thrill of their game that they forget about
any external stressors and direct their mind toward other
thought processes and so the HPA is “switched off”.
Elaborate........what else does this suggest:?
That addiction can cause powerful effects on our biology. It
means that people may feel as if indulging in the addictive
behaviour can temporarily remove them from their problems – so
giving the individual a powerful motivation to indulge in the
behaviour again in the future.
Commentary: Online gambling in Canada~ it is claimed by the ‘Canadian study’ that
cortisol levels drop by as much as 17% when players are playing online poker.
What do you think this suggests?
AO2

18. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Stress
Page 7
Further supporting research from animal studies:
Piazza et al (1989) investigated how stress affected
vulnerability to addiction in rats, by demonstrating how
previous repeated exposure to stressful tail-pinching and
amphetamines actually increased activity in the dopamine
neural system; making the rats more disposed to self-
administer amphetamines in the future.
This suggests that stress affects drug taking via the action of
neurobiology (i.e., chemicals in the brain - in rats!).
AO2

19. APPROACHES?
ISSUES?
Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Stress
Page 7
IDEAs.....AO2
Issues:
Animal ethics: Cruel experiments, etc
(also problems with extrapolating results
[AO3])
Human ethical issues: Social sensitivity~
not everyone from a “deprived” area is an
addict – also not everyone with PTSD is an
addict.
Approaches:
Biological – Nature? (Stress actually
alters our biology so it could be implicated
in causing a biological change in the brain
which makes us more vulnerable to
addictions). Or.... is addiction a learnt
behaviour.... from others in your stressful
environment?
Question
Discuss the role of
stress in the
development of
addiction
(4 marks + 4 marks)

20. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Peers
Peer pressure is very influential and can affect an individual’s
behaviour, especially during childhood and most especially during
adolescence (where peer groupings are a prime influence on
attitudes and behaviour). AO1
Page 8
If peer groupings have positive attitudes towards addictive
behaviours, such as ....thrill seeking and experimentation,
then individuals within such peer groupings are more likely to
have an increased vulnerability to dependency (i.e., addiction).
Many individuals with addiction problems often blame the
initiation and maintenance of dependency on peer pressure.
We explain the influence of the peer group on addictive behaviours through:
1) Social Identity theory (Abrams and Hogg 1990)
2) Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1977)
AO2

21. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Peers
Conforming to peer pressure can be seen as normative social influence where
individuals are influenced by peer pressure due to the desire to be accepted
and to avoid ridicule and rejection. When a peer group adopts addictive
behaviours as part of their “norms” of behaviour, then such behaviours can
quickly become part of an individual’s “in-group” repertoire; used not only to
show allegiance to the group, but also to identify the group as separate from
other “out-groups” (that is, those without positive attitudes to dependency
behaviours).
AO1
Page 8
Supporting evidence: Smoking addiction
Eiser et al, (1991): suggest that adolescents, smokers tend to
befriend smokers and non-smokers tend to befriend other non-
smokers (i.e., they want to identify themselves with people who
they see as similar).
AO2
Elaboration: This evidence suggests that if young people identify themselves with other
young people who are addicts, then they will be more likely to become an addict, as they
will want to be identified as a part of the “in-group” and will therefore be more likely to
show similar behaviours.

22. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Peers
Social Learning Theory, (Bandura, 1977) Behaviours are learnt
through the observation of others and subsequent modelling of
this behaviour. Young people are most likely to imitate the
behaviour of those whom they have most social contact. Once they
have started smoking, experiences (i.e. pleasant or unpleasant)
with the new behaviour will determine whether it will continue.
AO1
Page 9
Supporting evidence: Alcohol addiction
Thombs et al (1997): used a questionnaire with 2,213 high school
and college students and found that alcohol consumption was
linked to social context, especially in the form of perceived norms,
with drinking consumption demonstrating the strength of peer
group influence on addictive behaviour.
AO2
Elaboration: This evidence suggests that young people are more likely to observe and then
“model” the behaviour of their peers and so therefore if the behaviour operating in the
peer group is a behaviour that can lead to an addiction, then the young person will have an
increased vulnerability to developing an addictive behaviour.

23. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Peers
Page 9
AO2: Problems
with Social
Identity and
Social Learning
Theories.......
Can addiction
simply be due to
peer influences
alone?
Can the Behavioural
explanation (i.e., SLT)
really explain all
addiction?
Biological factors?
However..........Further evaluation:
It is not only peers who influence a vulnerability to addiction in young people~
Sussman and Ames (2001) reported that family conflict, poor supervision or
drug-use tolerance by parents, family modelling of drug-using behaviour, as well
as peer group associations can all influence the initiation a drug addiction.
This suggests that peers are just one of several social influences relating to
addiction vulnerability.
It could be that...individuals who are already dependent may seek out peer groups
who conform to their own dependency behaviour (e.g., a person who likes to drink
alcohol will join in with others who also like to drink alcohol).

24. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Peers and Age
Age differences and the degree of influence – The influence of peers on
smoking and drug use declines in later adolescence with teenagers decreasingly
following the pressures of the crowd as they age.
As we get older, the role of close friends and romantic partners becomes
increasingly more important; as do attitudes relating to health.
AO1
Page 10
Supporting evidence: Brown et al (1997 the social crowd (e.g.
peers) have a greater impact on smoking and drug use for young
adolescents, whilst “best friends” and/or romantic partner play a
greater role later on in life in shaping attitudes and behaviours.
AO2

25. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour – Age
Page 10
The most vulnerable time for initiation of dependency behaviours, such as
smoking, is during adolescence and there is a positive correlation between
early onset of dependency behaviours and reduced probability of abstaining
from the behaviour (in other words, the earlier a person starts smoking,
the more likely they are to continue with the behaviour).
Brain development may have a role in addictive behaviours.
Brain changes in the area critical to judgement, decision making, learning,
memory and behaviour control may be considered responsible for addictive
behaviour, suggesting that underdevelopment in this area leads to poor
judgement making.
The prefrontal cortex is key in forming and maintaining connections with the
rest of the brain until adulthood. It is argued that the adolescent brain “lacks
wiring” that carries the stop message to the rest of the brain.
AO1
AO1

26. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour - Age
The age at which the brain develops may affect the development of addictive
behaviours.
Brain changes in the area critical to judgement, decision making, learning,
memory and behaviour control may be considered responsible for addictive
behaviour; suggesting that underdevelopment in this area leads to poor
judgement making. The prefrontal cortex is key in forming and maintaining
connections with the rest of the brain until adulthood. It is argued that the
adolescent brain “lacks wiring” that carries the stop message to the rest of the
brain
Page 10
AO1
This suggests that......if we are exposed to addictive substances or
behaviours during the early part of our lives, then we are more
likely to develop a dependency; which then means that we are
more likely to maintain that dependent (addictive) behaviour in
later life (to avoid withdrawal symptoms, etc)
AO2

27. Supporting evidence: Shram (2008) measured age differences in
the neural response to acute nicotine administration in rats.
The neural structures of adolescent rats were more sensitive to
the rewarding effects of nicotine, but less sensitive to the
aversive effects.... This shows? Criticisms of this research?
AO2

28. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour –Age
Page 11
AO2 Commentary...Heavy drug use, specifically during
the earlier years of brain development, could cause
permanent changes which could alter the way the brain
works and responds to reward and consequences and
this could explain the maintenance of drug use beyond
adolescence.
AO2: However, brain differences are not the only
reason for addictive behaviours being more likely
to occur during adolescence. Ogden and Fox
(1994) demonstrated the use of smoking by
teenage girls as a weight control/ diet strategy.
AO2

29. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour –Age
Although early experience of addictive substances and behaviours is highly
correlated with later dependency, failure to quit and to relapses after quitting;
there is also an increased vulnerability to addictive behaviours in old age.
Approx’ one third of alcoholics develop their dependency after their retirement
due to factors such as a change in status as well as stressors such as boredom
and economic factors.
Tranquilliser and sleeping tablet abuse have been found to be particularly
problematic among elderly females.
Page 11
AO1
Helfer (2006)
• 17% of Swiss women over 75 years of age use painkillers or sleeping tablets
everyday.
• A huge increase in painkiller and tranquilliser usage was recorded in women
aged 55-64 years.
• 46% of men over 75 drank alcohol every day, compared to 6% of 25-34 year
olds.
AO2
Elaborate... This suggests........

30. Age 101 Age 100
Article 2012: Late life binge drinking may cause
cognitive decline
Sleeping tablet and tranquilliser addiction
can be a problem for older women
Addiction -
Not just a
problem
for the
young

31. Factors Affecting Addictive Behaviour –Age
Page 11
Further evaluation:
• Public health initiatives would therefore be more effective if targeted at
specific age groups. E.g., Young – TV adverts smoking; Older people – alcohol
and painkillers
• Dependency in old age is a taboo subject and many older people are
reluctant to talk about their addictions and so addiction problems in this
group are often difficult to research and so as yet, the full extent of addictive
behaviours in older people may not actually be
• The media promote and maintain a stereotypical view of addiction in
young people, but evidence suggests that in late middle age to old age,
there is an equal chance of vulnerability. With people now living longer,
further research needs to be completed so that the needs of older people
can be identified and met by society.
AO2

32. Past examination question ~ January 2013:
(See page 18 in your booklet)
Fifteen-year-old Jenny has recently started smoking. She
believes that smoking will stop her putting on weight and help
her to cope with stress. Most of her friends smoke and she
thinks that smoking helps her to fit in with the group of
popular girls, whom she sees as fun-loving and cool.
Using your knowledge of vulnerability to addiction, discuss
some of the vulnerability factors that contribute to Jenny’s
smoking. Refer to relevant research in your answer.
(10 marks)