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Addiction is a compulsive dependence on something, which need not, as many people mistakenly believe, be just on drugs or alcohol as someone can actually become addicted to anything.
According to Bandura and others involved in social learning research, it is possible for individuals to adapt certain types of behaviours because they have observed them and then subsequently learned them from other people, such as their parents or their peers.
Other types of learning theory, which may explain addiction, are classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
Social learning theory and addiction
Social learning theory maintains that behaviour is learnt by observing other people, usually role models such as parents, peers and sometimes celebrities. Therefore, if a role model has an addiction, then according to this theory, the person who observes them is more likely to get an addiction as well.
For example, a child who grows up in a house where one or both parents are addicted to alcohol, will copy this as they get older. They may put soft drinks into wine glasses or pint glasses and then when they are older and can drink real alcohol, they will be much more likely to try it because they have seen their parents drink it so much and it has therefore become normal behaviour to them. It is thought that a child who has a parent who has some form of substance addiction is four times more likely to develop an addiction themselves than a child who does not have such role models.
Classical conditioning and addiction
Classical conditioning maintains that behaviour is learnt through association so people learn to link things together. Sometimes this can be a positive experience if the association is a nice one, such as hearing a seagull and thinking immediately of family holidays at the beach. Where the seagull was heard, the trigger of the memory of the holiday was activated immediately.
However, sometimes the association can be negative – someone who once choked on a piece of apple may relive the moment when they were choking every time they see an apple.
When an addiction is first founded, it is likely that the person initially found great pleasure in taking the drug or carrying out the activity. What this means is that the positive feelings that were created become associated with the drug or activity and so next time the person wants to recreate those feelings they will turn to what created them, i.e. the drug or the activity, because that is what they associate with the required outcome of feeling good.
Operant conditioning and addiction
Operant conditioning maintains that a person will repeat a particular type of behaviour if that behaviour has positive consequences for them. Any type of behaviour, even taking drugs, will be repeated if the person who is carrying it out feels good when doing it. The positive consequence is referred to as reinforcement because a behaviour is strengthened and the chances of it being repeated are increased.
Operant conditioning is used often with children – those who are praised doing their homework well (the praise acting as a reward, which is a positive consequence) will likely feel good. Therefore, they are more likely to want to do homework again because they liked the positive feelings that were caused by the praise.
On the other hand, if a child is told off (a negative consequence) for taking a toy from another child they will be less likely to do this again because they did not like the consequences of when it happened.
Addictions are fed when someone feels good because of the feelings they produce when the activity or substance they are addicted to is carried out or taken. For example, someone who feels great when they are playing online games will want to do this again and again because they know how it makes them feel. Someone who is addicted to alcohol may know that it is bad for their health but they cannot stop drinking it because it makes them feel so good.
It can be difficult for some people to stop some addictions because of the negative physical symptoms that occur (usually when addicted to substances like drugs or alcohol). Therefore, when they try to stop and the physical symptoms (such as shaking and vomiting in the case of heroin addiction) begin, they will take the substance again just because they don’t want to experience the negative feelings.
Strengths of learning theories of addiction
- It is assumed that if a type of behaviour can be learnt, it can therefore be unlearnt, which is an important aspect of treating addiction because it shows people who have addiction that recovery is possible
- Classical conditioning helps to explain why people relapse after many years of being ‘clean’ from an addiction, such as someone smoking a cigarette because they return to a place that they associate with smoking
Weaknesses of learning theories of addiction
- The theory is reductionist as it does not take into account any biological factors which may contribute to addiction, such as genetic inheritance
- The theory cannot explain why, in the overall picture, so few people have addictions when so many more are exposed to the same things
