Addictive behaviours (Section A): biological, individual and social explanations of addiction, and one therapy or intervention used to treat it.

What this dot point is asking

Unit 3 Section A treats each behaviour the same way. For addictive behaviours you must give a biological, an individual (psychological) and a social explanation of addiction, and describe one therapy or intervention used to treat it. WJEC lets centres choose three of the six behaviours, but the structure (three explanations plus a therapy) is identical for each.

Biological explanation

This explanation fits evidence on craving and relapse and underpins drug treatments, but it is reductionist, plays down choice and social context, and rests partly on correlational genetic data.

Individual (psychological) explanation

The individual explanation locates addiction in learning and cognition. By operant conditioning, the pleasant effects of a substance act as positive reinforcement, while using it to escape stress or withdrawal acts as negative reinforcement. By classical conditioning, cues associated with use (a pub, a lighter, a time of day) become triggers for craving. Cognitive factors include faulty beliefs and expectations ("I can't cope without it", "just one won't hurt") and self-medication of low mood. This explanation supports CBT, but it can understate the strong biological drive of dependence.

Social explanation

The social explanation, drawing on social learning theory, argues addiction is learned by observation and imitation of role models such as parents, peers and media figures, and is maintained by reinforcement through group approval. Peer pressure and the norms of a social group increase the chance of starting, and seeing substance use modelled as normal or glamorous encourages imitation. This explanation has strong real-world support (peer and family influence on initiation) but cannot easily explain why some heavy users in the same environment do not become addicted.

Therapy or intervention

A common psychological treatment is cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), which identifies and challenges the faulty thoughts and triggers that maintain addiction and teaches coping and relapse-prevention skills. Biological treatment uses drugs such as agonists (substitutes that reduce craving and withdrawal) or antagonists (which block the rewarding effect). Social interventions include support groups and removing environmental cues.

Examples in context

Example 1. A smoking trigger. A smoker who always lit up with coffee finds coffee triggers craving (classical conditioning). CBT helps break the cue and plan an alternative, illustrating the individual explanation feeding the therapy.

Example 2. Peer modelling of vaping. A teenager whose friends all vape is more likely to start, because the behaviour is modelled and approved (social learning). This shows the social explanation of initiation.

Try this

Q1. Name the neurotransmitter central to the biological explanation of addiction. [1 mark]

• Cue. Dopamine (in the brain's reward pathway).

Q2. Outline the social learning explanation of addiction. [3 marks]

• Cue. Addiction is learned by observing and imitating role models and is reinforced by peer approval and modelled norms.

Q3. Explain one strength and one weakness of using CBT to treat addiction. [4 marks]

• Cue. Strength: targets the thoughts and triggers that cause relapse and gives lasting skills. Weakness: depends on the client's motivation and may not address severe physical dependence.