No matter what pressures and factors came to bear, the addict could have done something else, but simply decided not to (Choice and Free Will: Beyond the Disease Model of Addiction, 2010).
A more behavioral approach to understanding addiction is the social learning model, which suggests that people learn how to behave by watching others in their environment and by duplicating actions that create affirmative consequences. One learns to take drugs or alcohol through ones connections with family, friends, or even popular media. And through personal experimentation with drugs or alcohol, one learns that they like the way drugs make them feel. Whether it is the elation of a high, the augmented confidence they feel while intoxicated, or a reduced sense of social nervousness, intoxication can be a positively reinforcing state of being.
As one discovers how much they like certain facets of drug or alcohol use, the positive reinforcement of that use leads to even greater use. By the time extreme drug or alcohol use creates considerably pessimistic consequences, one has yielded to a physical or psychological addiction to the substance (Understanding Addiction: The Disease Model vs. The Choice Model, 2009).
In essence, Social Learning Theory (SLT) explains the effect of cognitive processes on goal aimed behavior. It reflects on the human capability for learning inside a social environment by way of watching and communication. Supporters of SLT portray the role of maintenance, cognitive expectancies, modeling, coping and self-worth in influencing substance use and abuse. Reinforcement is a central idea of SLT. The learning element of SLT is the straightforward operant response, where a person will duplicate any behavior that leads to a reward. SLT also distinguishes that dissimilar kinds of drugs put forth different effects and the effects will differ between people and their wishes, depending on things like past history, personality and present life conditions. When a person takes a drug or drinks alcohol, they shape an expectancy of what they will feel like when they take the substance again (Social Learning and Coping Models of Addiction, 2011).
The moral model frames addiction as a consequence of human failing, an imperfection in character. It doesn't distinguish biological or genetic workings to addiction and proposes little understanding for those who exhibit addictive actions. The inference is that addiction is the consequence of poor decisions, which addicts make because of a lack of willpower or moral power. Predictably, looking at addiction as a moral failing led alcoholics and other addicts to be clustered with others who had demonstrated moral failings. "In the 19th and early 20th century, alcoholism was connected with other socially undesirable situations and behaviors such as crime, poverty, sin, domestic violence, and laziness. Rather than recommending treatment methods for alcoholism, the moral model viewed punishment as a more appropriate response. Alcoholics were unresponsive to publicly admit their problem, as society had little compassion for their struggle" (Moving beyond the Moral Model of Addiction, 2011).
"The temperance movement hit its stride in the United States during the mid-1800s, and alcohol became a thing to be feared. While the temperance movement placed the blame on alcohol rather than the user, it also spread the idea that alcohol should be associated with evil and sin. In the years leading up to Prohibition, a quantity of states began passing laws that mandated the sterilization of those they considered defectives, like the mentally ill, developmentally disabled, and alcoholics and addicts. During this time and throughout Prohibition, alcoholism was seen primarily from a social, rather than medical perspective. Alcoholics were put into drunk tanks in the city jail, asylums, and public hospitals, where they were not offered the help they needed" (Moving beyond the Moral Model of Addiction, 2011).
The nature vs. nurture debate is a major foundation of argument between the different advances to understanding human behavior, including addiction. Theories that found their understanding of human behavior on nature center on characteristics that people are born with, like their genetic make-up, established personality traits, and physical tendencies. In contrast, theories that found their understanding of human behavior on nurture, stress those experiences that shape and alter people throughout their lives, such as how peoples parents raised them, what they were taught at school, and their culture (Hartney, 2010).
While most professionals agree that addiction entails a multifaceted interaction between innate characteristics and life experiences,...
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