Self-control and the Addictive Behaviours

Self-control and the Addictive Behaviours
Author: Nick Heather
Publisher:
Total Pages: 382
Release: 1991
Genre: Compulsive behavior
ISBN: 9780029468197

Collection of papers written by recognised experts in the field of addictive behaviour. The book presents a new approach to understanding such behaviour based on the premise that it represents a breakdown in self-regulatory processes. Includes bibliographies.

The Science of Self-Control

The Science of Self-Control
Author: Howard Rachlin
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2009-07-01
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0674042514

This book proposes a new science of self-control based on the principles of behavioral psychology and economics. Claiming that insight and self-knowledge are insufficient for controlling one's behavior, Howard Rachlin argues that the only way to achieve such control--and ultimately happiness--is through the development of harmonious patterns of behavior. Most personal problems with self-control arise because people have difficulty delaying immediate gratification for a better future reward. The alcoholic prefers to drink now. If she is feeling good, a drink will make her feel better. If she is feeling bad, a drink will make her feel better. The problem is that drinking will eventually make her feel worse. This sequence--the consistent choice of a highly valued particular act (such as having a drink or a smoke) that leads to a low-valued pattern of acts--is called "the primrose path." To avoid it, the author presents a strategy of "soft commitment," consisting of the development of valuable patterns of behavior that bridge over individual temptations. He also proposes, from economics, the concept of the substitutability of "positive addictions," such as social activity or exercise, for "negative addictions," such as drug abuse or overeating. Self-control may be seen as the interaction with one's own future self. Howard Rachlin shows that indeed the value of the whole--of one's whole life--is far greater than the sum of the values of its individual parts.

Treating Addictive Behaviors

Treating Addictive Behaviors
Author: William R. Miller
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 461
Release: 2013-06-29
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1461321913

About a decade ago, psychologists began exploring the commonalities among alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, and obesity. The term sub stance abuse evolved into the current concept of addictive behaviors, which recognizes similarities with other behaviors that do not involve consummatory responses (e. g. , pathological gambling, compulsions, sexual deviations). Professional societies and journals now have been founded in both Britain and the United States with the purpose of focus ing on research and treatment in the area of addictive behaviors. As the field has evolved, new models have emerged to address the questions and puzzles that face professionals. This volume examines some of these current issues and, in particular, explores common pro cesses of change that seem to cut across the addictive behaviors. The chapters are based on papers presented at the Third International Con ference on Treatment of Addictive Behaviors, which was held at North Berwick, Scotland, in August of 1984. The conference was organized around an integrative model of stages and processes of change that has been useful in organizing new knowledge about how to intervene with addictive behaviors. This model is set forth by its authors, Jim Prochaska and Carlo DiClemente, in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2, Fred Kanfer ex pounds his own model of self-regulation, which overlaps nicely with the Prochaska-DiClemente framework and provides a behavioral-theoretical context.

Addiction and Choice

Addiction and Choice
Author: Nick Heather
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 529
Release: 2017
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0198727224

Views on addiction are often polarised - either addiction is a matter of choice, or addicts simply can't help themselves. But perhaps addiction falls between the two? This book contains views from philosophy, neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology, and the law exploring this middle ground between free choice and no choice.

The Addictive Behaviors

The Addictive Behaviors
Author: William R. Miller
Publisher: Pergamon
Total Pages: 368
Release: 1983
Genre: Alcoholism
ISBN: 9780080308371

Designed as a handbook for professionals working in the four major areas of substance abuse, this volume focuses on current research and knowledge regarding the effectiveness of alternative approaches. It includes reviews of current research in each area, specifically examining common ground in etiology, process and treatment.

Substance Abuse, Habitual Behavior, And Self-control

Substance Abuse, Habitual Behavior, And Self-control
Author: Peter K. Levison
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2019-07-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000313549

This collection of original essays by members of the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Substance Abuse and Habitual Behavior offers innovative perspectives on self-control over the use of habituating substances and related types of behavior. The authors review the powerful social-psychological influences of normative rules and interpersonal circumstances in developing individual capacities for self-control in, for example, the use of heroin. They also look at experimental contingencies under which animals engage in self-harming behavior; the induction of exaggerated consumption behavior, such as massive fluid drinking by laboratory rats; and studies of environmental and genetic influences on neurophysiological sensitivity to and preference for alcohol in laboratory mouse strains. The concluding chapter presents an unorthodox perspective on ways of self-governing the consumption of cigarettes and other substances, recognizing the peculiarities of the processes of human choice. In his introduction, volume editor Peter Levison contrasts the diverse approaches reflected in the book with the common-sense notion of self-control.

Addiction and Responsibility

Addiction and Responsibility
Author: Jeffrey Poland
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 319
Release: 2011-05-13
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0262015501

The intertwining of addiction and responsibility in personal, philosophical, legal, research, and clinical contexts. Addictive behavior threatens not just the addict's happiness and health but also the welfare and well-being of others. It represents a loss of self-control and a variety of other cognitive impairments and behavioral deficits. An addict may say, "I couldn't help myself." But questions arise: are we responsible for our addictions? And what responsibilities do others have to help us? This volume offers a range of perspectives on addiction and responsibility and how the two are bound together. Distinguished contributors—from theorists to clinicians, from neuroscientists and psychologists to philosophers and legal scholars—discuss these questions in essays using a variety of conceptual and investigative tools. Some contributors offer models of addiction-related phenomena, including theories of incentive sensitization, ego-depletion, and pathological affect; others address such traditional philosophical questions as free will and agency, mind-body, and other minds. Two essays, written by scholars who were themselves addicts, attempt to integrate first-person phenomenological accounts with the third-person perspective of the sciences. Contributors distinguish among moral responsibility, legal responsibility, and the ethical responsibility of clinicians and researchers. Taken together, the essays offer a forceful argument that we cannot fully understand addiction if we do not also understand responsibility.

Addiction and Change

Addiction and Change
Author: Carlo C. DiClemente
Publisher: Guilford Publications
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2017-12-04
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1462533256

Not everyone who experiments with substance use or risky behavior becomes addicted, and many who are addicted have been able to recover. This authoritative book, now revised and updated, has given tens of thousands of professionals and students a state-of-the-art framework for understanding the journey both into and out of addiction. From Carlo C. DiClemente, codeveloper of the transtheoretical model (TTM), the book identifies the stages and processes involved in initiating, modifying, maintaining, or stopping any pattern of behavior. Grounded in extensive research, and illustrated with vivid case examples, the book shows how using the TTM can help overcome obstacles to change and make treatment and prevention more effective. New to This Edition *Incorporates 15 years of research advances, contemporary prevention and treatment approaches, and the ongoing development of the TTM. *Chapter on current developments in intervention research. *Expanded discussions of neuroscience; self-regulation; behavioral economics; self-help, mutual help, and spirituality; motivational issues; "process addictions" (gambling and sex addiction); and more. *Deeper coverage of risk and protective factors across adolescent and young adult development.

Addiction and Self-Control

Addiction and Self-Control
Author: Neil Levy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2012-05-01
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0199862591

This book brings together a set of papers, many which grow out of presentations at a conference in Oxford in 2009 on addiction and self-control, by a set of thinkers who are united in believing that understanding agency and failures of agency requires engagement with the best science. The papers it collects attempts to illuminate the mechanisms involved in addiction and thereby to understand to what degree and in what ways actions driven by addiction are controlled by the agent, express his or her will or values, and the extent to which addicts are responsible for what they do. Some of the papers focus on the neuropsychological mechanisms involved, especially on the role of the midbrain dopamine system. Others focus on features of the behavior and the extent to which we can infer psychological mechanisms from behavior. The authors debate the best interpretation of the scientific evidence and how the scientific evidence bears upon, or can only be understand in the light of, philosophical theorizing about agency, control and responsibility.