WJEC A Level Psychology Addictive Behaviours Exam Questions

About WJEC A Level Psychology Addictive Behaviours

WJEC Unit 3 offers addictive behaviours as one of six real-world topics, and you choose three for the Section A structured essays. The specification asks you to describe what addiction looks like, explain it from biological, individual differences and social psychological angles, and judge methods of modifying it for effectiveness, ethics and social implications. A good WJEC essay might open with peer and media influence, bring in thinking errors such as the gambler's fallacy, then weigh brain-based explanations. Linking aversion therapy back to Unit 1 behaviourism, and substitution drugs to the biological approach, shows the synoptic understanding examiners credit.

What you need to know

• What addiction looks like A pattern of repeated, compulsive behaviour that continues despite clear harm, marked by craving, loss of control, tolerance and withdrawal. It covers substances such as heroin, alcohol and nicotine and behaviours such as gambling.
• Peers and the media Social learning theory suggests young people copy drinking, smoking or gambling they see rewarded in friends. Sargent et al. (2005) found US adolescents who saw more smoking in films were more likely to start smoking, and advertising can make gambling look harmless and glamorous.
• Co-morbidity Addiction frequently occurs alongside depression, anxiety, PTSD or schizophrenia. Khantzian's (1985) self-medication hypothesis proposes people use substances to ease the symptoms of an existing disorder, although the direction of cause is hard to establish.
• Cognitive biases Griffiths (1994) asked fruit machine players to think aloud and found regular gamblers made far more irrational statements (about 14%) than occasional players (about 2.5%). Biases such as the illusion of control and near-miss effects keep people playing.
• Field dependence and Lang's traits Field-dependent people (Witkin's rod and frame test) rely heavily on external cues, so environmental triggers may have more pull. Lang argued there is no single addictive personality but a cluster of risk traits including impulsivity, sensation seeking, nonconformity and social alienation.
• Brain-based explanations The brain disease model (Leshner, 1997) describes addiction as a chronic, relapsing condition caused by lasting changes to brain circuits. Addictive drugs raise dopamine in the mesolimbic reward pathway (cocaine, for example, blocks its reuptake), and twin and adoption studies point to an inherited vulnerability, including variants of the DRD2 receptor gene.
• Modifying addiction Aversion therapy uses classical conditioning, for example disulfiram makes drinking cause nausea. Agonist substitution swaps the drug for a safer one acting on the same receptors (methadone, nicotine replacement), whereas antagonists such as naltrexone block receptors so the drug has no rewarding effect.

Common mistakes in Addictive Behaviours

• Restricting addiction to drugs. The WJEC topic covers behavioural addictions such as gambling, and cognitive bias research is mostly about gamblers.
• Mixing up the gambler's fallacy and the illusion of control. The gambler's fallacy is believing a win is 'due' after losses; the illusion of control is believing skill or rituals can influence a chance outcome.
• Writing that field-dependent people are less affected by their surroundings. It is the reverse: they rely more on external cues.
• Calling nicotine replacement an antagonist. Patches and gum supply nicotine, so they are agonist substitution.
• Assuming co-morbidity shows that mental illness causes addiction. Substance use can also trigger or worsen mental illness, or both may share a common cause.

Try three Addictive Behaviours exam-style questions