Substance Abuse Sy/270

Substance Abuse

PSY/270

It is a long journey to reach sobriety when dealing with substance abuse. There are several different viewpoints that deal with the casual factors and treatments pertaining to that specific view. Some of the different viewpoints include the psychodynamic view, the sociocultural view, the behavioral-cognitive view, and the biological view. When choosing a view to agree with it is very difficult because all of the different view have valid points on the casual factors and course of treatment. Every individual is also different and may fit under different criteria’s. The two views that I would have to choose that I most agree with are the biological view and the cognitive-behavioral view.

Behaviorists believe that operant conditioning plays the main role of substance abuse (Comer, 2005). The behaviorist believe that substance abuse occurs when the abuser is feeling tense or looking to raise their spirits, when they use the drug it becomes a reward for them to make them feel better. The rewarding effect will increase their chances to look for the same reaction as the first time they used the drugs to raise their spirits. The cognitive views adds to this view by arguing that the reward effect creates the substance abuser to expect that the drug will reward then each time they feel tension and they will use more and more of the drug to suppress their tension. I can relate to this view because I smoke cigarettes and when I feel tense I tend to smoke to relieve my tension and now I smoke more cigarettes looking for the same results. I support the cognitive-behavioral theory when they argue that individuals use drugs to self-medicate themselves when they feel tense. Classical conditioning also may play a role in substance abuse. Objects that are in the environment when the individuals are using drugs become classically conditioned stimuli which will produce pleasure that the drug gives them. Classical conditioning is not a key factor in...