Sociocultural and psychological models of addiction

In tandem with biological contributors, social and cultural factors can be highly influential in prompting a substance abuse disorder. We Help Thousands of Addicts Quit.

Sociocultural aspects of drug addiction: Youth and Drugs sociology of narcotism eds. It has been more than one hundred years that scientists try to find out the reasons of drug taking, but up to the present no common conception reflecting the system of reasons of this phenomenon has been created.

The main drawback of sociological and socio- psychological research of the reasons of drug addiction is the shortage of attention to the fact that the reasons can be different at each stage of getting accustomed to drugs and first taking of soft drug, hard drug and further systematic drug taking should be studied separately.

According to the opinion of specialists of various scientific orientations, the process of drug spread is of epidemic character. That is this process should be studied as an epidemic. But this subject field is outside this research and needs quite different methods of measurement.

We consider the process of drug accustoming, as the sequence of events in the life of a person leading to drug dependence. In practice all drug addicts make decisions themselves to take drugs for the first time or to continue drug consumption.

Forcible drug taking happens very seldom. In connection with this it seems reasonable to study the process of drug taking as the sequence of social actions, in which the actor makes the decision himself, feeling outside compulsory or restraining influence.

Besides one should take into account the internal system of the organization of the actor or using the language of synergie approach, regulation or fitted information. Such information or regulation makes some actions of the actor more probable than others without any external influence.

Internal regulation of a person is interesting, because it may contain without any external influence, internal intention to drug consumption and defence mechanisms, which are preventing it. In our research we accentuated deterrent and favourable factors, internal ones typical to a person and external ones, typical to a situation, the network of social relations of a person and valuable norms, characteristic to these relations.

5 Socio-Cultural Factors that Cultivate Addiction - Drug Rehab Options

External factors are interesting here not for themselves, but as interpreted by a person. It allows to separate those factors which have had forcible or deterrent role in decision making to take a drug from those factors, which have not had due influence.

This research studied the sequence of the most important events in the life of a drug addict: Each such an event is considered as the choice of the action by a social actor under the joint influence of internal and external forcible factors and deterrent.

All his previous life experience, the world vision typical for him, life values and objectives have been studied to investigate the internal organization of a person. The chosen theoretical scheme stipulates researchers to apply the methods of interpretative sociology which allow to understand how external influence, interpreted in consciousness, comes into contradiction with the internal organization of a person at the moment of choosing the action.

At each stage of a career of a drug addict such an approach gave us the possibility to single out the contributing factors which can be interpreted as reasons and restraining factors, the absence or weakening of which can be considered as the causes of this phenomenon as well.

The qualitative approach is in conducting interactive, deep, semiformalized interview of drug addicts, focused on different stages of the course of life: The interview was supplemented with two psychodiagnostic tests, allowing to understand the life world of the interviewed better. The patients of the first Department of the 9th Hospital for drug addicts have been interviewed.

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The interviewed, who have been treated from different forms of drug dependence and those, who want to get rid of it and those who are not going to stop drug taking. The procedure of selection was the following: The general characteristics of the participants of the interview are given in the table.

During the interview the fact, which was worth paying attention to is that 20 from 24 people interviewed characterised the living standard of their family in childhood as very high, much higher, than average.

Three quarters of the interviewed, who showed that the living standard of the family in childhood was very high, had the parents, who worked at such positions and in such spheres where the amount of income, as can be suspected, did not depend on the salary received.

Among the interviewed the percentage of children of parents, who work as top managers and those who work as chief accountants at large enterprises and high schools is very high.

Recollecting childhood, the majority of the interviewed said that the parents indulged them, presented expensive gifts: The relations built in such a way formed the so-called paralysis of the will, incapability to resist temptation. As consequence of upbringing, under conditions, when everything is allowed, the majority of the interviewed had serious problems with discipline at school.

At older age for six persons some breaches of discipline at school were followed by criminal acts. Half of the interviewed told about their extremely low grades at school. For the majority of the interviewed such features as indefinite plans for the future, strong desire to have much money, existence without aim, parasitic attitude, inexpressiveness of high values, imitation, were typical, all that characterises a person, who is not formed.

The families of many interviewed can be called unhappy. Five people said that their fathers had alcohol problems, seven people said that they had no fathers.According to the sociocultural model, the cultural standards of a society and the negative effects of culture and society on individual behavior, cause addiction.

Many cultural standards are quite subtle but the effect is powerful nonetheless. Sociocultural Model of Addiction and Recovery Implications A.

Tom Horvath, Ph.D., ABPP, Kaushik Misra, Ph.D., Amy K. Epner, Ph.D., and Galen Morgan Cooper, Ph.D. According to the sociocultural model, the cultural standards of a society and the negative effects of culture and society on individual behavior, cause addiction.

Models of Addiction SUBS Models of Addiction The three models of addiction examined in this week’s readings include the medical model, the psychosocial model, and . Disadvantages of Sociocultural Model: No clear treatment plans for individuals; focus on an external, rather than internal, locus of control; change requires more people and is a slower, more complex process.

Disadvantages of Sociocultural Model: No clear treatment plans for individuals; focus on an external, rather than internal, locus of control; change requires more people and is a . For example, it is not unusual to find that substance use disorders are more prevalent in areas that are gripped by poverty, racism, and a lack of occupational and educational opportunities.

It is also known that role models have a great impact on alcohol and drug use. Several influential sociocultural models are described in this entry.