COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY AND DRUGS

Cognitive Psychology and Drugs



Cognitive Psychology and Drugs

Introduction

There are many different kinds of addictions, from drugs to interpersonal relationships. Although these diverse addictions vary in many ways there are common threads that bind them together. There are several theories that model addiction: genetic theories, exposure theories (both biological and conditioning), and adaptation theories. To be successful, an addiction model must blend the multidimensional aspects of addiction. It must account for regional and cultural variation, interpersonal preferences as well as hold true for the variety of addiction (Schunk, 2008, 14).

The use of drugs and alcohol is as old as history. In every society there have always been individuals who used mood-changing drugs like opium and cocaine etc. In this age however new drugs, more potent and harmful than those found in nature, have been developed in laboratories. The use of drugs has also become widespread. The illegal trade of narcotics has become the most profitable business in the world.

Alcohol and Society

Sociologists attempt to explain how supra individual relationships, experiences, places, and things shape human lives. Given its ubiquity and its intoxicating and potentially addictive effects on the human individual, alcohol use is a natural and logically mandatory subject for sociological research.

The Age of Suggestive Fragments: Alcohol in Early Sociology

The main impetus behind the consolidation of modern social science was the European Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In that era, leading intellectuals began systematically questioning inherited metaphysical theories of natural and social processes. As medieval dogmas dissolved, more and more scholars began to investigate the ways in which human events could be better understood as products of material forces, environmental experiences, and socially embedded human decisions (Sternberg, 2009).

Against this background, sociology as a distinct discipline crystallized amid nineteenth-century European debates over “the social question,” which asked why poverty, community dysfunction, and political disorder all seemed to be advancing in step with industrialism. Before the early 1800s, European elites had usually interpreted poverty and its attendant forms of human degradation as an important exception to, rather than a logical by-product of, their basic institutions. By the 1830s, however, new realities, including new forms of popular upheaval and resistance, were forcing Europeans of all ranks to admit that deprivation and dislocation were somehow intrinsic to industrialization itself. The new pattern of troubles was tremendously counterintuitive to established elite worldviews.

Major Principles Associated With the Theory

The origin of the cognitive learning theory was incepted by Jean Piaget (1896-1980). The works and hypothesis proposed by Piaget had great theoretical influence on the development of cognitive learning theory and delivered primarily theoretical impulses. In addition, Albert Bandura developed a socio-cognitive learning theory and behavioural traits. This was a modified version of the cognitive learning theory; moreover, according to diverse studies, this theory was termed as application of cognitive learning theory in the societal scenario (Paul, 2004).

Discussion and Analysis

In addition, studies on the behavioural effects of nicotine in humans have been hampered by non-standardized experimental conditions (use of tolerant and ...