Cognitive Social Learning and Related

¶ … Cognitive social learning and related perspectives on drug craving" attempts to define relationships and draw parallels between cognitive social learning and the craving of foreign substances. Although the nature of the subjects examined and the various models and theories demonstrated in this article can apply to all drugs, they mostly pertain to nicotine and conventional cigarette smoke. Drug use is considered both in terms of addiction (including relapse) and in casual, social settings.

The theoretical approach for examining the phenomenon of drug use, however, is not limited to cognitive social learning theory; the author analyzes this phenomenon in relation to others typically associated with this action that involve information processing and biological aspects. Specific cognitive processes considered include high-risk situations (which are defined by cravings and urges) (Niarua, 2000, S 157), rationalization and denial. The principle theoretical model used is the dynamic regulatory model of drug relapse, which was augmented by the dual affect model of cue reactivity and appetitive motivational models of addiction.

These models analyze the effects of contextual cues for drug use, as well as affective imbalances from neural states. The most significant conclusion reached in the article is that there is an inverse relationship between craving and efficacy; efficacy is primarily denoted as the desire to not use drugs. The rest of the findings are significantly less conclusive, and leave a fair amount of room for future research on this subject.

For example, the author was not able to determine any sort of relationship between coping and craving and outcome expectations and craving. The results also indicate an associative relationship between affect and craving, although the degree of this relationship (its strength and exact nature) has yet to be determined. Peter Nathan's article, "Alcoholism: a cognitive social learning approach," presents an overview of the effect of cognitive learning theory on the treatment of alcoholism. The author begins by distinguishing this theory from conventional behavioral approaches to alcoholism.

The author explains that primary distinction between the two is the fact that the latter focused much of its theoretical work, which was eventually disproved, on the studying and propagation of controlled drinking. This article presents numerous reasons for the fallacy of this concept that was widely studied and accepted in the decades before his document was written. Controlled drinking was the notion that it was more preferable to get alcoholics to slow their drinking down to a normal, controlled rate.

However, science eventually disproved this notion in favor of abstinence, since the former approach eventually resulted in individuals returning to alcoholic behavior that was self-destructive. The cognitive social learning approach, however, examines alcoholism from the notion that it is a learned behavior, and a socially learned one at that. It considers what people think about when they desire to drink -- what their expectations are, how they become or do not become fulfilled -- as well as a whole host of behaviors associated with drinking.

These include observable characteristics (Nathan, 1985, p.169) such as specific effects of drinking, quantities and lengths of time people drink, and environmental factors. The article also emphasizes the degree in which this particular theory considers the very root cause of alcoholism. It discusses historical reasons attributed to the etiology of alcoholism, such as a stress reducer, and details some of the positive projections people associate alcohol consumption with. One of the most important points considered is the diagnosis of alcoholism, in which the author advocates a transactional diagnosis.

The article written by Kathryn Coronges et al., "Social network influences of alcohol and marijuana cognitive associations" discusses a research study designed to discern the influence of socialization on the consumption of mind altering substances. The study involved presenting a number of continuation high school students surveys to fill out during and upon the completion of a drug education program.

The research study yielded some highly interesting results, such as the effects of implicit attitudes on these teenage students, which, in some cases, could actually contradict explicit attitudes and prove a bigger factor for determining behavior than the latter (Coronges et al., 2011, p. 1305). Essentially, this research was seeking to ascertain the effects of peer pressure and peer-related cognition on the consumption of marijuana and alcohol -- with the premise being that peers have a strong influence on the behaviors and thoughts of others.

This fact was certainly confirmed by the results of the study, particularly for alcohol. Yet there was a much.