Integration and Synthesis of Relevant Theory - Essay Example

Running Head: Integration and Synthesis of Relevant Theory Integration and Synthesis of Relevant Theory and Research of the appears here] [Name of the institution appears here] Integration and Synthesis of Relevant Theory and Research Adolescence represents a sensitive stage of development posing a high risk for contacting dangerous addictive behaviors. Drugs and alcohol abuse present as the single most serious problem within this population, making them vulnerable for serious delinquent behavior. Drug use is the increasing problem among teenagers in today's high schools. Interestingly, alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence are not only adult problems -- they also affect a significant number of adolescents and young adults between the ages of 12 and 20, even though drinking under the age of 21 is illegal. (Bauman, Phongsavan, 1999, 183). Most drug use begins in the pre-teen and teenage years, these years are most crucial in the development of a young persons life. The average age when youth first try alcohol is 11 years for boys and 13 years for girls. The average age at which Americans begin drinking regularly is 15 years old. During these years teenagers are faced with tasks like discovering their self-identity, which results in a sense of independency and searching for goals that would give their lives meaning. Drugs are readily available, adolescents are curious and vulnerable, and there is peer pressure that pushes them to experiment. The use of drugs by teenagers is the result of a combination of factors such as peer pressure, curiosity, and availability. (Zanis, 1999, 235). One of the most important reasons of teenage drug usage is peer pressure. Peer pressure represents social influences that effect adolescents, it can have a positive or a negative effect, depending on person's social group and one can follow one path of the other. (Zanis, 1999, 55-56). We are greatly influenced by the people around us. In today's schools drugs are very common, peer pressure usually is the reason for their usage. If the people in your social group use drugs there will be pressure to use also, a direct or indirect pressure from them. In turn it is believed to be that how we view ourselves depends highly on how others view us. This is probably a good reason why peer pressure is such a factor in adolescent drug use. Abraham Maslow's theory of human development suggests that basic needs are physiological and that the ultimate at the top of the pyramid model is self-actualization, which implies an unattached human being realizing its full potential and autonomy. Maslow's theory of human development involves moving from basic needs (food and shelter) to social needs (love and esteem) to the highest needs on his hierarchy, which lead to self-actualization. According to Maslow's theory, humans have several types of needs: physiological, safety/order, social, esteem and self-actualization. These needs are the basis of his human development theory and are met in social and family settings. (Maslow, 1970, 225-227). Unfortunately, with hormones raging, emotions tend to get the best of this group of individuals. Understanding the emotional development in early childhood through adulthood, leads us to understanding the importance of self-esteem. Through our experiences with the world, we as human beings, form concepts of causal relationships. We formulate opinions of ourselves based upon the collected experiences of life. Some are fortunate enough to grow and develop in positive nurturing environments that foster optimal beliefs systems. Others have a more difficult time remaining positive about themselves and life in general. Just as people form concepts regarding the behavior of inanimate objects, animals, and other human beings, they also form a concept of themselves, of what they are like, of how they will react in various situations. The concept people form of themselves stated positively or negatively, is their self-esteem. (Hogan, 2000, 346). With effects like this it is guaranteed that family, friends and other individuals in the child's life are going to experience a roller coaster of emotional changes when drug or alcohol abuse are present. Statistics show that around 50 percent of American adolescents have used alcohol at least once while 20 percent admitted to have been drunk. An early age of drinking onset is also associated with alcohol-related violence not only among persons under age 21 but among adults as well. Research studies indicate that substance abuse and alcohol indulgence among adolescents create severe impairment of cognitive functions. This in turn results in poor academic performance. Asides the general decline in academic performance, adolescent drinking and drug usage results in increased risk for committing serious crimes such as rape and theft. Alcohol inhibits the central nervous system, which severely impairs the judgment capacity of the person. (Bauman, Phongsavan, 1999, 40-47). Consequently, intoxication with drugs or alcohol makes it difficult for the person to successfully overcome sexual advances or sexual violence. A recent survey of high school girls revealed that around 10 percent of them have been raped under the influence of alcohol. (Comerci; Schwebel, 2000, 5-8). By altering the perceptions of the individual alcohol may also incite aggressive and criminal tendencies in the person. In Western society, the time of adolescence is the time when young people are confronted with the problem of self-definition and identity. These problems are exacerbated by biological changes, as well as social and intercultural differences. One of the most common generalized problems of adolescence is that teenagers are attempting to grapple with the problems of a social system that maintains a particularly ambiguous nature. Immediately, one must acknowledge that society itself contributes significantly to the way that adolescence is culturally transmitted... acknowledged that society was the main contributor to the way that most adolescents viewed themselves and the world. Furthermore, alcohol can have many physical effects on a person's body; problems will continue to spread further as alcohol/drug abuse continues into adulthood. The physical problems do not necessarily need years to appear, damage can be done in a matter of minutes. Imagine, internal organs and systems can be severely damaged and even shut down when too much alcohol is consumed. The prolonged use of large amounts of alcohol without an adequate diet may cause serious liver damage, such as cirrhosis of the liver. It has been estimated that 10 percent of all alcoholic persons develop cirrhosis, a disease characterized by diffuse scarring of the liver. The central nervous system can also be permanently damaged causing a person to possibly blackout, hallucinate, and experience tremors. The withdrawal symptoms that a severe alcoholic can experience are sometimes compared to the same withdrawals as a heroin addict, yet people still do not consider alcohol to be a drug. Drinking during pregnancy can cause serious damage to the unborn child. An unborn child of an alcoholic may develop mental or physical retardation during pregnancy. Additionally, a child who has an alcoholic parent is much more likely to become an alcoholic themselves later in life. (Comerc; Schwebel, 2000, 63-64). It's true that adolescents are a special needs population, needing special instruction and knowledge. Parents need to be there physically and emotionally for their children. Adolescence is a powerful time in one's life with an array of chances to ruin a bright future. Young people begin to take risks and experiment as they transition from childhood to adulthood. Without support and guidance, some young people may engage in behaviors that place them and others at risk - including using alcohol. Parents can help their child through providing early education about drugs and alcohol, open communication, positive role modeling and early recognition and treatment of emerging problems. Theories of depression from cognitive perspective Cognitive theories of depression focus on the depressed person's self-defeating thought processes, beliefs and interpersonal factors, which emphasize how depressed people interact with others and view the world. Attribution theory has served as a useful framework for understanding the cause of the nature of interpersonal conflict and depression (Baron, 1990). The theory postulated that the roots of depression sometimes lie in people's patterns of attribution (Abramson, Seligman; Teasdale, 1978). Attributions are analyzed along a number of dimensions: 1. internal; self-inference or own blame versus external factors, 2. unstable; temporal and brief factors versus stable, relatively permanent factor, 3. global; general inference versus specific, limited implications. Studies indicate that people who consistently tend to make internal, stable and global attributions are more prone to depression than people who exhibit opposite attritional styles (Robins, 1988; Sweeney, Anderson & Bailey, 1986). An attribution style termed as "self-defeating' type of people attribute negative outcomes to lasting internal causes such as their own traits or lack of ability, but attribute positive outcomes to temporary and external causes. They blame their setbacks on personal inadequacies, which they see as unchangeable and draw far-reaching conclusions about their lack of ability and worth as a human being. The repetition of this cognitive attribution style leads to a depressed state, and it is well documented that people who are depressed have a tendency to focus their attention on their negative mood, and perceive and interpret the world around them constantly in a negative manner (Davison & Neale, 1997). As a result, such a person come to perceive that they have little or no control over what happens to them and feel helpless and hopeless. Learned helplessness and hopelessness refer to the negative effects of being exposed to uncontrollable negative events- ones that individuals are powerless to prevent or erminate (Seligman, 1975). The theory proposes that depression is caused by passive 'giving-up' behavior produced by repeated exposure to unavoidable aversive events, such as, individuals come to believe that nothing they do matters very much. Consequently, they experience strong negative feelings of hopelessness, and this may precipitate depression, feeling of lethargic, sharp drop in motivation or uninterested in activities, even living. Beck's cognitive theory of depression (1967, 1974,1985, 1987) suggests that thought processes and irrational beliefs are major factors in causing and influencing emotional states. Since Beck's theory arose out of clinical observations it is therefore expected to have a great deal of validity (Williams, 1984). The central thesis of Beck's theory of depression is that depressed individuals feel as they do because their thinking is biased toward negative interpretations. According to Beck, depressed individuals create negative schema through various negative experiences and the perceptual sets direct and shaped to view self, world and the future in a negative and depressed way. The negative schemata or beliefs are activated when they encounter similar situations. This activation, then trigger/remind the person of the emotion associated with the schemata or thoughts. Wenzalaff, Wegner; Klein (1991) suggest that an important link between cognition and emotion by the reaction model. They claim that people are more likely to try to suppress thoughts when they are in a negative mood. The suppression promotes the establishment of link between the thoughts and the negative mood. So, when a person encounters the similar mood, the mood evokes the suppressed thoughts. The repetition of this behavior fuels certain cognitive biases, which lead them to misperceive or negatively interpret their sense of reality. As also the confirmation bias model explains about human behavior that people have a tendency to seek information which supports one's beliefs while ignoring disconfirming information, depressed people may 'hang-on' to their negative beliefs, and this behavior may be leading themselves to endless negative circle of emotion and thoughts. Young (1989) developed a cognitive therapy style to deal with difficult patients and patients with a personality disordered depression. Young indicated that EMS underlie such schemas that develop during childhood, which serve as templates for the processing of later experience with extremely stable and enduring pattern of thinking. In other words, people who experienced a number of negative emotions and events in their early age are influenced to consolidate the negative feelings and the patterns of thinking in their later life in a very rigid way. This information becomes the core of the individual's self-concept, and become resistant to change. As Beck indicated, Young regards these negative schemas as underlying depression. Young expressed that the short-term cognitive therapy, which did not stress on dealing with alteration of negative schema, did not show successful outcomes in treatment. Since the concept 'schema' has been used in such a variety of ways it's meaning remains unclear (Williams, Watts, MacLeod & Matthews, 1997). Williams et al, (1997) argue that this concept has never been defined clearly by Beck to be sure what predictions should be made from his theory. The term 'schema' needs to be defined accordingly in a particular context it is being used. Williams, et al (1997) argue "one of the major ambiguities of Beck's theory has been whether particular emotion-related schemata come into operation only when a person is in the relevant emotional state or whether they are present beforehand and contribute to the development of the emotional condition". (1997, P.11). Characteristics and features of depressed verses non-depressed There are many psychological configurations that predispose a person to react to a loss by becoming depressed. Beck (1974) suggests that one common type of predisposition is when a person has suffered an irrevocable loss, such as loss of a parent in childhood, and another type of predisposition encompasses those people who have always been successful during their childhood and as result have not developed coping techniques to handle serious interpersonal difficulties and failures. Beck claims that depressed individuals are typically pessimistic in outlook and show negative distortions in their interpretations of experiences, such as overgeneralizations, exaggerating negative and underplaying positive qualities; dichotomous reasoning or thinking in all-or-none terms, such as "if I am not successful, then I am a loser". Beck (1983) proposes that such depressive beliefs may or may not be readily available to awareness before the onset of a depressive episode and that individual differences in personality will influence which types of stressors are likely to precipitate depression. Brown (1991) indicated the interpersonal factors of depression that depressed people are often irritable and pessimistic. They complain a lot and are not enjoyable companions. As a consequence, they have fewer sources of social support and social rejection, which may in turn aggravate and deepen a person's depression. Zimmerman(1990) suggests that people who know how to solve problems, feel a sense of control and happy about self perceive 'learned hopefulness', which is opposite to learned hopelessness. The concept of possible selves may indicate that people described future as happy, confident, secure and optimistic recovered well from crisis and stress, compared to those who described themselves unpopular, unimportant, weak, depressed and prone to failure (Porter, Markus & Nurius, 1984). While, behavioral researchers (Dykman, Horowitz, Abramson and Usher, 1991) found correlations between poor social skills and low self-esteem and depression, Roberts and Monroe (1993) indicated that depression is not just a matter of low self-esteem it is also related to variable self-esteem, that is, those self-esteem frequently goes up or down in response to changes in the situation are the ones most likely to become depressed. Showers and Ryff (1993) proposed that individual differences in self-organization influence the emotional effects of stressful events. According to Showers and Ruff (1993) people who have distinct positive aspects of the self might protect better from depression during stressful events than people whose competency is spread evenly of the self. In other words, a person who believes to have a distinct aspect in one area of the self offer extra strength of self, and the belief becomes protection from depression against stressful situations. "Hardiness" refers to positive psychological characteristics, such as self-confidence and self-discipline, and involves a sense of commitment, a perception that difficulties are seen as a challenge that can be overcome and a belief that have control over the situation and life (Kobasa, 1979). Hardiness is associated with a positive self-concept, and less prone to depression in a stressful situation (Allred & Smith, 1989). Studies found that individuals who are high in either commitment or control had fewer physical and psychological problems than those who are low in both (Shepperd & Kashni, 1991). References Abramson, L. Y. Seligman, M.E.P. & Teasdale, J.D. (1978). Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation. Journal of Abnormal psychology, 87, 49-74. Allred, K.D. & Smith, T.W. (1989). The hardy personality: Cognitive and physiological responses to evaluative threat. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 257-266. Baron, R.A. (1990). 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The role of thought suppression in the bonding of thought and mood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 500-508. Williams, J. M. G. (1984). The Psychological Treatment of Depression: A guide to the Theory and Practice of Cognitive-Behavior Therapy. London: Croom Helm. Williams, J. M. G., Watts, F. N., MacLeod, C. & Matthews, A. (1997). Cognitive Psychology and Emotional disorders (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Young, J. E. (1989). Schema-focused Cognitive Therapy for Personality Disorders and Difficult patients', Sarasota, Fla,: Professional Resource Exchange. Zanis D. (1999). Critical issues in adolescent substance use assessment. Drug Alcohol Dependence. 55-56, 235. Zimmerman, M. A. (1990). Toward a theory of learned hopefulness: A structural model and analysis of participation and empowerment. Journal of Research in Personality, 24, 71-86. Read More