What are your positions on sex and drugs in Psychology - Essay Example

In this essay, sex and drugs in psychology will be discussed briefly. People use illegal drugs and alcohol for their pleasurable experiences. Human brain has a 'pleasure pathway' that mediates our experience of reward. Researchers have proposed the dopaminergic system and its opioid-releasing neurons as the ' pleasurable pathway'. This begins in the midbrain ventral segmental area and then work its way forward through the nucleus accumbens and on the frontal vortex (Barlow & Durand, 2004). The substances activate this center and impart feelings of pleasure.

Drugs like amphetamine and cocaine directly activate the dopaminergic system. Opiates inhibit GABA which in turn stops the GABA neurons from inhibiting dopamine, thus making dopamine more available in the reward center (Barlow & Durand, 2004). Studies with humans, twin, family and adoption cases have revealed that certain people may be genetically vulnerable to substance abuse (Barlow & Durand, 2004). The studies also revealed that while use of illegal drugs is primarily influenced by environment, abuse and dependence is influenced by various genetic factors.

People take psychoactive substances to recapture the pleasure they experience during consumption. Also, the social contexts for drug taking may encourage its use (Barlow & Durand, 2004). This is known as positive reinforcement. . Juvenile delinquency is a major public challenge in most countries of the world and has several contributing factors to it, one of which is drug abuse. Addiction to drugs among youngsters instigates criminal violence for several reasons including acute euphoric effects, economic related strikes and legal-illegal battles.

Statistics have indicated that criminal offenses by young people have soared over years and many of them are related to excessive alcohol intake and illicit drug abuse. According to a developmental research by Kaplan and Damhouse (1995; cited in Karofi, 2005), there exists a direct relationship between adolescent narcotic abuse, especially marijuana and adult violence. People who are under the influence of drugs are likely to indulge in risky sex and be acquainted with rape. They can also indulge in violence and illegal activities and be prone for accidents and losing friends and families.

Many adolescents report that certain environmental stress factors precipitate sexual urge and abnormal behavior in them. Child abuse has been an important risk factor where in the victim in childhood turns abuser later in life. This is known as “victim-to-abuser cycle” or “abused-abusers phenomena" (Hall & Hall, 2007). However, this is still a debated topic and many researchers argue that their studies don't prove this. Those who are in favor of this theory argue that "identification with the aggressor, in which the abused child is trying to gain a new identity by becoming the abuser; an imprinted sexual arousal pattern established by early abuse; early abuse leading to hypersexual behavior; or a form of social learning took place"