How Two Theories Explain Alcoholism - Research Paper Example

? The Two Theories of Alcoholism Introduction Alcoholism is a progressive and chronic disease that results from lack of control of alcohol drinking and preoccupation with alcohol even when it poses problems and elicits psychological dependence. It causes withdrawal symptoms due to sudden decrease or stoppage of drinking. Alcoholics cannot predict how much they will drink or for how long or even what the consequences would be because of too much dependence. Alcoholism poses serious health risks like heart and blood pressure complications as well as social problems like loss of a job due to absenteeism. According to statistics, social drinking contributes much to the problem of drinking in society today (Berns, 2013). It may boost confidence in particular social settings or ease stress but the resultant effects are always fatal. This essay will analyze the two theoretical perspectives that explain the origin of the problem of alcoholism and how it develops from childhood. Bio-Ecological system theory of Human development and alcoholism The bio-ecological model is an evolving theoretical system for the study of human development. It defines development as continuity and change in the bio-psychological characteristics of human beings over the life course and across generations. Another important term to understand through this theory is a proximal process. A proximal process refers to a process of progressively complex reciprocal interactions between an active, evolving bio-psychological human organism and persons, objects and symbols in its immediate external environment. Examples of such are found in playing with a young child, acquiring knowledge and expertise and group or solitary play. The theoretical perspective of this theory was on the role of environment in shaping development (Damon, 2006). However, there has been a paradigm shift in terms of theoretical perspective from the environmental to one focusing on processes that was introduced by Brofenbrenner's unpublished lectures and colloquium contributions to symposia. The model has four principal components with dynamic relationships among them. The core of them is process, a construct that encompasses forms of relationships between organisms and environment called proximal process. Such processes depict the primary human development and vary substantially with the characteristics of the developing person and the contexts and time within which the process takes place. It is therefore the humble objective of this essay to establish how alcoholism emerges in the process of human development according to Brofenbrenner. The theory identifies three types of personal characteristics that could shape future developments through their capacity and ability to influence the direction and power of proximal processes through the entire life course. First, disposition can set proximal processes in motion depending on the development domain and even continue to sustain their operation. This implies that the availability of alcohol within the environment determines whether an individual will choose to indulge or not. Similarly, the bio-ecological resources of ability, experience, knowledge, and skill are required for the effective functioning of proximal processes at a given stage of development. Thus, an individual cannot engage in an activity without prior knowledge of the activity. Finally, there are certain demand characteristics that also affect the process. For instance, when a person comes from a family where the caregivers do not drink the person may be automatically discouraged to indulge in drinking (Whitfield & Davidson, 2007). They invite or discourage reactions from the social environment and can foster or discourage the operation of proximal processes. The differentiation of these three forms leads to a combination of patterns within the person structure that can account for the further differentiation of direction and power of these proximal processes and their resultant effect on the development of the individual. The new formalities of the qualities of a person that shape his or her future development have had the anticipated effect of further differentiating, expanding and integrating the original conceptualization of the environment in terms of nested systems ranging from macro to micro. For instance, three types of personal characteristics are incorporated into the definition of the Microsystems as characteristics of parents, teachers, mentors, coworkers, close friends, spouses or other people who participate in their lives help in developing a person on a regular basis over an extended period. The bio-ecological model also introduces a consequential domain into the micro system that emphasizes the distinctive contribution to the development of proximal processes involving interactions with symbols and objects. Particularly significant is the growing heftiness, instability and chaos in the principal setting in which the human competence and character are shaped through the family, childcare arrangements, peer groups, schools and neighborhoods. Here, the model explains that alcoholism emerges as a reaction to certain activities and circumstances within the proximity process. The model also has a prominent place in four successive levels; micro, meso, and macro in terms of dimensions of time. Microtime refers to the continuity in ongoing episodes of proximal processes. Mesotime on the other hand refers to the periodicity of the episodes across broader time intervals such as days and weeks. Finally, macro-time refers to changing expectations and events in the larger society both within and across generations and groups (Kouimtsidis, 2007). Therefore, the indulging in an activity like alcoholism requires a period of attachment whether meso, macro or micro. Otherwise individuals who do not have any period of attachment to drinking are less likely to indulge in it. The theory also categorizes a person’s interaction in four phases. A micro-system where different parts of a child work for the sake of the child this is the relationship between the child and their caregivers. Each child has a genetic and biological set up that influence its personal traits such as temperament. This means that depending on a child’s genetic and biological set up, they may indulge in drinking in the future. The meso-system describes how the different parts of a child work together for the child’s sake. For instance, if the child caregivers play an active role in their lives it will help them in their overall growth. On the other hand, if the child’s micro systems are not stable like having two sets of caregivers or unstable caregivers, this will affect the relationships of the child and hinder his or her growth at different levels. This means that if the individuals in the child’s meso-system either is involved in drinking or exposes the child to stressful circumstances, then they may decide to indulge in drinking. The Exo-system describes other people and places that the child interacts with away from their caregivers but still have a great impact on the child’s development. This includes their parents losing their jobs or even promotions. He identifies the largest and most remote of the things that affect the child’s development as the child’s macro system. The macro system freedoms provided for under the government as well as cultural values. All these could affect the child negatively or positively (Robertson, 2010). This represents the larger social setting that influences an individual’s probability of engaging in alcohol and other forms of drug abuse. For the younger generation, participation interactive processes over time gives them the ability, motivation, and knowledge to engage in activities with others. For instance, progressive complex interaction with their parents gives them the ability to become agents of their own development. Therefore, the parents have a great bearing on whether their children choose to indulge in alcohol abuse depending on the environment they expose their children to or the kind of lives they lead. The characteristics of a person actually appear twice within the bio-ecological model. First, they appear as one of the four elements influencing the power, form, content, and direction of the proximal processes then as a development outcome (Sigelman & Rider, 2011). This means that the qualities of a person emerge as a result of the joint, interactive, mutually reinforcing effects of the four principles antecedent to the components of the model. For development to occur in the first place, a person must engage in the activity (Robertson, 2010). To be effective, the activity must take place on a regular basis and over an extended period. This implies that a multiplicity of factors mentioned in the earlier discussions of this essay will result in alcoholism if they correlate. Although several factors influence alcohol consumption, the decisions itself is influenced by the Microsystems. Bronfenbrenner's of a setting where he defines a setting as the physical features in which participants engage in particular activities in particular roles describes hypothetical alcohol consumption scenarios. His theorizing establishes boundaries that would be unwieldy process for selecting important features from litany depending on the contextual proximity. The theory provides information that relates to whether one decides to attend a social gathering on their own or with company and whether they consume alcohol will then depend on the availability. The attendance of a social gathering and the company to that social gathering in this case is one of the variables that determine the indulgence of an individual in alcohol drinking or other forms of drug abuse (Bronfenbrenner, 2005). Cognitive behavior theory and alcoholism The cognitive behavior theory’s theoretical perspective means that the thoughts and beliefs of an individual affect their behavior and subsequent actions. This means that dysfunctional behavior such as alcoholism results from dysfunctional thinking shaped by misinformed beliefs. The theory posits that our beliefs decide the course of our actions hence constructive thinking is the best remedy to overcome dysfunctional behavior. According to the cognitive behavior theory, alcoholism is a learned practice acquired through experience. It posits that if alcohol provides desirable results like reduction of tension and good results repeatedly, it might become the preferred way of achieving results (Robertson, 2010). Cognitive behavioral approaches include cognitions, thoughts, and emotions as factors that precipitate certain human behaviors such as alcoholism. The cognitive behavioral model encapsulates two types of learning; learning by association and learning by consequence. Learning by association (Pavlovian or classical learning) involves stimuli that are originally neutral and could change into triggers of alcohol abuse and cravings due to repeated association with those stimuli and alcohol abuse. The trigger may be external to the individual such as objects in the environment of in a particular setting. Such triggers may also include the group of people with whom the person uses the drugs continuously. The abuse may be a consequence of internal events like thoughts and psychological changes. The association between these objects or occurrences and alcohol use could develop if they occur in close temporal proximity. The associations strengthen gradually with repeated occurrences leading to cravings stimulated by an array of stimuli that were previously neutral. In the learning by consequence model (operant conditioning), a drinking behavior is stimulated by the consequences that follow alcohol use. If after using the substance the person feels more comfortable in social situations or sexually aroused for instance, then the act of drinking is likely to be repeated whenever the person wants to meet those objectives and the positive reinforcement. If the substance reduces tension, anxiety or the likes, there is also a likelihood of repeat consumption (Whitfield & Davidson, 2007). This is because of the negative reinforcement the person gets from using the substance whereby the unpleasant occurrence is terminated or alleviated. Behavioral theorists suggest that emotions such as depression result from irrational psychological perceptions due to distorted learning and reasoning. That depressed people have negative self-perceptions and negative perception of their environment. The severity of one’s the depression depends on the intensity of the negative thoughts (Robertson, 2010). Therefore, the resolve to indulge in alcohol due to depression is largely dependent on a person’s thinking and emotions. A comparison of the theories The cognitive behavior theory and the Bio-Ecological system theory of Human development are two distinct theories but with certain similarities. Both the theories contend that there is an outward and inward force that affects the decision making of an individual. They both agree that the environment in which the individual resides together with the period of contact an individual has with drugs like alcohol will determine whether the individual chooses to indulge in alcoholism in the end. The cognitive behavior theory implies that all the decisions that an individual comes up with depend on the individual’s thinking whereas the bio-ecological system theory posits that the decision to indulge in alcohol is circumstantial depending on the environment and the proximal processes. The bio-ecological theory of human development sees drinking as a result of certain conditions within the exosystem, microsystem or macrosystem while the cognitive behavior theory sees a drinking habit as a result of dysfunctional thinking that deceives the individual that they could receive either positive or negative reinforcement from the habit (Jung, 2010). The two theories contrast in the aspect that the cognitive behavior theory believes drinking is an action from pure individual choice whether conscious or subconscious while the bio-ecological human development theory believes that drinking results from a multiplicity of issues some beyond the individual’s control. The cognitive behavior theory believes that drinking is one of the results of irrational psychological perceptions that are influenced by peer pressure or environment. This implies that according to the theory, drinking is an outright bad habit (Robertson, 2010). The bio-ecological theory on the other hand simply explains how the habit develops and does not give a stand whether it is a commendable habit or not. Instead, it traces it to circumstances, which implies that the habit is unavoidable. According to the cognitive behavior theory, alcoholism results from catastrophic misinterpretations of thoughts and impulses. The more the obsessions persist the more the misinterpretations continue. The cognitive behavior theory also posits that alcoholism and other dysfunctional behavior result from dysfunctional thoughts. The theory is based on the idea that emotions and cognitions affect behavior. Specifically, thought determine the behavior of individuals. Negative thoughts therefore cause distress and dysfunctional behavior like alcoholism. In this line of thought, a person interprets situations in a skewed manner resulting in negative impact (Mitcheson, Maslin, & Meynen, 2010). A person who spends a lot of time thinking about disasters like accidents may find themselves avoiding situation that would lead to accidents. Factors such as low self-esteem compound negative thoughts and consequently negative behavior. Therefore, people who chose to indulge in alcohol drinking have issues of self-esteem that they hope to solve from drinking. By so doing, they believe the issues will change their abilities or make their problems disappear or appear smaller. If the alcohol indeed gives them this feeling, the previously mentioned individuals will continue to indulge to a level that is uncontrollable. This model also posits that individuals have distorted beliefs that make them that make them process information giving rise to distorted thoughts. Hence, individuals’ perceptions and responses to issues in the environment are premeditated. Such perceptions become distorted due to distress and spontaneous cognitions (Robertson, 2010). Thus, the cognitive model explains that individual perceptions are emotional and psychological responses to their meditated thoughts and experiences. As such, alcoholism is a response to the thoughts of an individual. References Berns, R. (2013). Child, family, school, community: Socialization and support. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Bronfenbrenner, U. (2005). Making human beings human: Bioecological perspectives on human development. Thousand Oaks, CA ; London: SAGE. Bronfenbrenner, U. (2005). Making human beings human: Bioecological perspectives on human development. Thousand Oaks; London: SAGE. Damon, W. (2006). Handbook of Child Psychology Volume 1. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Jung, J. (2010). Alcohol, other drugs, and behavior: Psychological research perspectives. Los Angeles: Sage. Kouimtsidis, C. (2007). Cognitive-behavioural therapy in the treatment of addiction: A treatment planner for clinicians. Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons. Mitcheson, L., Maslin, J., & Meynen, T. (2010). Applied Cognitive and Behavioural Approaches to theTreatment of Addiction: A Practical Treatment Guide. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Robertson, D. (2010). The philosophy of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT): Stoic philosophy as rational and cognitive psychotherapy. London: Karnac. Sigelman, C. K., & Rider, E. A. (2011). Life-span human development. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Whitfield, G., & Davidson, A. J. W. (2007). Cognitive behavioural therapy explained. Oxon: Radcliffe. Read More