Evaluate factors that influence the psychology of drug effects. Discuss the biological model of drug addiction covered in Chapter 15 (Psychological Disorders)

What will be an ideal response?

Answer: A good answer will include the following key points.
? Reactions to a particular drug vary not only with the drug's chemical properties, but also with psychological factors.
? Individual factors such as body weight, metabolism, initial state of emotional arousal, personality characteristics, and physical tolerance affect response to a drug.
? Experience with a drug may change its effects.
? The environmental setting may influence the way a person responds to a drug.
? Mental set, or expectations, about the drug's effects and a person's reasons for taking it affect response to a drug.
? Mental set and expectations are particularly strong psychological factors that influence drug effects.
? The biological model, also called the disease model, holds that addiction, whether to alcohol or any other drug, is due primarily to a person's neurology and genetic predisposition.
? Many people become addicted not because their brains have led them to abuse drugs, but because the abuse of drugs has changed their brains.
? Over time, the repeated jolts of pleasure-producing dopamine modify brain structures in ways that maximize the appeal of the drug (or of other addictive experiences such as gambling), minimize the appeal of other rewards, and disrupt cognitive functions such as working memory, self-control, and decision making, which is why addictive behavior comes to feel automatic.
? Heavy use of cocaine, alcohol, and other drugs reduces the number of receptors for dopamine and creates the feeling of having a compulsion to keep using the drug.
? Thus, drug abuse, which begins as a voluntary action, can turn into drug addiction, a compulsive behavior that addicts find exceedingly difficult to control.