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Topic title: Addiction

Year group: 13

When taught: Term 3

What are we learning?

  • Describing addiction: physical and psychological dependence, tolerance and withdrawal syndrome.
  • Risk factors in the development of addiction, including genetic vulnerability, stress, personality, family influences and peers.
  • Explanations for nicotine addiction: brain neurochemistry, including the role of dopamine, and learning theory as applied to smoking behaviour, including reference to cue reactivity.
  • Explanations for gambling addiction: learning theory as applied to gambling, including reference to partial and variable reinforcement; cognitive theory as applied to gambling, including reference to cognitive bias.
  • Reducing addiction: drug therapy; behavioural interventions, including aversion therapy and covert sensitisation; cognitive behaviour therapy.
  • The application of the following theories of behaviour change to addictive behaviour; the theory of planned behaviour and Prochaska’s six-stage model of behaviour change

Why is this important to know? 

  • Addiction is ongoing struggle for many people in society. It is important for students to understand the risk factors for addiction, different explanations for why people develop addiction, and different techniques for reducing addiction.

Where does this link into our past and future learning?

  • It links to the Approaches topic in that Behaviourist, Cognitive and Biological explanations and treatments of addiction are considered.
  • It is an extension of the psychopathology and schizophrenia units.

How will we be assessed on this topic?

  • Students will sit a formal exam on this topic in the summer. This section makes up 24 marks and 30 minutes of Paper 3 at A Level. They will be asked questions varying in size from multiple choice up to 16 mark essays.
  • There will also be mid topic and end of topic tests on the unit when we study it.
  • Students will also have recap tests / questioning / exam questions on this topic during most lessons.

What makes a strong piece of work in this topic?  What are teachers hoping to see?  

  • A detailed description of the content.
  • Sustained evaluation that is fully ‘PEEEL’ed.
  • Using specific research examples to support the points they are making.
  • Using correctly key terminology.

What key words are there in this topic?

Quizlet. Click here

What can I try if I want to stretch and challenge myself on this topic?

  • There is an extension challenge set for this unit. This consists of 4 interesting tasks such as videos to watch, podcasts to listen to, articles to read and online courses to complete with a feedback task at the end. Please see your subject teacher to access this sheet.

What wider reading can be done on this topic?

  • There are several Psychology Review Magazine articles relevant to this topic that you can read to extend your knowledge. Speak to your subject teachers for access to copies.