The Psychological Theory of Addiction (AQA GCSE Psychology)

The influence of nurture: peer influence

• The nurture side of the nature/nurture debate is that behaviour is learned via experience, all behaviours are a product of  environmental factors, for example: 

  • Upbringing

  • Socioeconomic status

  • Relationships

  • Schooling

• Social learning theory (SLT), proposed by Bandura (1972) takes the ‘nurture’ side of the debate

• SLT focuses in particular on how children are shaped by their environment via observation of  role models

• In their early years' children learn from observing their parents but as they enter their teenage years it is their peer group who tend to provide the more significant role models

• It is more likely that a young person will imitate the behaviour of role models with whom they identify e.g. people who are of the same age, background, social group

• Reinforcement plays a role in SLT, for example:

  • Rob observes a specific behaviour: his friend Bob smuggles alcohol into school

  • Bob is rewarded for bringing in alcohol and sharing it at school - their classmates think that Bob is ‘cool’ (direct reinforcement)

  • Rob internalises what he has observed e.g. 'I want people to think I’m cool as well’ (vicarious reinforcement)

  • The next day Rob brings in alcohol and drinks it with his classmates

• Thus, SLT can be a mechanism whereby the influence of a peer role model sets the wheels of addiction in motion

• Teenagers are particularly sensitive to peer influence as they are at a time in their life when they are trying to establish a distinct identity for themselves:

  • Peers offer a way to forge a new social identity e.g. ‘one of the gang’ rather than someone’s son/daughter

• Belonging to a gang or group of friends means adopting the group norms, for example:

  • ‘In our group it is normal to smoke cannabis’

  • ‘If you want to keep in with us then you’d better get used to shoplifting - we can use the money to buy cigarettes’

  • ‘Don’t worry about being under-age, I’ll buy the booze, I’ve got fake ID’

Evaluation of the psychological theory of addiction

Strengths

• There is some validity to the SLT explanation of addiction, with substantial supporting evidence, for example:

  • La Brie et al. (2014) found that in the first few weeks of college, students may be influenced by the norms of college life to begin drinking heavily and that this has a long-term effect  

  • Muhia (2021) conducted research using secondary school students in Nairobi and found that there is a positive correlation between peer influence and drug abuse

• Understanding the mechanisms of both SLT and social identity can help to inform treatment programmes to combat addiction in young people

Weaknesses

• The peer influence argument fails to explain why not everyone follows their peer group e.g. some people resist or abstain from taking part in their friends’ substance abuse

• Peer influence may not be the only explanation for group-related substance abuse as some people may actively seek out others who indulge in drinking/drugs i.e. they are not just adhering to group norms