Question

In two to three paragraphs, select one of the following behaviors and explain it from both a biological and psychological theory of motivation, providing scholarly research to support your answer:

• Overeating
• Stress and substance abuse

Answer 1

Stress and substance abuse

Biological theory

A growing clinical literature indicates that there is a link between substance abuse and stress. One explanation for the high co-occurrence of stress-related disorders and drug addiction is the self-medication hypothesis, which suggests that a dually diagnosed person often uses the abused substance to cope with tension associated with life stressors or to relieve symptoms of anxiety and depression resulting from a traumatic event. However, another characteristic of self-administration is that drug delivery and its subsequent effects on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis are under the direct control of the individual. This controlled activation of the HPA axis may produce an internal state of arousal or stimulation that is actually sought by the individual. During abstinence, exposure to stressors or drug-associated cues can stimulate the HPA axis and thereby remind the individual about the effects of the abused substance, thus producing craving and promoting relapse. Stress reduction, either alone or in combination with pharmacotherapies targeting the HPA axis, may prove beneficial in reducing cravings and promoting abstinence in individuals seeking treatment for addiction.

Psychological theory

Descriptions of addiction often use terms such as
‘overwhelming desire’ or ‘out of control’ to describe the
persistence of substance use in the face of damaging con-sequences . Yet behavior that looks ‘out of control’ to the observer is in fact an individual’s response to their environment and perceived options at the time. Models of motivation attempt to characterize the processes under-lying these seemingly irrational choices. These models
posit a range of motivations. Stated generally, people use drugs because drugs feel good (positive reinforcement) because drugs reduce or remove the experience of feeling bad (negative reinforcement [15]), because brain processes enhance the reward value of substances overt time to the point that automatic addictive behaviors
occur without thinking (a combination of the effects of
drugs on the brain’s reward systems, particularly dopam-ine signaling in the nucleus accumbens, respondent con-ditioning and incentive sensitization and because of other cognitive processes (e.g. expectancies,beliefs, mental representations, self-efficacy and coping.More recent models synthesize these various
dynamic , all the motivations.Notably above
models are concerned with understanding how and why
addicted individuals persistently respond to certain
immediate rewards .