Biological Explanations For Smoking Essay

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Critically consider explanations for smoking The biological model is perhaps the most effective explanation as to why an individual may become addicted to smoking. This is because there is explanations with research to back up the three stages of addictive behaviour; initiation, maintenance and relapse. In terms of initiation the biological explanation is effective at explaining why an individual may become addicted to smoking. This is because if the individual has parents who are also addicted to smoking, they may carry the addictive gene as seen by the research conducted by Kendler onto twins, which identified a common genetic gene that contributes to addictive behaviour (In this case smoking). If an individual has this gene, thought to…show more content…
This is because chronic exposure to the nicotine eventually results in a chronic stress situation for the addict, characterised by withdrawal symptoms. This is effective at explaining why the smoking is maintained because as the withdrawal symptoms affect the user so negatively if the substance is stopped, the addiction is maintained to avoid this negative experience. Similarly the explanation is also as effective at explaining why the addicts relapse after giving up smoking. This is because as the withdrawal symptoms are so hard to resist and lead to such a negative experience, the user eventually takes the substance again to feel better. Also as the user’s brain is expecting a pleasurable experience from the addiction, it creates difficult to resist cues that the addict finds hard to…show more content…
If another person has positive experiences because of smoking, an individual is more likely to do it also. This is especially effective at explaining why teenagers smoke because if they see their peers smoking and they are seen to be ‘cool’ they are more likely to smoke also. The smoking is maintained because users constantly fluctuate between positive and negative experiences and therefore will not quit if they are feeling positive. In terms of relapse, the model states that a user will relapse because they are faced through classical conditioning with cues associated with their
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