PSYC19H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Opioid Overdose, Rat Park, Ego Depletion
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LEC 8 CONTINUED AND LEC 09 – 27 MARCH 2018
• Addictions → different types → treatment: 12 step alcohols anonymous (a lot of the steps
are the same involving god and introspection) → most popular and seems like it works →
Baumeister says yes but answer is complicated → recent meta-analyses found that it
doest ork! → AA requires complete abstinence from alcohol
o Randomized study: randomly assigned people to different conditions → done in
court permitted treatments → very few such studies → suggests that AA makes you
worse → better off receiving alternative/no treatment → negative number means
oure drikig ore
o Non-randomized study: people self-select what treatments they go into → +
number means high in abstinence → alternative explanation → correlation b/w
people and AA → people are i AA eause the at to do AA ad thats h the
improve
▪ Randomized and residential (do not move their practice) → 2 studies but not
effect was not found to be significant → non-randomized studies are better
▪ Randomized control studies are not ideal → addicts are forced to attend
because it is mandated by court → thus the dot at to hage
• Correlation study: relationship b/w AA attendance and abstinence → more meetings you go
to: ↑ rates of abstinence → more AA at time 1 relates to more abstinence at time 2 (ex.
examine time 1 in March and then time 2 in April while holding everything else constant) →
people going to AA might be motivated to go to AA
o What if those same motivated people went to an alternative therapy? Would it be
better? No answer yet! If you want to change, AA will help →key variant is the
want/will to change
• Other ideas: legalize drugs (marijuana becoming legal in Canada in July) → it is effective
when looking at other jurisdictions → Portugal decriminalized all drugs and the decision was
made when they had very high rates of opioid overdose, high HIV rates from sharing
needles etc. in Europe → they took the money used for enforcing the law and added to
providing the individuals with better healthcare and opportunities for them to get their life
back on track → now they have the lowest rates of all drugs used
o Idea is similar to rat park → person attracted to drugs because they are being
shunned by society for something, so they turn to drugs and instead of being helped
they are isolated and discriminated against even more because of this → its like
putting people in cages/prison
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• Standard view of self-control:
o Assessment: sequential task paradigm (SC at time 1 and examine performance at
time 2: ego depletion studies), trait SC (scales, grit, conscientiousness → self-report
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measures), and behavioral measures of cognitive control (ex. Stroop task, go-no-go
task etc.) → there might be other ways
▪ Trait SC: people high in SC control themselves more → marshmallow study:
kids might be controlling themselves a lot → delay discounting task (want
rewards now or if they do wait, they discount the reward)
▪ SC & fatigue: exerting effortful control leads to feelings of fatigue/depletion
→ fatigue: lose control subsequently ex. after lecture the prof feels mentally
exhausted/tires, might be liable to snap afterwards or go for junk food → not
seeing something, its fighting through something → previous SC hurts
current SC
▪ SC & goal progress → SC helps people to meet their goals
▪ Definition of SC: people stopping themselves from doing something they like
(inhibition, self-restraint or self-stopping)
• How we measure SC? Measures are dominated by retrospective self-report (thinking back
and asking yourself, how am I typically acting?) and cognitive reaction-time measures (ex.
Stroop and flanker test)
o Critiques: might not have access to your psychology → Dunning–Kruger effect:
people who are the least skilled at something know about it the least → dot hae
lots of SC, you might not be aware of how much SC you have → biased/positive
schema/exaggerate about themselves → still valuable tools
▪ We also forget how we acted at that time
▪ Artificial lab tests that have no bearing on real world → how does colour
naming predict if I stick to my diet or not? Association might not be strong or
present
o Experience sampling (Wilhelm Hofmann) → study done with this methodology →
people download an app on their phones and they get a text asking a series of
questions → are you angry right now? Etc. → in the moment → also in personally
meaningful domains (ex. are you controlling your impulse to ear food right now?) →
limited retrospective biases (less likely to forget something you did 15 minutes ago)
→ can examine within person variation (people change in a day etc. → when you
are controlling yourself what happens to you → at do this ith other easures
→ b/w person measures → how do people fluctuate and are they meaningful) →
also has a statistical benefit: high statistical power → get so many measurements
▪ Study: asked people about their desires in the moment → are you desiring
something right now? How strong is the desire? Does the desire conflict with
other personal goals? (temptation) → did you try resisting the desire?
(control) → did not ask how or what strategies they used → did you enact
the desire? (yes or no)
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