PSY BEH 103H Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Medical Model, Reinforcement, Nicotine
4 Mar 2019
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Document Summary
People have free will and choose to drink. People with problem drinking have the disease of alcoholism. Jellinek was first person to conceptualize alcohol as a disease. Gamma alcoholism: loss of control once drinking. Delta alcoholism: people who are unable to abstain from drinking. Group of related behaviors become part of syndrome. Provides reasonable explanation but does not specify why people drink and why some drink moderately without becoming heavy drinkers. Half of risk of alcoholism can be related to genes. People drink to cope with tension, to relax and reduce stress. Alcohol is a sedative drug thus should relax you. People drink because it makes them feel better and alters their thought process. Drinking behavior is learned the same way as any other behavior. People enjoy the taste and feeling they get from it. Allows them to escape from unpleasant situations. 3 million people received help for drinking. Men are twice more likely than female.
