Psychology - Abnormal Psychology Biological Essay

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Conversely, strict application of the biological components of addiction excludes equally strong evidence of the influence of external environment, particularly at critical stages of development. In that regard, there is a "cross-over" effect of food being strongly associated with reward or comfort in childhood and increased tendency to seek comfort from consumption of substances as an adult (Gerrig and Zimbardo 2005).

In general, repeated neurological responses to pleasure establish a reward mechanism in which the neurotransmitter dopamine is prominently featured. Addicts, in particular, exhibit stronger dopaminergic involvement in the reward loop and tend to experience greater corresponding increases in their subsequent need for continued dopaminergic stimulation than non-addicts, even after a single exposure to certain addictive substances (Dennet 1991). At the same time, addiction is also influenced by circumstances and behaviors: for one example, those addicted to nicotine often experience their greatest cravings when triggered by superficial associations between smoking and specific activities or circumstances with which smoking often coincided; for another example, many addicts experience relapse after exposure to some the ancillary activities with which they had previously associated with their illicit drug use, or in the case of alcoholics, social exposure to a barroom atmosphere (Brecher 1991).

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Criminologists need consider primarily the external behavior, regardless of its origin; sociologists and psychologists, on the other hand, must consider both genetic predisposition to specific behaviors and responses as well as the complex interrelationship between biological tendencies and environmental influences capable of increasing or decreasing the relative behavioral prominence of various pre-existing inherent biologically-based tendencies......

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