Addiction Case Study

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Case Study Analysis

The APA refers to addiction is when a person at first starts to use something for pleasure as they enjoy it but then they start to use it or do it all the time which then interferes with their everyday life responsibilities. To analyse this case study the perspectives being used are social and evolutionary approach to psychology. The issue being analysed are the reasons why Chris may not be able to control himself and the reason why Jess might not want to help him.
Chris may have ended up being addicted because of several of factors, one may have been because of the pressure of society and the influence it has on people this could be. It could have also been the people that he’s interactive people or people that he knew before which influenced him into spending lots of money on material things. He may have then wanted to conform to fit into to the group and it could be a social norm towards them. His behaviour could be explained by the theory of planned behaviour/reasoned action. This was done by Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) who made this theory saying that this theory helps to predict if behaviour is being deliberate and planned or the behaviour is not intentional. Ajzen (1991) also said that the theory in order to change a person’s behaviour their behaviour needs to be altered to their intentions. Ajzen also said that something that a behaviour that may have happened in the past could contribute to what a person’s future behaviour might become. The beliefs that Chris have may be important as to predict their intentions just like its important in knowing a person’s attitudes.
Cognitive dissonance by (Festinger 1988) says that there are unwanted consequences which can indicate an event that blocks someone’s inte...

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... behaviour, the behaviour develops in an individual, how the behaviour arose through natural selection and how long the behaviour will survive. These levels can help understand why Chris may have developed this shopping addiction.
Evolutionary psychology uses evolutionary biology to help identify how the human mind works. This is helpful in understanding why Jess may be stuck on deciding what to do and also help explain that Chris’ started from past experiences.
To conclude when linked together the perspectives become more effective this is because evolutionary and social approach both help to explain the reason of addiction and helping/love. Evolutionary can be linked to the social approach because it says that everyone has to stick to a norm as they don’t want to be seen different which could explain the reason why Chris admits that he has a shopping addiction.

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