400 Chapter 11 Psychological Disorders
drinking habits to their children, gradually intro-
ducing them to alcohol in safe family settings.
Alcohol is not used as a rite of passage into adult-
hood. Abstainers are not sneered at, and drunken-
ness is not considered charming, comical, sexy, or
manly; it is considered stupid and obnoxious (Peele,
2000; Peele & Brodsky, 1991; Vaillant, 1983).
The cultural environment may be especially
crucial for the development of alcoholism among
young people with a genetic vulnerability to alco-
hol (Schuckit et al., 2008). In one such group of
401 Native American youths, those who later
developed drinking problems lived in a commu-
nity in which heavy drinking was encouraged and
modeled by their parents and peers. But those
who felt pride in being Native American and were
strongly attached to their religious traditions were
less likely to develop drinking problems, even
when their parents and peers were encouraging
them to drink (Yu & Stiffman, 2007).
Addiction rates can rise or fall rapidly as a cul-
ture changes. In colonial America, the average per-
son drank two to three times the amount of liquor
consumed today, yet alcoholism was not a serious
problem. Drinking was a universally accepted social
activity; families drank and ate together. Alcohol was
believed to produce pleasant feelings and relaxation,
and Puritan ministers endorsed its use (Critchlow,
1986). Then, between 1790 and 1830, when the
American frontier was expanding, drinking came to
symbolize masculine independence and toughness.
The saloon became the place for drinking away
from home. As people stopped drinking in modera-
tion with their families, alcoholism rates shot up, as
the learning model would predict.
Here’s a modern example of how changing
cultural norms can affect drinking habits and
addiction rates. The cultural norm for American
college women was once low to moderate drink-
ing. Today, college women are more likely to
abuse alcohol because the culture of many
American college campuses encourages drinking
games, binge drinking (having at least four to
five drinks in a two-hour session), and getting
drunk, especially among members of fraternities
and sororities (Courtney & Polich, 2009). When
everyone around you is downing shots one after
another or playing beer pong, it’s hard to say, “I’d
really rather just have one drink” (or none).2
Policies of total abstinence tend to increase rates
of addiction rather than reduce them. In the
United States, the temperance movement of the
early twentieth century held that drinking inevi-
tably leads to drunkenness, and drunkenness to
crime. The solution it won for the Prohibition
years (1920–1933) was national abstinence. ButThus, drug abuse, which begins as a voluntary
action, can turn into drug addiction, a compulsive
behavior that addicts find almost impossible to
control.Learning, Culture, and
Addiction LO 11.15
Impulsiveness, an inability to control one’s immedi-
ate craving for something, is one of the defining
characteristics of addiction. Yet a surprising discov-
ery emerged when a team of scientists studied the
brains of people addicted to stimulants and their
biological siblings who had no history of chronic
drug abuse (Ersche et al., 2012). The addicts and
their siblings had abnormalities in the parts of the
brain involved in self-control. What enabled the sib-
lings to resist temptation and addiction despite their
biological vulnerability? Likely candidates include
being in a circle of friends who didn’t abuse drugs, a
learned ability to manage frustration and adversity,
and strong coping skills (Volkow & Baler, 2012).
This finding supports the learning model of
addiction, which emphasizes the role of the envi-
ronment, learning, and culture in encouraging
or discouraging drug abuse. Four other lines of
research support the learning model:1
Addiction patterns vary according to cultural prac-
tices. Alcoholism is much more likely to occur
in societies that forbid children to drink but con-
done drunkenness in adults (as in Ireland) than in
societies that teach children how to drink respon-
sibly and moderately but condemn adult drunken-
ness (as in Italy, Greece, and France). In cultures
with low rates of alcoholism (except for those
committed to a religious rule that forbids use of all
psychoactive drugs), adults demonstrate moderateFigURE 11.2 The Addicted Brain
PET studies show that the brains of cocaine addicts have
fewer receptors for dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved
in pleasurable sensations. (The more yellow and red in the
brain image, the more receptors.) The brains of people
addicted to methamphetamine, alcohol, and even food
show a similar dopamine deficiency (Volkow et al., 2001).