Griffiths, M.D. (2011). Student activities: The preventing and treating addictive behaviour. Psychology Review, 17(2), 22-23. more

student activities Tutors, examiners, researchers and textbook writers all tell us how important it is to be active in our learning Here, Mark Griffiths gives some useful activities that will consolidate and enhance the article you have just read Preventing and treating addictive behaviour Let's begin by thinking about the different treatment implications for chemical and behavioural addictions. Exercise 1 Think of one chemical addiction and one behavioural addiction. Then copy and complete Table 1. Exercise 2 You are now going to design a hypothetical study to investigate how successful an intervention or treatment might be for an addictive behaviour. Begin by choosing a research question. For example, do cigarette health warnings help stop people smoking? Is cognitive behav- ioural therapy a more effective therapy than self-help groups in the treatment of gambling addiction? Are drug addicts harder to treat than video game addicts? For your chosen research question, consider: What measure(s) (if any) should be taken as the independent and dependent variable(s)? What are the main hypotheses? If applicable, is a between subject or within subject design appropriate? How many groups (conditions) should be included in the design and why? How would you go about recruiting the participants? To what extent could they be considered a representative sample of the target group under ' ^Sc investigation? Table 1 implications nf <: i i>ont i What factors need to be controlled for and by what means (e.g. randomisation, counterbalancing, matching etc.)? Why may some of these be difficult or impossible? What form of statistical analysis will be most appropriate when the data have been collected? What are the potential limitations of the research design? What problems might there be in generalising the results? Exercise 3 Spend some time researching locally available addiction support services. You will probably need the internet, a selection of local newspapers, local directories (e.g. Yellow Pages) and access to other sources of local information. Find out about local support services for those with addiction problems, including those for young people. If possible, organise this research with fellow students and focus on different issues/problems/topic areas each, such as drug services, alcohol services, gambling services, services to quit smoking and generic services (e.g. counsel- ling, citizen's advice). Exercise 4 Select any journal paper about an empirical study on ^. addiction treatment. You can find journal papers on the internet: .m either use an internet search engine (e.g. Google scholar http://scholar.google.co uk) Chemical addiction: Behavioural addiction: What factors are important in trying to give up the behaviour? (e.g. an addict might not actually want to give up the behaviour and is only doing it because his/her partner has threatened to leave) What are the problems and barriers that might be faced by the addict? (e.g. an alcoholic might have a choice between local Alcoholics Anonymous groups hut a gnmhling .irirtirt might ha»p tn travel 70 milp<; tn the nparpst Gamblers Anonymous meeting) Are there any differences between trying to overcome chemical versus behavioural addictions? (e.g. many chemical addictions may involve the total abstention of the activity but most behavioural addictions may be difficult or impossible to give up. No sex? No food? No computer use?) 22 How effective is social inoculation in committing peei pressure among school pupils? ■ or start with the British Medical Journal (www.bmj.com) which is now free for students to access Write a summary of your chosen journal paper in the style of a tabloid newspaper like the Sun. Create an appropriate pun-type headline and sum up the paper in just 200 words. Alternatively, write it up in the form of a press release — again in 200 words. This can be a difficult exercise but is excellent for helping you to understand the main thrust of a treatment study. Again, if you can, work with fellow students and have a follow-up group session where you read out your 'scoops' then discuss the issues. Mark Griffiths is professor of gambling studies at Nottingham Trent University and has published widely on many forms of addictive behaviour. PHILIP ALLAN magazinesonline Are you getting the most from your magazine? Free resources Did you know?., a: t. r 1 of your subscription to this magazine, you diso <v t free additional resources online? Register today fot levi n exercises, wet links, poclcasts. 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