PSY240H1 Lecture 9: Lecture 9
Lecture 9 – November 22nd, 2017
Introduction to Substances, Substance Use, and Addiction:
Substance: In clinical psychology/psychiatry, the term substance is equivalent to a psychoactive
substance, which is a chemical drug that, when taken in or administered into one’s body, affects
mental processes (perception, mood, consciousness, or behaviour)
Why do people use substances:
– To feel pleasure or a “high”
– To relieve stress, to relax
– To cope with distress or pain
– To improve performance
– Curiosity, novelty, risk-taking
– To impress others, peer pressure
Next slides have classes of substances (refer to slides online)
Some substance use is socially acceptable BUT…
Societal Attitudes and Perceptions of Substance Use (Not always positive)
Religion
• – Beliefs and practices of Christianity provide support for consumption of wine but
consider over-indulgence to be a sin
• – TheBiblecontains~2,000referencestovineyardsandwine
• – American Temperance Movement (1817) coincided with increasing religious and
moral condemnation of alcohol use as detrimental to religious/family/societal values
• -Prohibition (in Canada 1918-1920, in America 1920-1933) banned the production,
importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages
• -Post-prohibition American self-help group Alcoholics Anonymous (1935)
• - Belief that alcoholism is a medical disease, and should be treated through a “moral
inventory, confession of personality defects, restitution of those harmed, and the
necessity of belief in and dependence upon God”
Culture
– The cultural zeitgeist at any given time can influence the misuse of substances
– For example, during the Victorian era, female sexuality was highly restrained
-Opium (a libido suppressant) was frequently prescribed to women for the treatment of
neuroses, hysteria, and hypochondriasis, all illnesses attributed to women’s sexual desires
and frustrations
Industrialization
Society began to rely heavily upon worker productivity,
• New economy based on the accumulation of materials and personal wealth
• Increased crime, poverty, and infant mortality rates
• Conceptualization of the “addict” as an unproductive social outcast contributing to
society’s ills
• American industrialists and plantation owners gave cocaine to black construction and
plantation workers to increase productivity
• Cocaine began to be associated with racial minorities, public disapproval of the drug
followed reliability, and punctuality.
Criminalization of substances
Recreational drug use began to be stigmatized as “socially offensive” in early 1800s
• Drug users depicted in medical case studies and referenced as being “incapable of self-
control” from a “self-inflicted, self-purchased curse” with “no happy earthly end”
• Widespread use of narcotics to treat wartime injuries, rise in addictions following the
American Civil War (1861-1865), the Austro-Prussian War (1866), and the Franco-
Prussian War (1870-1871)
• Cocaine and cannabis became highly stigmatized in America due to its association with
racial minorities and impoverished workers
• A series of laws enacted starting in the early 20th century which criminalized the
distribution of cocaine
• Temperance Movement and Industrial Revolution resulted in widespread legislation
designed to restrict possession and distribution of substances
• This in turn resulted in the criminalization of substance use and the entrenched
association of addiction with crime
The War on Drugs
-American government efforts to prohibit drug use intensified from 1960s onward
– “America’s public enemy number one ,in the United States is drug abuse.” – President Nixon
(1971)
– "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the
antiwar left and black people. We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or
black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin,
and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their
leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening
news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” Erlichman (1994), Nixon’s
domestic-policy adviser
Prevalence chart online –- Check slides
Development and course charts online –Check slides
Externalizing personality traits (turning things outward like conduct disorder, antisocial
personality disorder, etc.)
Important Terms:
Addiction: A complex mental illness manifested by compulsive substance use despite known
harmful consequences.
Often defined by the presence of the 4Cs: craving, loss of control of amount or frequency of
use, compulsion to use, use despite consequences
Substance abuse: A maladaptive pattern of substance use manifested by recurrent and
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Document Summary
Substance: in clinical psychology/psychiatry, the term substance is equivalent to a psychoactive substance, which is a chemical drug that, when taken in or administered into one"s body, affects mental processes (perception, mood, consciousness, or behaviour) Next slides have classes of substances (refer to slides online) Societal attitudes and perceptions of substance use (not always positive) Prohibition (in canada 1918-1920, in america 1920-1933) banned the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. Belief that alcoholism is a medical disease, and should be treated through a moral inventory, confession of personality defects, restitution of those harmed, and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon god . The cultural zeitgeist at any given time can influence the misuse of substances. For example, during the victorian era, female sexuality was highly restrained. Opium (a libido suppressant) was frequently prescribed to women for the treatment of neuroses, hysteria, and hypochondriasis, all illnesses attributed to women"s sexual desires and frustrations.
