Relative Contribution of Classical and Operant Conditioning
to Problem Gambling
Problem Gambling
Problem gambling is also called compulsive gambling, addictive gambling or pathological gambling. This refers to the lack of ability of a person to resists the impulses to gamble resulting to serious personal and social consequences. Pathological gambling affects around 1 to 2 percent of adults in general and 4 percent of adults residing in close proximity, within 50 miles, to gambling venues or casinos. Gambling commonly develops during early adolescence in the case of men and between the ages of 20 to 40 in the case women. Compulsive gambling constitutes a brain disease akin to disorders such as drug addiction and alcoholism. All these disorders relate to problems in the pleasure center part of the brain, also called dopamine reward pathway, associated with eating and sexual behaviors. People developing addictive gambling usually start as occasional gamblers until such time that gambling becomes a habit. Stress and stressful situations worsen gambling problems. (1994)
People with compulsive gambling usually have feelings of shame and keep their condition from other people. However, according to the (2004), pathological gambling is expressed through five or more of these symptoms: 1) preoccupation with gambling, 2) tendency to gamble bigger amounts of money to feel excitement, 3) unsuccessful attempts to minimize or withdraw from gambling, 4) irritability or restlessness during the attempts to minimize or quit gambling, 5) gambling as a means of escaping problems, sadness or anxiety, 6) chasing losses, 7) lying or denying the period or amount spent on gambling, 8) turning to crimes to obtain gambling money, 9) loss of significant relationships, educational and career opportunities, and employment due to gambling, and 10) borrowing money to survive due to gambling losses.
Contribution of Classical & Operant Conditioning to Problem Gambling
There are several theories explaining problem gambling. It is through these explanations that solutions to the disorder can be derived. Classical and operant conditioning comprise two theories contributing to the explanation and clarification of pathological gambling disorder. There are similarities and differences to these theories resulting to different implications to pathological gambling.
Classical conditioning comprises a type of learning discovered by Ivan Pavlov while testing the behavior of dogs. Initially, the test involved the feeding of meat powder to dogs to measure their digestive patterns. However, Pavlov observed a change in the behavior of the dogs towards the expectation of being fed the meat powder by the person bringing the food. Thus, as the person enters the door, dogs tend to elicit expectant behavior by associating the person with being fed the meat powder. In humans, this implies that people develop responses to specific stimuli, which are not occurring naturally. People react based on their learning about certain circumstances. A person touching a hot stove naturally acts on the instinct to move the hand away from the stove. However, even when the stove is not hot people have the tendency to keep their hands away from the stove until it is discovered that the stove is not actually hot. Classical conditioning propounds that people make learning associations resulting to generalizations in responses to stimuli such as associating a hot burner with pain resulting to the action of drawing hands away from the stove. (1987)
In application to gambling, people bet or spend money on casino games with the hope of winning. Once a person spent money and won, associations are made between the act of spending money and winning ( 2003). There is also the added association that betting more money more in more games would increase the chances of winning. Gambling is an odds game so that people involved in gambling weight the odds of winning and the money or time spent in gambling activities. The higher the odds of winning, the greater motivation people have of actually betting or spending their money on casino games. The more times that people win, the more that people are encouraged to play (2001) so that people usually bet their winnings in order to gain more money.
Based on classical conditioning, people winning from gambling activities associate betting more money and spending more time in the casino with the higher odds of winning. This behavior when it reaches the point of qualifying under five or more of the symptoms provided by the American Psychiatric Association becomes a pathological disorder. People become excessively drawn to the association that they tend to act on impulse on every opportunity to gamble.
This implies that addressing pathological gambling involves an intervention in the associations made by people between the frequent and extensive betting or spending with the higher odds of winning. If pathological gambling were considered as learning or associative disorder, then breaking the association would result to the severance of the expectation of higher odds of learning. In practice, people with compulsive gambling disorder could be exposed to the consideration of odds in gambling to show that betting only results to a slim chance of winning making it a waste of time and money. Other more radical association disruptions could also be applied in order to address more serious forms of gambling problems.
Operant conditioning comprises another type of learning. This learning theory developed from the study of a cat’s behavior. The cat was placed in a box with a single point of egress. However, a certain portion of the box should be pressed to open the door. The cat has the initial instinct to get out of the box with freedom as its reinforcement. Eventually, the cat activates the part that opens the door and get out allowing the cat to regain its freedom. When the cat is placed in the box again, it tries to reenact what it did in order to escape the first time by locating the part of the box that operates the door. The cat learned how to free itself from the box through natural boxes the means of achieving the reinforcing freedom. (1987)
This learning method pertains to the manner that organisms operate in the environment so that operant conditioning occurs in the manner that people respond to the factors presented to people in a given situation or environment. This can be considered as learning based on natural consequences of human actions. In human experience, learning through operant conditioning happens in situations where people commit mistakes resulting to unwanted consequences. The unwanted consequences constitute a negative reinforcement that would motivate people not to commit the same mistakes in the future when faced with the same or similar circumstances. Operant conditioning also occurs in instances where people achieve the things they want by doing certain actions. The affirmative result of their actions constitutes a positive reinforcement that would involve the commission of the same actions given the same or similar circumstances. ( 1987)
Based on the principles of operant conditioning, gambling involves the act of betting and spending money resulting to both losses and winnings. People then determine the actions they did in the circumstances that resulted to their winnings and the actions committed resulting to losses. People would then try to reenact the actions in their succeeding bets or expenditure with the expectation of winning while preventing the duplication of actions resulting to losses. The continues and frequent process of enacting and reenacting the actions resulting to winnings eventually leads to pathological gambling with people becoming overly involved in the process with the expectation of winning (1999; 2001; 2002).
Since pathological gambling results from learning based on the reinforcement of positive consequences of actions, this also serves as the area for addressing the disorder. It is only when people exhaust the reenactment of the actions linked to winning but resulting to incessant losses that they unlearn the expectations on reinforcements.
Conditional and operant conditioning involve the similarities in terms of the learning stages of starting with acquisition followed by extinction and then by spontaneous recovery and then by stimulus generalizations (1987). This means that both conditional and operant conditioning both recognize that people derive learning through generalizations made from their experiences. However, these theories also involve differences. One difference is the reliance of classical conditioning to stimuli and response associations while operant conditioning has as its core feature reinforcement. Another difference is that classical conditioning centers on involuntary reflexive behavior while operant conditioning focuses on voluntary behavior. The differences imply that problem gambling can be understood as a reflexive condition or a conscious behavior.
Conclusion
Pathological gambling is a disorder with serious consequences to the personal and social life of individuals with this condition. In order to determine solutions to problem gambling, the various aspects of the disorder should first be understood. Classical and operant conditioning are theories that provide an explanation of pathological gambling by considering the disorder as a progressive disorder influenced by the learning process of individuals expressed through reflexive behavior as proposed by classical conditioning or voluntary behavior as propounded by operant conditioning. Apart from providing an explanation of pathological disorder, these also imply that intervention in the learning process comprise a solution to the disorder.
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