maybe you've heard a friend use it to
explain why he still hasn't quit smoking
or someone said it at a party as they
bit into their 17th cheese puffs or had
their third glass of wine I just have an
addictive personality we hear it all the
time but is an addictive personality a
real thing despite what some online
quizzes would have you believe the idea
that certain people have a specific
personality type that wires them for
addictive behavior is probably false and
the websites that claim to tell people
that they have an addictive personality
disorder are almost definitely wrong
that said like just about everything in
psychology whether a certain person or a
certain personality type can be prone to
addiction is a sticky question there are
some factors mainly ones that have to do
with genetics and the environment that
can make someone more likely to develop
a problem with addiction and there are
personality traits that have been found
to be more common among people with
addictions but those traits don't
combine to form what you'd call an
addictive personality and addictive
personality disorder is not an actual
psychiatric diagnosis so let's break
down what we really mean when we talk
about addiction and personality and
disorders to see how they do and don't
come together ask a psychologist or
psychiatrist or any other professional
whose job it is to study the human mind
and they'll tell you that addiction is
defined as a compulsive craving for and
impulsive use of something pleasurable
even when there are adverse consequences
basically we're talking about anything
that fires up the reward centers in
someone's brain but over time damages
their health work or relationships of
course addictions can be chemical when
the body becomes dependent on a
particular substance like alcohol or
cocaine nowadays experts refer to these
kinds of addictions as substance use
disorders when substance use becomes
dysfunctional distressing and even
dangerous with many substance use
disorders the body needs more of the
substance to feel the same effects
that's called tolerance and stopping the
drug can lead to withdrawal symptoms but
addictive behavior isn't always related
to a chemical dependency for example a
compulsive need to go on a shopping
spree or binge on ice cream might be
considered a psychological addiction
what makes it an addiction isn't
necessarily the action it's the
compulsive need to do it under duress
and the impulsive behaviors that result
that's one reason people are more likely
to be addicted to more than one thing or
move from one addictive behavior to the
next its how they respond to stress lots
of studies have shown that addictions
can be influenced by both genetics and
environmental factors like experiencing
abuse or peer pressure but at the same
time people who have a family history of
dependency or who've been in abusive
environments may never struggle with
addiction the thinking behind the idea
of an addictive personality is that
certain personality traits might somehow
make someone more likely to develop an
addiction so that's why when most of us
hear the term used it's used
fatalistically like I just can't quit
smoking it's my addictive personality
now there are studies that have shown an
association between some personality
traits and substance use disorders for
example a review of studies published in
2014 found that people with substance
use disorders are more likely to
experience emotions like anxiety anger
guilt and a depressed mood and at the
same time they tend to be less likely to
express enthusiasm strong motivation or
desire the study also found that people
who struggle with addiction tend to have
less of the trait that psychologists
call constraint they tend to act on
their impulses and have trouble with
self-control
however those traits don't necessarily
combine to form an addictive personality
because the relationship between
personality and addiction is complicated
for one thing there are plenty of people
with those traits who never develop any
form of addiction plus an association is
not the same thing as a cause addictions
involve a lot of different factors from
genetics and epigenetics to behavior
learning and trauma and they're all
tangled together in ways that
researchers may never perfectly sort out
so that's what we understand about
addiction but let's talk about what
psychologists mean by personality
personality is one of the most complex
and contested concepts in psychology
which is saying something considering
that this is a field where you can't
throw a cigar without hitting three
different perspectives at the very least
most psychologists seem to agree that
personality exists they often define it
as a person's distinctive and enduring
characteristic patterns of thinking
feeling and behaving so there's that but
if you really want to start a brawl in
the faculty lounge just ask a bunch of
psychologists how your personality
really works because there are all kinds
of theories about that one for example
some psychologists take what's known as
a psycho dynamic point of view this
school of thought typically views
personality in terms of the interactions
between the conscious and unconscious
mind so psychodynamic theorists might
think about addiction in terms of the
uncomfortable clash between the pleasure
seeking and the constraint or between
the it'd and the super-ego if you want
to take it back to Freud these folks
might also think of addiction as a
defense against feelings of helplessness
traumatic memories or difficult emotion
but another approach to personality is
what's known as the social cognitive
perspective this view points out that
people around us influence our behaviors
or our personalities and our social
preferences often reinforce each other
so if you want to stop drinking for
example social cognitive thinkers would
point out that it would help a lot if
you didn't
at in bars or go to keggers where
there's not only alcohol but a lot of
people who drink and then there's what's
known as trait theory this suggests that
we all have traits say how secure or
insecure we are that are all fairly
fixed but exist on a spectrum these
personality traits actually do a decent
job of predicting our typical behavior
but only to a certain extent and it's
around here where the confusion around
the idea of an addictive personality
seems to have started the concept of an
addictive personality came into vogue in
the early 1980s after the National
Research Council published a book about
addiction that included a chapter about
what so-called personality factors might
relate to addiction the author of that
chapter was dr. Allen lang a psychology
professor who reviewed lots of previous
research and conducted his own studies
into alcoholism and drug addiction he
concluded and I quote there is no single
unique personality entity that is a
necessary and sufficient condition for
substance use in other words there isn't
a single personality type that would
make someone predisposed to addiction
but despite that Lange's research was
profiled by the New York Times under a
giant headline that said the addictive
personality and the idea got stuck in
the popular consciousness now it's worth
pointing out that Lang did report that
drug and alcohol addicts seemed to have
certain traits in common specifically he
said that addicts tend to display
impulsivity more than non addicts as
well as nonconformity social alienation
and high levels of stress even today
most psychologists would probably agree
that there could be a connection between
certain personality traits like these
and addictive behavior however that
connection is not a simple
cause-and-effect relationship and maybe
this is more important they're not taken
to be predictive saying that certain
traits are more common among people with
addictions doesn't mean that having
those traits predict addiction for
someone who doesn't have one yet and at
least as psychologists understand the
concept a personality isn't just a bunch
of traits put together so it doesn't
really make sense to say that a person
with those traits has an addictive
personality and it definitely wouldn't
be accurate to say that they have an
addictive personality disorder either
psychological disorders or mental
illnesses are defined as distressing and
dysfunctional patterns of thoughts
feelings or behaviors outside the
cultural norm that negatively impact a
person's life and there is a group of
disorders known as personality disorders
they can be any one of about twelve
distinct conditions that affect
personality they involve things you've
probably heard of like paranoid
personality schizoid personality or
antisocial personality like many other
mental illnesses these disorders often
lead to social isolation which can cause
problems with addiction but addiction
itself is not considered a personality
disorder you can have a personality
disorder without
fiction and you can have an addiction
without a personality disorder and the
set of traits that's common among people
with addictions they don't make up a
personality disorder either so on a
technical level the idea of an addictive
personality or an addictive personality
disorder is basically wrong but the way
personality and addiction come together
is still tricky you could argue that if
the addiction becomes so overwhelming it
starts dominating a person's behavior
then maybe their personality has been
affected then again if we think of
addiction as a disease or disorder that
affects behavior we probably wouldn't
wanted to find someone based solely on
their illness I mean if I broke my arm
or was in cancer treatment and did
things a little differently as a result
you wouldn't say I had a broken arm
personality or a cancer personality so
psychologists wouldn't use the term
addictive personality this way either in
the past we've talked about how a lot of
psychological terms get co-opted into
daily conversation like you might hear
someone call their neighbor a psycho
when odds are they're neither a
psychopath nor psychotic we sometimes
misuse words with very specific and even
diagnostic meaning and it often ends up
perpetuating misinformation and
confusion so saying you have an
addictive personality probably falls
into this category
big thanks to dr. Ranjit Bhagwat who
helped us with this episode of scishow
which was brought to you by our patrons
on patreon if you want help support the
show just go to patreon.com/scishow and
don't forget to go to
youtube.com/scishow and subscribe
the scientists then activated the yellow
light with their reward circuits stuck
in the on position the mice beat for
longer periods of time and burst
and kept going back to the sugar
dispenser