on arises from some inner failing or deficit in a person. This deficit can be at the biogenetic level, or the personality/psychoemotional level, or both. Due to this deficit, substance abusers are viewed as people who, unlike most, are predisposed to addiction.
There are current a host of alternative explanations for the problem. There is, for example, the notion that drug use reduces tension and serves as a way in which the individual attempts to cope with interpersonal frustrations, anxieties and stress (Dworetzky, 1985). There is also the notion that drug abuse, like other behavior is learning, commonly through the principles of reinforcement (e.g. peer approval for taking drugs) and parental role modeling of drug abuse (Knopf, 1984).
Another explanation holds that a primary determinant of substance abuse is culture. According to Sue, Sue and Sue (1994), this explanation cites empirical findings showing that substance abuse such as alcoholism is far higher in cultures that value or in some other way facilitate usage of the drug than in cultures which do not facilitate usage.
Sue, Sue and Sue (1994) also report that contemporary theories of substance abuse are increasingly positing the problem of addiction as due to multiple determinants. These explanations hold that psychological factors, socio-cultural factors, learning principles, and biogenetic variables all play a role in the development and maintenance of the problem.
3) Group life may be described as having a beginning, a middle and an end. Discuss the interpersonal issues that are important and how vulnerabilitie
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